Chainsaw Repair

I was thinking about dropping the hammer on one of these. Ive got 2 of the Oregon hand file guides, and one of them "timber tuff" 110v grinders. Im worthless free hand, I need somewhat of a guide, and this timberline tool looks like it will run literal circles around my hand file skills, and I dont give a fiddlers fart what it costs, when I amortize it over my cut time and chain changing time, etc.

I need/want something for in the field, other than my files. The two Oregon file guides absolutely suck, and that's being polite. Im not going to buy a granburg, simply because it appears to be nothing more than another version of what I have now that I hate.

I bought the electric grinder maybe a year ago, and although Ive removed it from the box, its never been used. Its occurred to me, that it will hog out allot steel each sharpening, as well heat up the leading edge of the chisel and straighten out the gullet, and its probably not the way to go. Or at least, I dont see how you use the electric grinder and then go to filing it in the field. Almost all my cutting I do, is not at the farm, but on someone elses.

My question is this, most my saws are running 72LPX oregon chain, IIRC, that is 25 degrees and 10 degrees. If I understand this timberline sharpener, I need to buy the 25 degree bushing, but then what happens to the 10 degrees ? Is is set at zero and if it is, what is going to be the end result effect to the chain cutting it zero ? Im of the impression, it will screw it up ? Im hoping someone knows. I know I can email timberline, but I find most sales people cant find their ass with both hands, so Id rather ask the group that does it, than sells it, Im sure most can identify with this.

I posted my question on Sunday, without any answer to my question, I emailed timberline. Within about an hour, I had a response, to my 10 degree question vs zero degrees on the 72LPX chain.

Anyhow, after I got my response, I went to their website, and ordered one up (around 2pm CST). I got it today, so it took 4 days from "zero" in Idaho, to my door in Illinois. Customer service appears to be in their vocabulary, even if its a one horse company, which anymore I cant say about many "big boys" even Amazon Prime has been dropping the ball on me back to back.

I promptly sharpened my first chain, may have taken 10 minutes, I dont know. The tool is not perfect, but runs circles around how I have been doing it at the speed of light.

Having a machine back ground, and being a mechanic first and foremost, my whole life, intuitively, this thing looked like a winner. Now that I have used it and cut with it, WOW. I could not believe the difference in a cut, between the timberline sharpen, and my hand file jobs. My saw just ripped through the logs, motor didnt even slow down. Keep in mind, Im not a house wife, but a mechanic/fabricator, that is to say, I understand how things work, I know what the file is supposed to do, I know what the edge is supposed to look like, and so on. Im not clueless, I may not be a logger, but I have a good handle on the fundamentals here.

Having said all that, I was not compensated in anyway for my impromptu review, just thought I would share. If you think or know you suck with a file, and the either Oregon file guide or granburg file guide is a joke, its because it is, and this tool, clearly illustrates that.

If I lose it, break, wear it out annually, I would not even care, Id buy another. If they go out of business, I will start making them !

So there you have it, even if you didnt want it. +1 on this thing. Its not perfect, I could re-design it to make it a little more user friendly, but its light years ahead of its completion (bar mounted hand sharpeners) or at least as far as I know whats out there. In no way am I comparing this to bench grinders, just the old file.

Hope this helps anyone on the fence with this thing.

Sure, the tool makes no accommodations for the 10 degrees down cut, what ends up happening is one the edge of the chisel has more metal than the other side after sharpening.

Now what this means in the real world, I will find out over time. But the way the saw cut today, I was floored (even compared to a new full chisel oregon chain), even if the chisel now has a funky cut on it, it still cuts like mad.

Saw cuts straight, chip flow was awesome, so that's all I can offer at this point.