Chainsaw Repair
Chain - Grinders - Filing - Wood Milling - Tools - Welding - Machinist - Mowers - Tillers => Chain - Bars - Grinders - Filing => Topic started by: John Mc on November 02, 2016, 02:08:13 pm
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Some time ago, I tried comparing Oregon LPX vs LGX chain. It was just informal, which feels smoother, seems faster, bore cuts better. I took some notes, but can't find them. My recollection was that the LGX might have cut a little faster, but the LPX was nicer when bore cutting: just as fast, possibly faster when bore cutting (which seems weird, given the bumper near the depth gauge).
I'm curious where some of you guys might choose one style over the other (I'm not really interested in the Stihl vs Orgeon vs Woodland Pro/Carlton debate at this point. I just would like opinions on LGX vs LPX
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I like the 20LPX now over the 33LG I used to run. 325
Dont recall using it in 3/8
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I use the 21LPX on my .325 saws. When it first came out (I believe as the 21LP?) it seemed noticeably faster in bore cuts than the 34LG I had been using, and maybe a bit faster in bucking cuts as well, but I never timed it.
I'm wondering if it's the same thing with 72LGX vs 72LPX.
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Back in the day LPX and LGX were originally called LP and LG
In 1972 Oregon introduced the LP as Super 70 Series 3/8" pitch anti-kickback chain.
10 years later in 1982 they introduced the LG. Two years earlier our logging camp was picked to field test the LG chain, led by field engineer Gary Walrath from West Linn, Oregon.
After running the LP chain for years 8 hours a day us fallers noticed how much faster and smoother the LG was. We felled, limbed and topped spruce and jack pine into tree length for piecework production.
When a chain moves in the kerf with its porpoise cutting action the LG safety ramp depth gauge is always doing its job protecting the cutter bit. The LP's safety ramp which is seperate from the cutter and on top of the drive link doesn't offer the same level of protection. Also the straight fronted LP depth gauge also has no protection coverage from the side.
The LP ramp drive link is more of a optical illusion.
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Speaking of optical illusions here's a pic I took with my phone off my laptop.
This is a Stihl 36RM chain from the 1980's from a fellow from Germany. Hand filing sure wasn't his best skill. Look at the rear sloped side plate angle with no hook what so ever . No wonder why the side links are wore out from all the down pressure to make that chain cut. :o
The RS chain also had the same ramped side link directly in front of the depth gauge. A design that was discontinued in the 1990's.
In 1989 I asked Hans Peter Stihl about the RS/RM "anti kickback side link" comparing it to Oregon's LG ramped depth gauge.
He replied "the hump back side link is just a optical illusion."
Years later the RS/RM chain design as we know today was introduced, and the humpback was a thing of the past.
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I use the 21LPX on my .325 saws. When it first came out (I believe as the 21LP?) it seemed noticeably faster in bore cuts than the 34LG I had been using, and maybe a bit faster in bucking cuts as well, but I never timed it.
I'm wondering if it's the same thing with 72LGX vs 72LPX.
Oregon once used to make a big point of 20 series LP outperforming 30 series LG in all kinds of cutting, including bore-cutting. This was in the early 2000s, when they were about to discontinue the 30 series LG.
72 LGX vs. 72LPX hardly is exactly the same relation, as the 30 series LG may suffer from the lower profile vs. 20 series LP, while this is not the case with 72LGX vs. LPX.
Regarding 73LPX vs. 73LGX (I use .058) I have made some deliberate comparisons, but not by any means scientific ones - and imo the LPX is the better chain in all respects, by a narrow margin. What mainly is better is smoothness and bore-cutting. I happily use both (+ Stihl RS/RSC). Something I haven't tried is bars over 24" - the LGX (and RS/RSC) may have an advantage when chip clearing becomes an issue?
If I did a lot of bore-cutting, I would make an effort to have LP/LPX on the saw though. Good ol' Frank Crofter surely was right about what works best for that.
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Back in the day LPX and LGX were originally called LP and LG
In 1972 Oregon introduced the LP as Super 70 Series 3/8" pitch anti-kickback chain.
10 years later in 1982 they introduced the LG. Two years earlier our logging camp was picked to field test the LG chain, led by field engineer Gary Walrath from West Linn, Oregon.
After running the LP chain for years 8 hours a day us fallers noticed how much faster and smoother the LG was. We felled, limbed and topped spruce and jack pine into tree length for piecework production.
When a chain moves in the kerf with its porpoise cutting action the LG safety ramp depth gauge is always doing its job protecting the cutter bit. The LP's safety ramp which is seperate from the cutter and on top of the drive link doesn't offer the same level of protection. Also the straight fronted LP depth gauge also has no protection coverage from the side.
The LP ramp drive link is more of a optical illusion.
That was their marketing then - seemingly totally opposite of the marketing in .325 a couple of decades later. ;D
If the LG was so much better in 1982, why is the LP(X) still made today?
It certainly isn't about kickback protection - both are "yellow" chain despite they both offer some kickback production (as is the case with many other chain models). On the LG/LGX (and RSC/RS) the kickback protection is the large ramped rakers, on LP/LPX it is the ramps on the drivers.
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Cut4Fun, SawTroll & HolmenTree, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I may have to just compare a loop of each and see if I can tell a difference. I don;t cut enough that maximizing production is really a concern (especially for what I assume if a fairly minor difference in performance). However, I am curious, and do a fair bit of bore cutting, so if there is a difference there, it may be worth checking in to.
BTW, SawTroll - I use .058 gauge as well. I just wrote down the wrong numbers. Funny how the preference between 050 and 058 seems to be such a regional thing. Everyone around here runs 058 (unless they are running Stihl equipment). In other areas of the country, folks seem to prefer the 050.
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I recall some one saying somthing about Oregon vanguard chain, how it's the best of 2 worlds, speed and smooth cut. has anyone used it?
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Just a home owner that likes the older better made machines
Craftsman 3.7
Echo 290evl
Husqvarna 36
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I recall some one saying somthing about Oregon vanguard chain, how it's the best of 2 worlds, speed and smooth cut. has anyone used it?
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Just a home owner that likes the older better made machines
Craftsman 3.7
Echo 290evl
Husqvarna 36
Vanguard to me is root cutting chain for a chain I dont care about. I would never ever buy it.
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Alrighty then, that's what most said about in other posts I found...
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Just a home owner that likes the older better made machines
Craftsman 3.7
Echo 290evl
Husqvarna 36
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I recall some one saying somthing about Oregon vanguard chain, how it's the best of 2 worlds, speed and smooth cut. has anyone used it?
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Just a home owner that likes the older better made machines
Craftsman 3.7
Echo 290evl
Husqvarna 36
Vanguard to me is root cutting chain for a chain I dont care about. I would never ever buy it.
Same here. The loops of VG that has come my way on used saws are saved for roots/stumps/lumber/crapwood cutting. Last year I took out an old apple tree alongside the gravel drive to the shop. Should have been using a saw running some beater VG chain. Instead, I grabbed one of my Poulan S25-CVAs as the tree wasn't big and the saw was handy. All went fine until I started sectioning down the stump. At about 18" from the ground, the chain stopped cutting for **** and veered off to one side (upwards, as I was making a horizontal cut). Turns out, the stump was hollow and rodents had brought dirt and ROCKS up into the stump up to the level of my cut. Really buggered up a good, freshly filed loop of 3/8-LP. @#$@%@%@%@#%#@%....
(http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u318/Eccentric_photo/Husqvarna%20288XP/IMG_20151122_152117090_zpsfwfw1qrs.jpg)
(http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u318/Eccentric_photo/Husqvarna%20181SE/IMG_20151122_151950496_zpswrykkjta.jpg)
These are probably the best pics I have of that stump for showing how hollow it is. It was filled with dirt and gravel up to the cut. It's cleared out a few inches down from the top now, as rain has washed dirt out of it. The cut is curved upwards under the saws in the pics....