welcome back to Steve rod reviews today I'll explain everything that I know about how to
sharpen a chainsaw chain what I do may not apply to you these are different things that
I've learned over the years let's get started right now okay this is what I started with way
way way back many years ago just a regular file and you know what it done the job and I sucked
at it I mean it was horrible I couldn't get the angles right because you actually need two angles
it's a compound angle and if you're good with the angles well all the power - yeah I wasn't very
good at it then I moved on to this and this here will actually show you what the angle is you're
aiming for and it holds it on the chain better and you know what I got it sharp but nothing compared
to that beast back there and I mean this did the job and you too can use one of these and it works
then I moved up to this one here this rig right here actually mounts on your bar and it's a good
rig I mean it goes back and forth and you can file you know rate on the blade and it's more
precise angle and you know what it does a great job and this was about thirty dollars back then
but you know what if you have one chainsaw it's fine I got four chainsaws four different chains
and you know you got to get all different files yeah it's not so easy and how much time do you
have right so that's why I went with the electric years ago so there's another part that a lot of
people everybody skips and that is to file down the rakers I have run into fellows come up with
their chainsaws to my place and they're just you know buzzing away at 13,000 rpm and they're not
cutting too much right well a lot of people don't know you have to file down the rakers and I'm
going to show you exactly what's going on here but first I just show I got the clean of the chain all
cleaned I got the machine all cleaned here you know everything is all cleaned up for the last
video I told you I just brush it up and clean it up but if you look on your bar you will see it's
got all the specs on there that you need for this and a lot of these guys know what this here this
is just a little depth gauge and in between your teeth you're gonna have what's called a raker and
all it is is a little bit of a bump stop get closer here point it's like a little bit of a
bump stop that shows the depth of the how deep the teeth can actually go in so if you file them down
too far guess what your change is gonna be really grabby and it's not gonna cook that it's good more
or less grab all the time that's why these are great you just put it on here and if you just take
a look in one of the viewing windows here you can see that as as long as you can file it right flush
you're fine I don't use a file I use my machine I said that the one depth way I go real easy to
do so what else can I tell you here well I like using still chained yeah you can buy all kinds of
different brands of chain there's a lot of great chain out there you can make your own chain I just
buy the loops there are a lot more expensive and on the back yeah you get all the specs of your
cane and you can go on the manufacturers website and find out all the specs of this and the angles
to actually cut out now I don't use the factory still angle I change my in a bit and I like
that angle that I'm picking I'll show you on the machine why but generally most machines electric
machines will have the thick blade the really thin blade and a medium sized blade and that's all for
the different size of chains I'll show you on mine how it's all set up and how you have to pick the
right stone you can sharpen like with these here I would say at least 50 chains easy I don't know
like I mean you can go a long way with your chain as long as these grain stones aren't subjected
to a lot of dirt and you know clean your chain before you actually try to sharpen it so that's
pretty much it there now this machine here I'll put a link down below just for the manufacturer
I have no affiliation where they're at just if you're interested in what kind of machine I have
but I like this one here because it's hydraulic I'll give it a little bit of a zoom in here and
I'll show you exactly how it operates I think it's quite unique I like it because it makes the job so
much faster and you know what is this as good as going to your shop and paying somebody 15 bucks to
sharpen your chain I would say yes I mean unless you've got some really wild complicated cuts that
you want somebody to do you know what for the average homeowner or professional you know that
doesn't want to pay somebody 15 bucks every time to get their their chain sharpened this is a great
alternative now you're not gonna pay you know 40 99.5 for this is you know this was here I believe
I paid like 400 change for this electric sharpener it's from Italy and it's just a terrific machine
a lot of great recommendations for it's highly rated so I'll put the chain on here and I'll
show you all the great features and I'll show you the white sharpen it and how fast it is well here
we got it in the machine here and I'll show you right on the front there here's where you pick
your size of chain so mine's i/o 4/3 and this here is a stop very easy to put in you got all
your adjustment here and this adjusts from how far from one link to the other and if you take
a look might be hard to tell when it's in but there is a left and a right so you have to do
one side and go back on the other and the unique feature of this one is as you bring the head up
and down I don't know if you're going to be able to pick that up or not watch them jaws right in
here they close for you so there is a hydraulic cylinder in here and here's the cylinder mount
here so here's the reservoir so when you lower this it applies pressure to this cylinder the
cylinder closes the gap between these two jaws and that's why you have to select here what size chain
you have so it'll know the thickness right and as you bring it down it tightens fun for you and now
there's two different angles like I said so you got a choice of your angles here and mine are all
thirty and then you have this angle that's the compound angle there and I found the one that's
highlighted at fifty five works the best I'll get this started up for you and I'll show you how easy
it is to sharpen your cane well I got you pretty well zoomed in there and what I do is I always
put a mark on the first one that I've sharpened so when I get around to the other side I know where
to stop and I've already sharpened this one here and you can see this how this goes up and down
now all you do just pull it till it stops and then as I was that far down it already clamped the vise
it's very hard to tell but yeah it's already clamped it in there so let's start it up here
tell me how smooth that sounds a so you just pull the tension like this that's it guys you're not
grinding off a whole bunch it's just a bit just to put the edge back on now of course you have
to skip a tube so you go like this until you come to the next one and it'll stop see you like this
it'll stop right on it for you and then you just now of course there is adjustment there's one
adjustment further up here that sets the amount of depth you don't want to go in too tight either so
here's next one
and that will give you the exact right cut on every tooth and remember you're only allowed
to cut so far into a tooth because after that the tooth is no good it's too small well that's pretty
well it right there would you use guys think I don't expect there's too many people want to
invest you know a couple hundred dollars you can get them as cheap as 100 bucks 200 bucks depending
on where you're going and I've seen some for even $79 up here at princess Auto on sale and they did
a terrific job of cutting they don't have all the hydraulic options and everything else but you know
what it's a lot better as far as I'm concerned then go into this and just carry yourself a couple
of chains with you and you're out in the woods and I'd like to adjust one little thing that
was mentioned and a lot of people weren't too sure okay I mentioned before how the oil comes out this
whole rate here and a lot of people say well how could that get plugged up when the bars on there
on the backside how does your you know your lure get plugged up well the problem is that this chain
is running back and forth along this groove and if you take a look on this side here you see the hole
turn on the other side see that little hole right there what happens is as you let your machine get
dirtier and dirtier and dirtier inside it just plugs the hole yeah the the bottom of the chain
has a hook that will clean out this track as good as it can but so many times it just plugs up that
little hole and that's the oiler that's where it gets the oil for the chain so that's why I take
mine off every hour of use just give it a quick cleaning and double-check these holes that's so
important and many times you'll see somebody who doesn't maintain their bar good you'll see this
all burnt you know it's overheated and that kind of stuff and that's because not getting enough
oil and I only use summer oil all the time and you know the you don't want to go down too cold right
so I mean yeah you know there's summer weight oil for your bar and there's winter eat oil I just buy
the summer and if it gets really cold yeah you got to go to a thinner or oil but usually how
colds are going to get you know in September and that's usually when I'm cutting my firewood so
thanks for joining me here today hope you maybe you pick something up and these machines are just
terrific this one here this particular model here comes in a hydraulic version and just a regular
version where you just pull down a handle every time before you move on to the next tooth and
you can see how that's a lot more time consuming I can do one of these chains flip it over both
sides in under two minutes you know compared to loosening it off moving it forward tightening it
up you know there is a huge difference and for me it's just a little bit of convenience so thanks
for joining me here today if you haven't seen this channel before are you welcome to subscribe and I
think this is by far the best way to sharpen your chainsaw chains just guys take care now Cheers
you