I heat with wood so I cut quite a bit every winter. About 35 years ago I built my own sharpener. I used an old 1/4hp electric motor and copied the angles from a Belsaw sharpener our local saw shop used. I built it to use worn out surface grinder wheels. #46 aluminum oxide abrasive is about right, finer will burn the metal. I have no idea how many times I have sharpened chains, but it must be thousands of times. I measure the tooth length with calipers to keep them all even. Periodically the height of the rakers must be checked as they regulate the amount of cut each tooth takes. As the teeth are shortened the rakers protrude more and reduce how much each tooth cuts. Depending on how pwerful your saw is, rakers should be .015" to .035" below the top of the teeth. A raker gage is used to measure this. Unless I've done something stupid, like hitting a rock or wire or frozen ground, usually I only need to remove .005" or so from each tooth to restore sharpness. I prefer to sharpen them before they get dull. You really prolong the life of the chain by sharpening before it's necessary. Less metal is removed and you are never forcing a dull chain at all. Typically I can sharpen a chain 30-45 times before it i9s too short to sharpen anymore. If you hit some thing that really deforms the teeth all bets are off. Then enough material must be removed to restore the original shape of the teeth and that could be .060" or more. Lots of shops grind way too much off a slightly dull chain to get the maximum life, but they are in the business of selling chains. I know this is a little long, but I've been doing this for 35 years. email is open if you have questions.
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