I get the logic of skip on very long bars (less strain on power head and chip clearance) but cannot understand using it on saws with 20 or 24” bars - I’ve tried it once (local STIHL dealer swore by it ) and went back to full house

Good comparison. I use a skip chain when I'm cutting up softwoods. I like the" ribbons" . One thing a skip chain is good for is an occasional rip cut, it won't bog the saw down as much.

Nice. The skip did better than I expected. I always end up with Oregon chain, there's a small corner store near me that's a oregon dealer, their chains are cheaper than the chinese stuff online and half the price of stihl chain.

I'll bet, that used chain was smoother - as you've filed it, and the tooth was slightly shortened to the depth gauge. I'll soon be trying Stihl chains: semi-chisel full house vs full-chisel full-house vs semi-chisel skip. This will be my first long bar (28"), on an MS400. These experiments, are great fun! 😁

I use full skip only because it’s 2/3 less teeth to sharpen than full comp. I primarily use 24-32 inch bars and hand filing can take some time out of your day on your sharpening days with all those cutters

Oregon chain seem to run smoother in my opinion. ... I love Oregon chain

The skip chain is for long bars in soft wood for felling trees. It helps clear the chips and keep chips from staying in the cut and plugging up the bar and making the bar get stuck. Pulling the bar out of the cut to clear the chips slows the process down felling big trees in the north west. I really liked the skip tooth in soft wood on my 24inch bar using the Stihl ms361. But I can't say it cut faster, since I wasn't logging out big trees. I was just bucking up logs already down. In hard wood I'd imagine the skip chain would dull much faster then a regular chain. Cool video comparing your perception of the different chains as you used them. I've never tried that for picking my preferred chain. I know Stihl chains are the hardest so they keep an edge longer that other brands. The Oregon chains are the second hardest chains and I hear they are easier by quite a bit to sharpen. I will likely pick an Oregon chain for my own preferences in the future. Great video. 😎👍

@afleetcommand

2 ай бұрын

Maybe, I take a different route, yes for long bars, but also on power heads that are at their power limits. I never had a 28 or 32 inch full house bar & chain combo plug up in hard wood, so that's got to be a soft wood / west coast thing. I see the skip out here on 20 and 24's too! But usually on saws that came in for PTO bearing failures :) AND even with the toasted bearing the chains are still snap tight, An EAST coast phenom. What folks out here forget is those 288's , McCulloch's they started and learned on don't spin 14k :)

@williamgrissom1995

2 ай бұрын

​@@afleetcommandyou are likely right. There is a huge difference between high torque with lower rpms that the newer high rpm saws. Hard wood with a full chisel chain even if it's a skip chain will dull alot faster, so it's alot different in what it needs to cut efficiency than soft wood. I like a full chisel chain for it's speed in cutting. But if I was making a living cutting hard wood, I'd choose a semi-chisel chain so I didn't need to switch chains so often, or sharpen them so often. But as somebody that cuts a just little for recreational use, like camp fires or bonfires, I like a longer bar to avoid bending over so much and a skip tooth might be an option if I'm running a bar bigger than recommended for the the size of the saw. But I wouldn't be cutting big wood anyway. But that's just my opinion. Right now that is not what my situation is. I got a ns872 clone of the Stihl ms382 or Stihl 380 magnum. It's a 72cc saw with a 24inch bar on it. My second saw is a G111 a clone of the ms200t top handle saw with a 16inch bar on it. But if I had a newer ms261 or ms262 a 50cc saw instead of the 72cc saw I do have, I might run the 24 inch bar to save on bending over cutting medium to small wood. I'm short at 5'6", so a 24inch bar saves me from bending over.

Thanks for showing!

I'm cutting mostly maple and always found the Oregon/Husky chain works fine. Price is better than Stihl too.

That saw continues to impress, and you definitely know how to sharpen a chain If it can match the RS out of the box for speed. In my experience I have found they are the fastest out of the box and seem to hold an edge longer than the rest. The prices around here only favor Oregon by a small amount, so not much incentive to get them. No surprise the full skip was slower, but the fact it could bore cut no problem was a surprise. Must be the high chain speed working toward that end. The worst chain I have used, at least for initial stretch was an Oregon 72lpx. Within 20 minutes of first use it developed so much play it jumped the bar, 2-3 time more stretch than even cheap Chinese chains I have tried out. Once it settled in it was fine, but that much right out of the box is unacceptable. Stihl chains are usually my first choice, they are consistent quality and even if they are more expensive you get what you pay for.

@johnclarke6647

9 ай бұрын

I will always hit a new chain with a file and check the rakers before I use it. I have found some Oregon chains to have different raker height between the left and right rakers, so I check them all, now. I just give them a few licks with a file and file down any raker that does not meet my specification - a little hungry. I want about a spark plug gap between the raker and the cutter. I just scan down the cutters looking for a tall raker. If I see one, it gets a few licks with my raker file. If I want to bring a chain back to factory specs, I put it on my chain grinder, otherwise it is File City.

My Stihl 024 has an RS chain on it and it cuts fine. I don’t cut any different with an RS chain than I would do with a green chain. The only difference of note is the RS has a yellow set of links on the chain and the green has a green link. The one thing you have to note with Stihl 3/8 chains is you have to use a 13/64” file, instead of the normal 7/32” file. I have a bevy of files for all my saws - 5/32 for 3/8 LP chains, 3/16 for .325 chains, 13/64” for Stihl 3/8 chains and 7/32” for Husqvarna and Oregon 3/8 chains. All with wood handles with their size written on them with a black sharpie. Most of my files are Stihl files, except for the 7/32 which is an Oregon file.

I don’t notice a lot of real difference between a skip chain and a regular chain. The only bar that I have for a skip chain is my 36” bar for my MS 660. I have an RS and an Oregon LPX skip chain for this bar. On odd ball bars I like to have two chains for the same bar. I have a bunch of LGX chains for my 20” bars. I agree the RS is a little more hungry than a standard green chain. It is more hungry because it holds its edge longer than a green chain. My chains are always hungry because I hit the rakers more than most folks so I am use to hungry chains.

RS are good chains. I have them on most of my saws. I did put a green chain on my 021 when I built it. If fact it was the factory chain off my new MS 250, which now totes an RS chain. Next time I get a few extra bucks the 021 will get an RS chain. It has earned it.

I have been using oregon lpx, exl, exj, stihl RS and whatever the stihl skip is called. Cant remember, RSL maybe? But anyhow my experience is that the stihl chains work best on saws with lots of torque but moderate chain speed. They seem to bite out bigger chips(when new) Oregon EXL seems to be the smoothest. Oregon LPX is softer but easiest to sharpen. Once you start using the chains a bit, by the time you are on the 4th or 5th sharpening, what YOU have done to them matters more than the brand since by then the geometry is all about the same. Factory grind is replaced by the round file shape after some use. Stay safe friends.

@afleetcommand

8 ай бұрын

The Husqvarna c83 ruins it for me. Used to be a toss up between RS and LGX. After a couple of seasons with c83 that is all I want to use.

Nice 😊 🤠👍🍁

Walt, what's your opinion or thoughts on square filed chains are they faster, last longer or worth using for every day firewood cutting ??

Nice comparison. When running skip on the same size bar, do folks usually change from 7 to 8 pin sproket to offset the reduction in cutters/drag? I see Bailey's chart shows the Oregon 72LGX being equivalent to Husky H47, but Husky C83 is more equivalent to Oregon's newer 72EXL which also equivalent to Stihl RS33. Again, great show down. That Husky 562xp runs great! With that sharp chain and being broken in, it looks like it could run strong against my Stihl 400cm. This 60 to 70cc category is really complex, great all around but master of none except great compromise between weight versus power specific to the application, which is why opinions range widely. Thanks for the video.

@afleetcommand

10 ай бұрын

I think that is correct as the elx isn't as hungry as the lgx was and it has a way more complex grind, LIKE the c83. I think Husqvarna & Oregon were developing their chains about the time they went different directions so it would not be a surprise that they ended up in a similar place. I had some of the earlier ELX preproduction chains to try and they were obviously shooting for smooth and less power required. The chain I had there was a LGX and Husqvarna's H47 was essentially the same chain in a blue box from what I understood at the time. Just had 47 instead of the 72 stamped . Even now it's hard to beat the old LGX, especially when u figure the filing aspect as once u file a c83 / elx you have taken out their sophisticated grind.

@duck-n-cover477

10 ай бұрын

Funny how true that is. Their grind becomes your grind as soon as you use it...from the lab to the real world. You (and Bob) really helped shed light on the genesis of saw marketing. Trend now is "shooting for smooth and less power". That aligns with your criticism of the 572xp needing a little more on the low side. Looking at it that way, the factory saw and factory chain are a matched system. Making it your own is an adventure with ups and downs. It also explains why the "fives" do just as well as "factory hot rods" in the field cutting wood all day. Ultimately, it's about enjoying saws and putting wood in the truck. We each choose how much time and money we want to spend doing it. Thanks for sharing sharing your insight and wisdom.

@scottwilson4396

10 ай бұрын

Great video Sir ! Tried my first skip this past winter in large seasoned white pine . I found that the skip was noticeably faster in frozen wood than full house but as the wood warmed up it lost its advantage and was quite a bit grabbier limbing to the point i took it off the saw . 52 mm ported 365 saw exL skip vs exL & c85

@fabzacres-blackcat

10 ай бұрын

@@afleetcommandHusqvarna makes a specific roller guide for the c83/c85 chain - the geometry / angles are slightly different than conventional roller guides. I had fits trying to get the c83 to cut with / outcut the off the roll chain when filing it ! Seems I could only get 90-95% until I p/u that specific roller guide - oem 586938602 p/n - hope this helps someone avoid the frustration I experienced when trying to restore the chain to off the roll cutting speed

@ngnmech

8 ай бұрын

@@afleetcommand The Oregon, Husqvarna relationship is closer than people think. Oregon was the OEM manufacturer of Husqvarna, Solo. Dolmar/Makita, Echo, Poulan chains. And at the time Stihl was claiming to make their own chain their descriptions matched the Oregon description word for word down to the font in the catalog. One of the differences was the Stihl chain used a smaller rivet in the links which prevented using Oregon links to repair Stihl chain. My understanding is the Oregon links will now fit the Stihl chain. The OCS-01 temper and the blue cutters used on Stihl chain are Oregon patents.

I love it have you ever tried the EXL by Oregon?

@afleetcommand

10 ай бұрын

yup, even ran some of the pre production stuff as they worked to the find product offering. Good stuff

@nateolmsted899

10 ай бұрын

@@afleetcommand good deal I really like that stuff