What's your favorite bar?

[Corley5]

I've ran mostly Windsors and had good luck with them.  Roller tips seem to hold up real well.  Had a Total bar that was good but haven't seen them around lately.  Also had a GB that lasted for quite a while.  I've never used Oregons much.  My Husky 395 came with a roller tip Oregon which I bent beyond help on the third tree I cut with the saw.  I put the old Windsor from the Jonsered 2094 on it.  Last spring I got a couple good deals on Oregon bars on E-bay.  One a roller nose and one a hard nose.  Neither one seemed to oil very well.  I turned the oiler way up on the saw and it didn't seem to make any difference.  No noticable oil spraying off the tip and oil consumption didn't go up.  The tips heated to the point of bluing.  The bearings went out of the one the other day and I picked up a new Windsor/Sandvik bar.  It has bigger oil holes in the bar and I had to turn the oiler down because oil was running right through it  No signs of bluing on the tip and the saw pewrforms better with it.  I've got some new rivets coming for the Oregon bar.  I'm going to pop the tip off the bent one and put it on the one that just lost its tip.  I think I'll drill the oil passage out so it'll oil better.  The hole is much smaller than the Windsor.  What do you prefer as far as brands of bars?  Anybody else have this problem with Oregon bars?  Have you ever drilled one out to make it oil better?  A logger I once worked for told me to run Windsor bars and Oregon chain and to stay away from Windsor chain and Oregon bars.  He said that Windsor chain would have an occasional hard tooth that couldn't be filed.  I not even sure that Windsor makes chain anymore.  I don't recall his reasoning on the Oregon bars but think I may have an idea.  The Oregon bars do have better paint.  The new Windsor is already chipping off and the writing is all but gone.  The writing on the Oregon is holding fast  

[timberbeast]

Small place in Milwaukee called the Globe.  They have live music most nights,  and a friendly crowd!

[timberbeast]

Sorry,  couldn't help it!  I use Stihl Rollmatics,  never tried Windsors,  but the Oregons (2) I've used seemed to bend easier and also had trouble with getting oil to the tip,  not sure if it's the brand,  or the particular bar.  I just happened to buy a whole bunch of the Stihls (for all I know Oregon might make them??) from a guy who was retiring, a few years back.  I think it was 10,  all new.  Still have a couple of new ones around somewhere,  but haven't needed them.  As far as paint goes,  I don't think I've ever had a bar that still had any paint on it after about a week's work.  Don't know if that has anything to do with species,  but I cut mostly Cedar,  and the bark is stringy as heck,  and lots of pitch.  I imagine that would make a difference.

[Kevin]

When you install a bar on your saw be sure the oil inlet hole in the bar lines up with the oilway on the saw.
Different bar, chain and sprocket combinations can prevent this and your bar will never get the oil it needs.
I use a paper clip to clean out the holes in the bar, I run the bar cleaning tool both ways along the bar groove, spray with WD40 and hit it with compressed air.
You should clean your bars after every use because the sawdust will harden in the bar plugging up the free flow of chain/bar lubricant.
There shouldn`t be a need to drill the Lubri-Jet holes in the Oregon bars if they`re cleaned after every use.
Chainsaws suffer a lot of abuse, it`s one of those things that people don`t generally maintain, I never really spent much time on my saws until I started using them for milling.
They get cleaned after every use and I seldom have any trouble with them.
Before begining a cut rev the saw and point the tip at something where you can see the oil spray fly off the nose of the bar, this usually indicates that the oil pump, bar and chain are all working together to supply oil to the bar.
Don`t forget to check the filter in the oil tank and replace it when necessary.
The Oregon Pro or Power Match Plus are two of the best bars on the market but not worth the extra money if they aren`t going to be maintained.
The Stihl bars are also similar in quality.
Husqvarna bars are Oregon bars.

[L. Wakefield]

My Husky 395 came with a roller tip Oregon which I bent beyond help on the third tree I cut with the saw.

  Hoo, that reminds me of when my baby Husky 51 was new and I was just making my *first* mistakes- naturally got the bar tip BADLY pinched and was just about to tweak it so far sideways while I was trying to get it out that it would have been toast, definitely. I think what I did was stop/action, and go get some stuff to prop up the tree and de-wedge the tip. I repeated that lesson 2 or three times- I've gotten a little bit better at anticipating weird stuff. I find it hard to cut blow-downs if they're not all the way down- just leaning. Tends to make me want to leave them and let 'nature take it's course'. (gravity will have its way eventually.) However, that course includes rot..

  Other numb things from that period- forgetting there was a chain brake safety- hitting the handle while working- thinking the saw was toast and taking it to hubby and (experienced..) friend to help me figure out what was wrong- they took it all apart and I had to take it back to the shop (less than a week after I bought it) and they kindly set me straight and told me to tell Mike to LEAVE IT ALONE..they were only laughing a little bit..kind of embarrassing- but not just to me, since I had consulted persons I *thought* knew more..  lw

[timberbeast]

Those blowdowns can be some of the most dangerous cutting,  LW.  Experience is really the only way to learn,  though,  as every one is different,  the way it's leaning,  if it's leaning on something in the middle,  if the top is against something,  etc.  I always take extra time to look over each one carefully.  I've shivered at some,  and left them alone!

[L. Wakefield]

  Come to think about it, right there is where some of those 'toolbox' facts could come in handy... to be able to look at a leaner and guesstimate the approximate weight loading each section in stress and tension- IF one could (safely!) cut in various places there might be an awesome demonstration of just what power has been built up in terms of potential energy. Like those extracurricular science projects I supervised out back concerning slow-burning vs fast burning gunpowder vs black powder. I thought I was going to have to build my kids a bunker!

  You've got me thinking now, and that could be dangerous..
when my ex was designing the underground house in WV (still standing..) he had various drawings of arches in stress and tension- where the vectors of force were. Several shows on satellite TV have discussed bridge design which take into account the same type of thing. Archery- compound bows and etc- contribute their bit- as vwell as what very little theoretical knowledge I have of catapults and ballistas.

  I've never done the woodland snares that involve bending down a sapling and adding a noose to it- that seems pretty straightforward. But a 'typical' deadfall (there is no such thing).. Has the position of the base- whether or not still technically fastened to the ground- any splintered portion- weight from above- tension in terms of its own weight forcing it into a curve against whatever is holding it up- any torque imparted by twisting in fall not yet relieved- as well as all that intrinsic stuff Tom (?) was showing in terms of the internal stresses within the wood imparted by the unequal growing process. I'd think that last contribution would be minor.

  The key word is 'safe'. I've never seen one that I really wanted to cut from the bottom. There's usually a place somewhere above my head that seems like the 'right spot' to relieve the situation. But I don't think I'd want to approach it with one of those pruning saws either. I like to be out of range. 'Widow-makers' are bad enough- they look normal- the top just drops off. Mike's idea is to use rigging.

  There is one dead double popple (huge) down near the swamp that is uprooted and leaned over against a hemlock. I'd love to have it down, but just can't figure a way. I'll go back and guesstimate the weight and the angle and try to see what the loading is and the possible stresses are. I don't see a useful answer coming out of it though. Only thing I'd like to use for rigging would be a full-sized crane, and if I had that down there I'd just pick up the sucka and lay it over by 'hand'. Why saw when you can pluck?   lw

[Corley5]

Kevin, it sounds like you're pushing a Canadian product regarding the Oregon bars  To me it seems that the Lubri-Jet holes should be twice as big as they are.  The Windsor bars have 1/8" holes which are about twice the size of the Oregon ones and they go straight into the bar rather than angling in like the Oregon's .  The larger holes are easier to maintain.  A jack knife with a good point cleans them out.  Even freshly cleaned they just doesn't oil like  the Windsors do.  
Beast,  I prefer The Meadows.  A little bar just north of Wolverine on Old U.S. 27.  Nice quiet little place.  The Bear Trap on the corner of H-15 and H-58, five miles north of Shingleton in the U.P. is also pretty hard to beat.  I've been cutting mostly maple and basswood this winter with the occasional beech, ash, cherry, and popple thrown in.  Even found a couple live American elms.
L.W.,  I almost smashed the saw when I bent that bar.  It was a windy day and I really shouldn't have been cutting at all but...  The tree, a big maple was going the way I planned and it was almost cut off, then a gust came along and pushed it over toward the me and the saw's powerhead.  Uh oh!!  The tree was cracking and the wind was working it all the time Dad and I were scrambling to get the engine off the bar.  We got it off enough to swing the engine out of the way just as the tree went down.  Whew!!  The tree hit the ground and pushed back toward the stump putting a permanent bend in the bar.  Other than a jimmied thread on one of the bar studs the saw was none the worse for wear.  That could have been a really expensive experience.  When it comes to blowdowns be careful especially when they are fresh.  Sometimes after they've seasoned a while some of the spring goes out them but not always.  I look over the butt to see which way it wants to go and carefully cut it off then pull it down with a skidder or tractor but everyone is different and requires a different approach.  I too have left some hanging for nature to take her course.  It's those little springer saplings that get bent over when a bigger tree lands on them that make me nervous.  Somtimes they'll have a multiple twists and you just don't know where the little b#s*!$ds will go.  

[Kevin]

I always thought Oregon was an American company based in Portland, Oregon.
That just goes to show you I don`t know everything.  
Big holes, small holes ... if you don`t clean them both get plugged up.
I`ve been milling with the Oregon bars for several years and have no complaints with the Lubri- Jet system and the sawdust is very fine.
My only experience with bars is with Stihl, Oregon and GB.
Stihl and Oregon Power Match bars I`ve been very pleased with.
I can`t comment on Windsor but I hear they`re quality bars too.

[Corley5]

Oregon may be American based, I don't know, but the bars have made in Canada stamped into them.  These are the first Oregon bars I've had any experience with.  The dealer where I got my Jonsered always dealt in Windsors, GBs, and Totals.  My Husky dealer has the Oregons and this is the first Husky I've had in years.  I bought the Windsor bar at the Jonsered dealer.  Told him it was for my 2094  Happy sawin'

[Kevin]

I like the looks of the Windsor Speed Tip, it looks like a decent bar, which Husqvarna bar did you buy?

[Corley5]

Yup that's the bar the Husky's sporting now.  The original bar, that I bent, was a Power Match.  I'll check in the day light tomorrow to see for sure what the one is that just blew the tip.  It only says Husqvarna on it so I'll have to check the numbers.

[Kevin]

Greg, do you know where the Windsor bars are made ?  

[Corley5]

Milan, Tennessee  They're called Windsor/Sandvik now.  I don't know where the Sandvik comes in.  My new bar is actually says Sandvik Speedtip on it.  That's what it did say.  Like I mentioned before their paint doesn't hold up real good.

[Don P]

I've seen Sandvik on something around here :-/ Now just gotta remember what.
I've always used the rollmatics, the arborist crew that was here last week was all Husky with Oregon bars, said they liked em.
Wood under tension is bad news, after a tornado hit Raleigh when I lived there the ER's filled up with saw related injuries. The big stuff I can normally predict, I ended up sitting with a locked knee one time when a little hawthorn slapped a 1¹/₂" thorn right behind the cap .
I think one could do all the stress analysis in the world and not correctly model a tree's behavior...too many unknowns until you see that rotten heart, shakey patch...
Always heard I should go to the Iron Ridge Inn but Kathy's Tap was only a mile down the road.My favorite was the Soft Pines in Solon Springs, had a picture window overlooking a flowage and feeder in the back. Saw a duck kick a deer out one day
Kinda funny, a bar down here is often not a place I would take the wife, much less kids. Up there they are more like community clubs.

[Kevin]

I had a feeling that Windsor bars were made in Windsor, Ontario.
I`ll see what my chainsaw cronies have to say.  

[woodmills1]

i go to the Nan King in beautiful Hudson NH.  how come you people have so many bent bars.  at the Nan King it is curved and not bent.  besides now that i have the winch on the loader trailer i pull those leaners.  much safer.  i do remember the past, i would cut off a section of a leaner and run away like a monty python character.  not safe and if you are one who pinches and bends bars don't try it.  leaners kill.

[timberbeast]

Sandvik makes a lot of carbide inserts,  drills,  boring bars,  etc.,  for machine tools.  I think they also make insert teeth for chippers.

LW,  you were asking about the crawler my uncle had,  funny enough,  he called me today to chat.  It was an Allis-Chalmers HD4,  4cyl.  diesel.  He said with the grapple boom and the blade,  he guesses it would weigh about 3 tons.

[Eggsander]

I've got a Widsor on the 394 now. So far it does seem to be holding up better than the Oregon that came with the saw. I'll have to admit though that the Oregon probably met an early end due to abuse. When I first got it I treated it like I had my smaller saws for felling, limbing, chunking, etc. Milling with a bar not cleaned and flipped regularly ate it up.
Favorite bar........hmmmmm.........I would have to say any muni or small town corner bar or the like that you don't get treated like an alien when you walk in the door is my absolute favorite.

[Corley5]

What's the difference between the PowerMatch and the Pro?  Both my bars appear to be PowerMatch models.