Chain Breaker & Best One to Buy.. maybe not a china make, no junk desired.

[H60 Hawk Pilot]

I'm looking to buy a chain breaker set up and roll of chain for my saws.

I see a lot of them out there and don't want to buy one that's  mickey mouse and not worth buying. I don't mind spending the money for decent equipment that works well and holds up. Almost everything is made in china and I'm keying on the good word from folks that own one (brand name) and it works as advertised.  

Really Looking to Hear from a Owner of Brand ____- ? Chain Breaker that works quite well. I understand that a chain breaker is not a complicated tool, I don't want a junker that you needed to fool with or it does a so... so job.

Thanks' in Advance,

Avery

[John R]

Oregon and Stihl both sell them.

[Gary_C]

I've got the combo set from Bailey's. Works well and does what I need done regularly. You will occasionally bend a punch if you are not careful, but that's not the fault of the equipment. Parts are readily available. It's not rocket science so most any breaker and spinner will work.

And don't expect to save a bunch of money over premade loops. The main reason for me to have one with a harvester eating chains is to repair broken chains and change the number of drivers. I buy all premade loops.

[Cut4fun]

I've got the combo set from Bailey's. Works well and does what I need done regularly. You will occasionally bend a punch if you are not careful, but that's not the fault of the equipment. Parts are readily available. It's not rocket science so most any breaker and spinner will work.

Mine has worked great for me and bought as a pair you can really save compered to the others.   

[bandmiller2]

You can save alot of the strain breaking chains if you grind the rivet heads with your bench grinder before punching.In fact you don't really need the breaker just grind and use a hammer and punch.You do need the spinner, although I've done good work with the vice-grip tool. Frank C.

[northwoods1]

And don't expect to save a bunch of money over premade loops.

I totally agree, I could never justify the cost savings of buying rolls of saw chain when loops are so cheap. I do the same as Gary C. , I only fix my 11bc 3/4 pitch chain for my sawhead.

[Al_Smith]

Unless you are doing a lot of chain work a die grinder and a small sharp chisel will part a chain pretty easily . If you run Oregon or anything but Stihl then more times than not Baileys will have loops cheaper than you can buy a roll and spin your own . That's just a preference though like most things are .

[terrifictimbersllc]

I just ordered the Woodland pro breaker/spinner combo from bailey's for $105, get a chain chart with it.  Supplied by Carlton, made in Taiwan.  Could have got an oregon set for $170 (Italy) but was on the fence about whether to keep getting by or have these to make it a little more fun, and decided that $105 was spending enough. Since it's from carlton should be ok but got 2 extra punches for the breaker anyway.   Going to make up a bunch of peterson slabber loops from full comp Woodland pro (Carlton) ripping chain, plus recycle several chains from other chain mills to use on the slabber.  Going to experiment with whether and how many cutters to grind off of full comp rip chain, do I really have to go to the hyper skip or not.  Plan on either grinding extra cutters off with worn out stones on my chain grinder or just take a hand held milwaukee 4-1/2" grinder to the extra cutters.

I have been using one of those vise grip like break-n-mends but that is very hard to use and ended up mostly just grinding, punching and peening to make up chain.  Just hate even thinking about holding that chain sideways without it flipping off the vise anvil or jaws to get the job done.   Hopefully this makes it a little more fun.

[Rocky_J]

I forgot where I got mine but it was one of the big online supply houses, Bailey's or Madsen's I think. I only run Stihl chain any more but local shops are outrageously priced for loops, and the roll prices are over $450 with tax. I can get a buddy to buy my rolls of Stihl chain on the other side of the country and send them to me UPS for a bit over $300.

And the other benefit is that it keeps me out of the local saw shop every few weeks buying a loop of chain plus whatever else catches my eye. I save thousands of dollars per year by staying out of the candy store.  :D

[Cut4fun]

Just being able to bust up old chains to make a loop of what you need made it worth it  to me.

Just like when Al Smith sent me 2 like new loops of Oregon 59 404. I was able to make 1 big loop out of the 2 smaller loops of chain.   8)  smiley_clapping

[Al_Smith]

I've got a spinner but basically all I use it for is to  spin a few  up a year ,like cutting down a damaged chain I get off the trimmers or something like that .It a flea bay Oregon ,cost me all of 15 bucks I think .

For that matter though I have made concave punchs that work fairly well for peening a chain ,gave a lot of them away too .

Oh Lawdy that reminds me  that there must  be two dozen chains that either need repairs or tossed out hanging on nails in my garage ---some day----