Morning James. Wow ! two great saws there. Keep your chain's sharp the rest will follow, though the speed isn't everything, but a good sharp chain and it all " falls" into place. Just love the 500i. Cuts like a dream. Stay safe, keep cutting. All the best. John.
As you know I mainly cut firewood and I like Hexa. This week I swapped back to Stihl RS on the 462 and it almost felt like it was not cutting. It is so smooth by comparison to Hexa. I have also cut some dirty wood with 2156 with a Stihl RM chain on it. To be honest it cut pretty well and stayed sharp. If I was a professional I would definitely want a smooth cutting chain to cut down on fatigue.
Nice saw there James. I've never run Hexa chain but the more aggressive the better for me when I'm cutting firewood. If I'm felling I'll grab a new chain out of the box and leave the rakers be....
Very good stuff mate. Yes aggressive chains and low rakers are a big turn off for me. Smooth cutting is faster because I don't need to stop and winge every five minutes!
@@BigAlsWorksaws it was you that first said it to me!! I think square filing is the best of the speed and smoothness world. Do you remember trying to borecut with hwxa!!
Hey James O, what a great conversation starter you've got here, I think anyone who's found out the benefit of correctly set rakers has also gone over board on it as well, and ended up unhappily chattering their way to the next filing. The Hexa chains profile to me, sort of looks more grabby than square ground full chisel, or even round filed full chisel, and definitely more grabby than round chipper chain which tends to push its way out of the cut due to its round profile. Part of the vibration is likely be the way the tooth rids itself of the chip, where the square ground FC folds the chip and sends it back and the round filed FC and chipper sort of roll the chip into a ball and then back we go. I haven't run Hexa but by its profile I guess it folds the chip too but maybe not quite as well as Sq G FC, it seems like square grind for when you haven't got 2K$ for a Simington . . . I run 20 thou / 0.5mm on my chains, but as you know I cut mostly Radiata (Monterey?) pine which is relatively soft, but I always ramp the front of the raker down to allow good bore cutting and tip cutting, I cheat and use a grinder. I was lucky enough to find a vintage Oregon adjustable depth gauge which has a range of raker height settings from 15 to 69 thou, in 6 thou increments, you just set the dial to the depth you want and away you go, its Oregon Part # is 543, and its very old, I would put in a link but I'm not that techo 😁 HOW MANY HOURS ON THE 500 NOW ? KEEP THE CONTENT COMING BUDDY !
Im not convinced by hexa, as a regular saw user the files are too expensive and a full chisel chain cuts perfectly well. I have two or three spare chains per bar size, including one semi chisel, so will swap the full chisel chain out if the wood is dirty or when cutting my stumps low. Painfull watching you almost pinching the bar. I keep a wedge in my back pocket on windblow and if i feel the cut pinching or think it is likely too will put my wedge in. Another useful tip is to get yourself a cant hook, cut all your cuts from the top about halfway, then roll the log over and finish the cuts, no risk of hitting dirt. My cant hook is an American made peavy manufacturing company 30" and this will roll trunks of around this diameter and around 5' long, very easy to turn longer smaller diameter timber lengths.
@@paulf2529 thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed comment. Yeah I've cleared a lot of wind blow and got the pressure wrong on this one, normally one will fall out and relieve the pressure but it wasn't happening! I actually have a hook and several wedges with me in my cutting kit but didn't think to get any of it out! I still think square filed full chisel is the king for speed and smoothness.
tested my DIY hexa chain. Found it to be pretty underwhelming. I'd like to run a stock hexa chain in comparison but it does seem like it's a bit of a gimmick from what i've seen so far
It's kinda of a gimmick as it's no faster then regular round filed chain but for people who cant round file the hexa shape is easier to line up and sharpen properly with the hexa file. I'm running DIY hexa too, it's easy to make on a round grinder with the wheel profiled for it. Mines about as fast as round ground but holds an edge a little longer.
@@nseric1233 I converted a round chain by hand to hexa. It took a good 30minutes or so. Found the file pretty horrible to use but I haven't done a touch up filing yet to say how easy or not it is comparatively.
No need to 'BLIP" a Fuel injected Engine before cutting into the log..... Pull the Trigger and go..... I know, Muscle memory is a hard habit to break HAHAHAHAHAHA.
