On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 22:47:07 -0500, Jonathan Goodish
wrote:

I am a relatively new chain saw owner who has Googled extensively and
read the owner's manual several times. I have a good degree of common
sense, and try to take care, but I am destined to make stupid mistakes
anyway.

After about 2 hours of use on the new saw going through cherry and ash,
I started into some oak about 12" in diameter with a 20" bar on a Husky
346XP (fast saw). I worked through this for about an hour and noticed
that the the oak seemed to be getting progressively harder to cut,
requiring more pressure on the saw as I moved toward the base of the
tree (tree had been felled already). Eventually, the bar and chain
began to smoke, and I probably made 7 or 8 cuts until the bar and chain
were smoking so badly it became obvious that something was seriously
wrong... the bar oil on the bar was bubbling from the heat. I removed
the bar from the log and ran the saw for about 30 seconds to oil the bar
and allow the smoke to dissipate from the bar and chain.

I've smoked a bar or two over the years, so don't feel too bad about
it. If there was still oil on the bar and it doesn't appear blue you
probably didn't hurt the bar. Your problem seems (as you guessed) to
come from a dull chain, so you are more likely to have damaged the
chain. At worst, however, it will only mean that the chain won't stay
sharp very long. Most of my chain saw work is done in softwood - dry
pine or fir for firewood - and I probably sharpen the chain every hour
or slightly more often, cutting cherry, ash and oak you aren't going
to keep a chain sharp for an hour of steady cutting, let alone two or
three. At this point my test would be to sharpen the chain and see if
it cuts straight. If the saw wants to cut curves you may be able to
sharpen it out, but I'd just toss the chain and try a new one. It is
actually pretty amazing how messed up a bar and chain can be and still
cut great as long as the chain is sharp.

Tim Douglass

http://www.DouglassClan.com