# Paint wearing off the bar--does it mean anything?



## ben94122 (Sep 7, 2017)

I've used this Stihl MS261C for about 10 tanks of fuel.  Does it mean anything that the paint is wearing off the bar so quickly?  Particularly off the top of the bar, just under the chain...It's oiling fine, but I was worried maybe I was getting it too hot and that was why the paint was peeling?


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## Dobish (Sep 7, 2017)

I honestly don't know why they even bother painting them 

check to see if the bar is straight, you might be applying pressure to one side more than the other.


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## sportbikerider78 (Sep 7, 2017)

It is kinda odd it would come off that quickly.  I still have paint on my Echo bar and i've run countless tanks through it.


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## Dobish (Sep 7, 2017)

what type of wood are you cutting, and how sharp is your blade? i could see if you were cutting something with a lot of dirt or fine dust, or wood under pressure that this would happen faster. 

I cut a lot of elm, and it seems to wear everything faster with the dirt from the bark.


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## Prof (Sep 7, 2017)

That is odd--I cut about 10 cords this summer (and I don't know how many before that) and my bar looks a lot better than yours. If it isn't over heating, I'd suspect a bad paint job. Paint wearing itself doesn't matter as long as it isn't a symptom of the things that you already seem to be aware of.


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## ben94122 (Sep 7, 2017)

I've been felling, limbing, and bucking mostly black oak and yellow (ponderosa) pine--mostly green live trees but some snags as well.  The bar only rarely gets pinched--they're smallish trees that I can roll to complete bucking cuts, and I use felling wedges so I don't get pinched on the backcut.The chain is quite sharp.  Thanks for the thoughts--I'll keep an eye on it and report back if I figure anything out.


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## WoodyIsGoody (Sep 7, 2017)

ben94122 said:


> I've been felling, limbing, and bucking mostly black oak and yellow (ponderosa) pine--mostly green live trees but some snags as well.  The bar only rarely gets pinched--they're smallish trees that I can roll to complete bucking cuts, and I use felling wedges so I don't get pinched on the backcut.The chain is quite sharp.  Thanks for the thoughts--I'll keep an eye on it and report back if I figure anything out.



That's quite a bit faster than my Stihl bars have worn, do you use the bumper spikes a lot? Or maybe the stickiness of the pine pitch is contributing. As long as your bar isn't getting hot, I wouldn't worry about it.

How do you like your 261 C-M? How's it run?


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## jetsam (Sep 7, 2017)

Wouldn't surprise me if the peeling-paint crowd ran their chains a little tighter than the rest.

I can't say since my paint always comes off of my bars too.


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## ben94122 (Sep 8, 2017)

WoodyIsGoody, I love the saw.  I've never owned a new saw, but have run quite a few older models.  I'm amazed by the power-to-weight ratio and the ease of starting.  No tuning screws on the carb is hard to get used to, but it works! Definitely does better than I could fiddle with the screws.

Jetsam, I bet you're right...


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## BenTN (Sep 8, 2017)

WoodyIsGoody said:


> That's quite a bit faster than my Stihl bars have worn, do you use the bumper spikes a lot? Or maybe the stickiness of the pine pitch is contributing. As long as your bar isn't getting hot, I wouldn't worry about it.
> 
> How do you like your 261 C-M? How's it run?


Pine pitch? I wonder if he is creating turpentine on a micro scale during the cuts. 

My limbing bars seem to wear faster than my larger felling bars. May just be the amount of use or cutting into compression wood.


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## heavy hammer (Sep 9, 2017)

It just means you are using it the paint comes off no big deal.  Just makes the bar not look pretty anymore I think they just paint them to look pretty to sell.


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## salecker (Sep 9, 2017)

Hi Ben and Welcome.
 How's your chain sharpening skilz?
 I noticed lots of fine sawdust on your new saw.When your chain is sharpened and rakers set you should be seeing lots of big chips and the saw should want to pull into the log and feed through the cut.If you find yourself having to push down hard and levering up on the dogs to make the cut then you will produce lots of fine saw dust.If that is the case then you would be producing more heat even if it is oiling properly.A sharp chain is the best thing you can do to improve the performance of your saw.
Thomas


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## jetsam (Sep 9, 2017)

I bet the wood you cut makes a difference, too. If most of the bar is hanging out in open air, it's going to be cooler than a bar that's buried dogs-deep in oak.

This might actually matter a little; I bet bars last a little longer if they run cooler.


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## ben94122 (Sep 9, 2017)

Thanks for the advice!  Thomas, I think you're right that I've been letting the chain get a bit dull: the saw is so much more powerful than my old Husky that I have gotten lax about touching up the chain.  That may be heating it up a bit.  I do tend to lever on the dogs more when the chain is dull.


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## Ashful (Sep 9, 2017)

ben94122 said:


> Thanks for the advice!  Thomas, I think you're right that I've been letting the chain get a bit dull: the saw is so much more powerful than my old Husky that I have gotten lax about touching up the chain.  That may be heating it up a bit.  I do tend to lever on the dogs more when the chain is dull.



This is likely the reason for the paint.  I'm running bars with dozens of cords on each, that look much better than yours, so I do suspect your bar is getting hot.  Check your saw chips (vs dust) for proper chain sharpening.  A sharp chain can still cut poorly and run hot, if the profile is wrong.  

The turpentine comment was interesting.  I'd like to hear more on that, but have nothing to add there.


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## WoodyIsGoody (Sep 10, 2017)

BenTN said:


> Pine pitch? I wonder if he is creating turpentine on a micro scale during the cuts.



Turpentine is helpful for removing pitch from bars (and I think it smells great) but it' s not going to do much of anything to cured paint. Old timers refer to it fondly as "turps".


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## BenTN (Sep 10, 2017)

WoodyIsGoody said:


> Turpentine is helpful for removing pitch from bars (and I think it smells great) but it' s not going to do much of anything to cured paint. Old timers refer to it fondly as "turps".


Yeah todays paints are pretty durable once cured. I was just spitballing with types of wood(pine) and heat created by dull chain (as Salecker pointed out) he was distilling his own turpentine in the cut.


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## ben94122 (Sep 12, 2017)

Some follow-up: I bought a new chain and you guys were right: I wasn't sharpening my old chain well.  The new chain makes great chips and no dust.  Also, the bar oil hole in the bar was clogged with dust, and I'm using a lot more bar oil now (maybe oiling twice as fast?).  So I think the chain and bar were getting hot and causing the peeling paint. I'm going to work on my sharpening skills.  Bought a Granberg file-n-joint and will stop eyeballing it until I get more consistent results.

Thanks for the advice and speculations!


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## Ashful (Sep 12, 2017)

Also get one of these tools (probably only $2 at your local saw shop), for cleaning the groove and oiler hole on each chain swap.

https://forestdepot.com/13616-bar-g...MIqcrt96qg1gIVhFqGCh2HlguyEAQYASABEgJFiPD_BwE


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## Hogwildz (Sep 13, 2017)

If the paint was coming off on both sides equally, I wouldn't worry about it. But, what you're showing is one side with very much more wear than the other, leading me to think one of a few things.
Your chain is not being sharpened equally.
Cuts are not made straight, could also be a symptom of unequal chain sharpening.
Chain is too tight and wearing one side of the bar down more than the other.

Are your cuts always running off on an angle on one side?


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## DodgyNomad (Sep 15, 2017)

Agree that something's heating up that bar most likely.  Make sure you're flipping your bar over every few tankfuls, and keep oil holes/channel and groove clean.  From that pic, that saw has a lot of very fine dust around the cover and chain area, sign of a dull chain. 

You're working that saw too hard that way.  A real sharp chain won't leave that kind of "flour"


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