Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Proper Lubrication of the Chain Saw Front Sprocket

On the other chains saw thread, somebody mentioned this. On the nose of bigger saws is a grease hole and you need to lube it.
I have been using chain saws quite a bit for 35 years and never heard of this.

So I went over to youtube and yes, here it is in a one minute video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYlmHgK8Qbc

I have a Stihl with a 20 inch bar and a Husqvarna with an 18 inch bar and I just went to check them and to my surprise, both have grease holes in the bar for the front socket. Never have lubed either one.
Now, it is off to the chain saw shop to get a little grease gun.

My larger Echo with 20" has it, I've lubed it once in 2 years.
My old Stihls don't have it[but both are running 16" bars].

They make special grease guns to lube them. I don't do much chainsawing any more but I used to have a plastic syringe looking thing for doing it. Usually they're full of bar oil anyway so I don't know if it helps any.

I have small tip that fits on my regular grease gun that I use. Seems like all the owners manual I have for my four chain saws mentions greasing the nose

I have built 8 log cabins by myself and the main tool for log building is the chain saw. To cut a dovetail notch, you are making a cut 9 inches long and three inches deep in white pine. Then you make 3 more cuts and you have a dovetail notch.
So, you are using the chain saw all day but not doing much heavy duty cutting.

Now, just last week I cut up 3 pickup truck loads of fresh cut white oak, this stuff was 24 inch diameter. This gave my Stihl, and me, a real workout. My chain got all kinds of dull.
I am sure it would have helped the performance of the saw if I had been lubing that front sprocket.

simonkenton7:
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope that the day has been a tad warmer in your part of the world than the start of our day is here and that this finds you well.

As you've said, most saw shops will have an Oregon grease gun for somewhere either side of $10 I would think.



You can also get an attachment for a regular grease gun that would do the same thing.

I've used CV joint grease for years and haven't seen an issue, but it's not a bad plan to have a little grease gun in one's "wood's kit" either - along with the spare chain, spare plug, plug wrench, spare.....

Hopefully that was useful for you or someone else out there on the inner web today sir. Stay well.;

Dwayne

Some have the port to inject the grease, some don't. The Stihl "Rollomatic" Bars don't, and IMO they seem to bind more than others. I prefer the bars you can grease.

The grease guns look like an vaccine type injection, but they are not. They are a grease-filled spring-loaded grease injector with a metal tip that you place into (more like onto) the port near the end of the bar, and then mash down on. The grease itself looks sorta like Yamaha lube - a lighter version of wheel bearing grease.

After dressing my bars, I inject the grease and then often also add a little bar oil.

Here is the oak I was cutting last week. This hard wood just beat hell out of my chain, I am sure it would have gone a lot better if I had been lubing the nose gear.
The things you can learn here on the campfire forum.




My brother went over with me for the second load and we both loaded up. His little Husqvarna was not up for the job I had to do all the cutting with my Stihl with the 20 inch bar. This wood is rather hard to split, but, it is beautiful firewood.

Simon what size Stihl is that? Do you have a picture you could post on the log dovetails you cut for cabin corners? and the door and window cuts? thanks MB

Beautiful wood simonkenton7 ! I use a chainsaw just about every day for a variety of jobs I do. I also used to fall timber professionally. Back in the day all bars had grease holes in the tip and needed to be greased once a day during heavy use. The new bars have sealed bearings and cant be greased, at least Stihl bars are that way. Those grease guns BC30cal posted are also used to grease the main bearing on the sprocket on your saw. That bearing should be greased regularly as well.

Grease the main bearing on the sprocket? What do you mean?







Here I am laying out and cutting a dovetail notch for my log cabin, four years ago.



Here I am cutting the groove in the window opening. A piece of angle iron is installed on both sides. As the logs shrink, they will settle around the doors and windows.
Very important to allow for this shrinkage and settling.

That saw in the firewood photo is a Stihl 039.

Grade AAA mill wood right there!

Yes, please-I've a 30 YO Stihl 028 that I've never greased there??

My two Husqvarna's have the grease port so I assume they put them there for a reason. I bought the grease "gun" noted above and use it as advised by the manufacturer.

Look T the end of your crank shaft where the clutch/ sprocket sits. There should be a hole. That is a grease port for the roller/needle bearing for the clutch drum. On some saws. Like with Savage 99 's never say always or never😁

I went up to the chain saw shop and bought the nose gear lube. Eight bucks.
Both the Stihl and the Husqvarna have replacement bars. The Stihl has 2 grease holes and the Husqvarna has just one.
I lubed them up. Squirted the grease in until it squirted out along the chain. Pretty simple.

Thanks campfire members for the tip.

I hit mine with about 100psi of air, spin it, make it sing, do this when I flip the bar, after about 2-3 sharpenings.

Then dab some 3-in-1 oil in there.


BUT....after seeing this, I am compelled to follow suit, and get the right grease and application technique.

Simon thank you for the pics, damn nice work you do. MB

Post Oak like that, fairly large IE a big tree, but only about 38 inches diameter or so, took me a day to cut up into splitting size plus all the limbs. Tree was dead a year so fairly rough. Rounds cut every 18 inches so lots of chunks. Went through 5 chains that day. As soon as they quit cutting nice chips and start making a bit of sawdust it comes off and sharp one goes on. Go to the barn after that and touch em all up on a cheap freight sharpener. Works great. I could NOT get through a 24 inch oak like that with one chain here MAYBE if it was green. MAYBE.

rost tell me about your cheap freight sharpener. I sharpen by hand and I am pretty good at it. However, after I have sharpened 6 or 7 times the chain is no longer symmetrical. It is sharp but not symmetrical.
I can make small cuts fine. But on this big 24 inch oak my cut would curve to the right about 1 1/2 inches. That is bad news. That is one reason I bought the new chain for the second day. That new chain cut straight through it was a beautiful thing. I cut the two truck loads of firewood and that chain got pretty dull.