skippy. wrote on Aug 17
th, 2014 at 9:22pm:
I haven't had one long even though I should have bought one twenty years ago, and haven't sharpened it yet. How do you best judge it needs a service or sharpening at a specialist?
Some reasons:
When your tooth angles are all over the place. When you can't cut even with a
sharp chain because the depth gauges are too high. When the saw wants to
curve the cut one way or the other. When the chain stretches enough to need
shortening by a link (can happen on an old chain, or one which was a tad too
long to start with).
With time, experience, and/or a couple of quick lessons from someone who's 'in
the know' and the right tools, you can do most of it yourself. Even truing the bar
is a piece of p1ss if you have a bench-grinder (no, an angle grinder will not 'do').
Basic routine servicing can be done yourself (cleaning the air filter etc) but most
mech repairs are best left to the service-man, especially if your saw is still
(Stihl) under warranty. Most saws require special tools for any major work and
some of these can be quite expensive and not worth buying unless you're using
them regularly. Your local repair-man isn't likely to be lending you his, either.
Also saws, like laptop computers, are designed to be as small and light as possible
so, like a laptop, they aren't always easy to dismantle or re-assemble without the
risk of doing damage if you're not sure what you're doing. One, for example (the
Solo 640 and its derivatives) requires splitting the crank-case to replace the fuel
filter!!