Cutting with a chainsaw takes several things to take care of. And one of the most important aspects of it is- to make sure the chain is in its place. Provided that the chainsaw chain is rotating in the right direction, you’ll get to do what you’re supposed to do with a chainsaw.
But somehow, if the chain gets off its place, what would you do? Should you call up a mechanic? Buy a new one? Or just follow a set of simple steps to put it back on the chainsaw?
Yeah, we’re talking about the last and most convenient option here. Go through the rest of the article, where we will take you through steps on how to put a chain back on a chainsaw-
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Why does Do Chainsaw Chain get Off Its Place?
When you’re cutting with the chainsaw on a regular basis, your chainsaw becomes hot and stretch. As a result, the length of the chain increases by a tiny amount. Eventually, that causes the chain to fall off its place.
Another potential reason is if any wooden chip gets into the chain’s teeth. That will cause some jamming in the chain, eventually leading to falling off.
See, it’s a completely natural thing to happen. If you see your chain falling off, that’s no serious issue that you should worry about.
Either way, there are quite fixes to this problem. And what are they? Go through the next section-
How to Put A Chain Back On A Chainsaw: The Steps
Step 1: Clean the Bar Anf Chain
Before putting back, make a decent cleanup on the bar and chain of the chainsaw. If there are any wooden dust or debris, they will be wiped off in this way. To clean it up, you can use a regular paintbrush with a brittle structure.
Step 2: Take Out the parts
At this step, it’s time to take off the parts and housing of the chainsaw. To open it up, you would need a ½ inches chainsaw wrench, which is easily available in the market. In fact, some chainsaws come with their own chainsaw wrench.
However, once you’re done with loosening up the screws, release the tension on the bar oft h chainsaw. There will be a set of bar nuts, which you should remove as well.
Put all these nuts and housings at a safe place, so that you don’t have to lose them.
Step 3: Put the Chain Back Until you Get Desired Tension
At first, make sure that the chainsaw chain is in the right direction. To understand the right direction, follow this rule of thumb-
‘Put the chain in such a way that, it faces away from you when you hold the chainsaw with your hands. If so, the chain is in the right direction.’
Now, once the chain is set in the right direction, set the chain around the sprocket. This will eventually allow you to set the grooves right around the bar.
There is a tension stud in the chainsaw, which is needed to be lined up with the chain guide hole of the bar. It will help to set the right tension on the chain.
Step 4: Set it At The Right Tension
Now, it’s time to set the right amount of tension around the chain. Now, this thing varies from person to person. So before entering into this step, you should know the exact tension you want your chainsaw chain to beat.
Pull the chain and tighten it up in order to adjust the tension screw. You have to keep screwing the tension screw until you get the right tension.
Once done, put the housing on the chainsaw chain again. There are some screws that will tighten the plastic housing. Use them to make it happen.
Before moving to the final step, hand-check the chainsaw chain tension.
Step 5: Check and Troubleshoot Again
Once you are done with all the steps, you can go for a few test run of the chainsaw. Before that, make sure that you have put every single screw on their place, and tighten them up nicely.
If the chain operates fine, we are done with our process. If you still find it loose, you can adjust the tension screw to set it right on the desired tension level.
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Bottom Line
Before ending up the process, make sure that your chain is not likely to get off its place once again. Another safety tip is, do the whole process in a spacious place, where you don’t have any risk to lose the chainsaw screws and housings.
Good Luck!
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