The Chainsaw Fixture

I created a little fixture to hold the old McCulloch chainsaw securely in place during maintenance activities.  I made it primarily to help with proper sharpening.  The fixture locates the saw at 3 points, and also holds the bar up and off the bench so the chain can be pulled through easily.

This is the entire fixture.  It doesn't look too fancy.

But the chainsaw fits nicely into it.  

Here's a few key features.  This piece holds the handle:

Let's call this Location Point #1.

This funny shape holds the recoil /clutch mechanism:

Location Point #2.

This simple block holds the opposite side:

The 3rd Point of Location.  The saw is now located but one problem remains.

The bar is heavy, so I made this little clamp to hold the bar up.

By holding the bar up, I can pull the chain through when sharpening.

All these criss-cross marks are marks for sharpening.  The silver line is where the bar lies, and the blue sharpening guides are 3.250 inches apart - the same distance as the teeth.

  I follow the lines with my eye while filing.  

+30 degrees for the teeth on the right, and

-30 degrees for teeth on the left.

I did all this crazy design and building just to have a better sharpening system.  Without this fixture, I had a little +30 / -30 degree template drawn out on paper.  I tried to keep that under the saw while sharpening, and things always moved around.  It was annoying.  So now with this fixture to assist, I can make a more repeatable file stroke, and be more even in filing.  Even sharpening means less chatter when the saw is in use.

I can now sharpen the saw's 39 teeth in about 2 minutes.