Guide bar length recommendations what sizes work best?

Alan

Alan

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You know that feeling when the bar length complicates a job more than it should? Perhaps a long bar was just too awkward in those tight corners, or a short one struggled to tackle larger cuts.

What bar sizes do you find yourself reaching for in various jobs? Share your preferred lengths and what makes them your top choice!
 
Alan said:
You know that feeling when the bar length complicates a job more than it should? Perhaps a long bar was just too awkward in those tight corners, or a short one struggled to tackle larger cuts.

What bar sizes do you find yourself reaching for in various jobs? Share your preferred lengths and what makes them your top choice!
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On my small saw (Echo 4910), I use an 18” bar (semi-chisel), which is its sweet spot. On large jobs such as felling or bucking large trunks, I use my large saw (Echo 7310p) with a 28” bar (semi-chisel full-skip), which is its sweet spot. All my trees are white and black oak.
 
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You've got a nice variety of setups here. It appears that most of you are leaning towards that 16–20" range for their everyday work, but it's exciting to see the bigger bars really excel on those oak jobs.
 
16 to 24 will cover most chainsaw work with 18 probably most used.
If you have 14 saws that can be used like I have it makes it easy.
With my big jobs I have a 42inch bar and chain that I put on my
Stihl 056 AV Super that covers that but most times it is running a
20in bar. For real small jobs I go to my little Echo 280E with a 10in bar.
On my Jonsered 930 Super I run a 26in bar.
 
Certainly one size doesn't fit all but but the lions share of what you generally cut should have a bar size that will make it through from one side especially when felling. Notches and back cuts can be made on diameters larger than your bar by cutting from both sides but there's a bit of guess work involved. And getting a tree to fall exactly where you want it to smoothly makes getting the notch and back cut right critical. I'd rather bolt on a bar bigger than the saw was intended for and use some patience to make it easier than create a hazard with too small a bar.
That said, general firewood bucking, I like a 28" bar. It doesn't require me to bend over as much. Lighter cutting a 20" bar on an 029. Trim saw 020 has a 16" bar. I don't do much cutting up trees in firewood lengths on the ground after dropping them but I've done a bit with a bow bar and it works really well as long as there aren't obstruction by other wood next to the stem you're cutting.
If all my saws were stolen and I had to start over, I'd begin with something with a 25" bar, the best of everything considered. Long enough for most stuff and enough reach not to be bent over that much.
 
Great breakdown. Using 28" for firewood, 20" for lighter tasks, and 25" as a versatile option really makes sense.
 
For cutting fresh oak, beech and hornbeam logs up to 30cm in diameter and torn pieces made from these logs, at home in the yard I cut all of this with a Husqvarna 450ll/2025., I also cut old timber from a demolished wooden house (on which I almost destroyed the aforementioned guide bar because there was not enough lubrication with the original oil pump) on which I installed: a regulating oil pump + a bell for the ring transmission + a lamellar coupling + a transmission ring with 8 teeth + a plastic transmission of the oil pump all of it from HQ460 + a Stihl RS23 chain (I replaced sp33g) on an X-force 15"/.325/1.3mm guide bar, now I do all of this happily and contentedly without any problems with great pleasure and desire, so that the HQ450ll with the aforementioned modifications and the aforementioned chain feels and in reality can be seen a big difference compared to the original setting.

I don't know how it would all work if I increased the bar to 16"~18", should I reduce the transmission ring to 7 teeth + put the sp33g chain back, I really don't know and whether it would get better cutting performance with an enlarged guide but because with these described changes, better performance was obviously obtained I wasn't interested in further experimentation at the moment. What do you think and do you have any suggestions for further improvements?

p.s.
I removed the spark arrester screen from the exhaust
 
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I always recommended to use the shortest bar that conveniently gets the job done. The longer the bar , the more risk of kickback. I learned this the hard way.
 
Mbukal said:
For cutting fresh oak, beech and hornbeam logs up to 30cm in diameter and torn pieces made from these logs, at home in the yard I cut all of this with a Husqvarna 450ll/2025., I also cut old timber from a demolished wooden house (on which I almost destroyed the aforementioned guide bar because there was not enough lubrication with the original oil pump) on which I installed: a regulating oil pump + a bell for the ring transmission + a lamellar coupling + a transmission ring with 8 teeth + a plastic transmission of the oil pump all of it from HQ460 + a Stihl RS23 chain (I replaced sp33g) on an X-force 15"/.325/1.3mm guide bar, now I do all of this happily and contentedly without any problems with great pleasure and desire, so that the HQ450ll with the aforementioned modifications and the aforementioned chain feels and in reality can be seen a big difference compared to the original setting.

I don't know how it would all work if I increased the bar to 16"~18", should I reduce the transmission ring to 7 teeth + put the sp33g chain back, I really don't know and whether it would get better cutting performance with an enlarged guide but because with these described changes, better performance was obviously obtained I wasn't interested in further experimentation at the moment. What do you think and do you have any suggestions for further improvements?

p.s.
I removed the spark arrester screen from the exhaust
Click to expand...
Cool setup! Looks like you've added some good stuff. If you go with bigger bars, yeah, switching to a 7-tooth sprocket should keep things balanced. But what you have now seems pretty solid.

Paul said:
I always recommended to use the shortest bar that conveniently gets the job done. The longer the bar , the more risk of kickback. I learned this the hard way.
Click to expand...
Yep, a shorter bar is safer and easier to control.
 
Alan said:
Cool setup! Looks like you've added some good stuff. If you go with bigger bars, yeah, switching to a 7-tooth sprocket should keep things balanced. But what you have now seems pretty solid.


Yep, a shorter bar is safer and easier to control.
Click to expand...
ok, the winning team doesn't change
 

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