Ozito Cordless 3.6V Chain And Blade Sharpener OPCS-036

A Mild Chainsaw Chain Sharpener – The box in which this unit came states, "Brings a sharp edge back to your chainsaw chain to achieve optimal cutting performance. " Well, the Ozito Cordless Chain and Blade Sharpener does........ and it doesn't. The manual says to run the unit at high speed, and that 1 or 2 back and forth passes should be enough to sharpen the edge of the chainsaw chain tooth.

After cutting a week's worth of firewood with my 14" and later my 18" chainsaws, I could see that the chain wasn't cutting quite as quickly as when I had started, and with the wood chips coming off the chain being smaller. I applied the Ozito unit as per the instructions, and it was quite noticeable that both chains' performance had improved the next times I used them.

However, with a totally blunt chainsaw chain - of the type one gets from very long usage, or from trying to chainsaw a stump where one inevitably hits soil, and where the saw dust coming off is no longer chips but fine dust - the Ozito unit is pretty useless. It may eventually sharpen such a worn tooth, but I gave up after doing 25 back and forth passes, with no apparent effect on the tooth.

An easy way to tell whether one has accomplished sharpening is to lightly run one's finger over a chain's tooth - if it is sharp one feels it catching on one's skin, but if not sharp, then it doesn't.

I notice that the ads for the similar Eze-lap diamond grinding wheels at the Bunnings web-site say that using them (in the same type unit as with the Ozito unit) prolongs the time before one has to get the chainsaw chain sharpened. In my opinion, this Ozito unit does the same job - doing maintenance sharpening, until one has to do the comprehensive sharpening (with a big electric bench-mounted chainsaw sharpener).

I tested out the unit's battery power by doing two back and forth passes on each tooth of both my 18" and 22" chainsaws, and there was still plenty of power left, the inidcator LED lights having just dropped from 3 to 2. Plainly that is sufficient for doing maintenance sharpening some three times or more a day, when doing a lot of chainsawing.

PROBLEM - When I took out the unit from the box, I immediately noticed that the grinding wheel and the guide plate were not parallel. I fixed that after a few minutes by putting my thumb on the base of the guiding plate (where the screws are) and bending the top of the guiding plate back and forth until it was finally parallel with the long grinder - one can check that it is definitely parallel by moving the wrench used to set the height of the guide plate, all along the length of the guide plate. If I hadn't noticed this defect, the grinder would have ground too low, and the unit would have been useless.

The unit comes with another attachment for sharpening mower blades, garden shears and the like with a grinding stone wheel. I haven't tested that out yet.

Conclusion. a. If you are the type of person who regularly takes chainsaw chains down to the chainsaw or mower shop to get the chains sharpened, you might find this unit handy, as I opine that it will lengthen the time between the requirement for major sharpenings. b. If you do a lot of cutting, you might find this tool handy in lieu of doing a lot of manual sharpening in the field. c. If you have very blunt chainsaw chains, or are working on wood or stumps that blunt your chains very quickly, I opine that it is unlikely that you will find this unit useful at all. Regards.