DO NOT OVERUSE YOUR CHAIN which will cause excessive pressure between the connecting links and guide bar and will affect the chain before it affects the bar.  IT IS IMPORTANT to understand that a cutter will continue to cut even after the cutter is dull. Please pull your chain from the system at the appropriate number of cuts for your specie of wood.

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USE THE CORRECT BAR-CHAIN OIL to maximize the life of your bars & chains.  While you can use a premium brand of bar & chain oil that contains a minimum of 3% tac-adhesive, we have found significant deficiencies in these available blends based on the time of year or season.  Therefore, we offer custom-blended oil for HOLTEC systems in either 5-Gallon pails or 55-Gallon drums.

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DO NOT EXCESSIVELY TIGHTEN CHAIN - check and ensure that tension on chain is proper - your operator should be able to pull the chain about 1" to 1.5" from the bar when chain is tightened.  WEAR GLOVES!

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NEVER MIX OLD & NEW CUTTING COMPONENTS: Chains and guide-bars wear at their own metal-to-metal frictional pace over the course of the useful life of any chain and the guide-bar develops a pattern that is matched to the bottom of the chain. NEVER MIX OLDER CUTTING COMPONENTS WITH NEWER ONES!

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REGRIND YOUR GUIDE BAR REGULARLY: YOU MUST WATCH FOR UN-EVEN OR EXCESSIVE BOTTOM WEAR ON CHAINS OR BARS - IT IS IMPERATIVE that NO NEW CHAINS be utilized on a guide bar which has an uneven wear pattern or a “burr” buildup evident on the rails.

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If you are properly using and maintaining your chains, this bar regrind should only be necessary on average about every four sharpenings have been completed on an entire set of chains, but you should be visually inspecting your guide bar for any “burr” buildup with every chain replacement and regrind it immediately if any such “burr” buildup is visible.

In every case, prior to the replacement of a set of new chains, you must either:
•    Flip and rotate the guide bar to its unused side (if available), or,
•    Re-grind your guide bar edges to remove any “burr” build-up and establish a right angle on the rails.
 

REPLACE CHAINS AS A SET: We recommend replacing chain(s) as an entire set of either (3) or (4) chains after ensuring that your guide-bar is properly “right-angle” grinded to eliminate any abnormal wear or “edge-burr” on it to obtain maximum life out of your chains and bars. Reconditioning & re-squaring of your guide bar rails are an absolute necessity prior to using new chains and will avoid excessive replacements of a guide bar.

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If you replace a single chain in a usage pattern that has been matched to older chains, the new chain will immediately degrade its bottom wear to match that of the oldest chain in your set of chains.  Likewise, if you replace your guide bar and use old chains that have their own bottom-wear usage pattern, the new guide bar will match the pattern of the oldest chain in use.  If you have recently replaced your chain or your guide-bar and have improperly placed the new item(s) in a cycle with older item(s), it is likely the cause of any degradation of your cutting performance both in terms of accuracy as well as longevity.

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PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR SYSTEM'S MAIN POWER SOURCE IS DISCONNECTED PRIOR TO ATTEMPTING ANY SERVICE OR REPAIR AND ENSURE THAT YOUR REPAIR PERSON IS WELL EQUIPPED WITH THE PROPER SAFETY GARMENTS, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO HEAVY DUTY WORK GLOVES AND RUBBER SOLED INDUSTRIAL WORK SHOES.