Oiler for Long Chainsaw Bar - Slabbing Saw Mill

**sdunt** · Oct 18, 2018, 11:59 AM

My son has me doing the machining for a new chainsaw bar based 'Slabbing mill' for his lumber business.

He purchased a 48 inch long chainsaw bar as the basis for this unit. The chainsaw bar in a slabbing mill is mounted flat - horizontally, and not knowing which side of the blade he would be cutting with, I thought the tip of the bar should have an oiler the same as the factory oiler at the base.

But how does one attach the oil line to the bar? There are no mounting holes like the base that you can use as a clamp. The tip of the bar moves as you tighten the chain and as the bar heats up and expands. And, this is hardened steel, it's not something I would be able to tap, nor something I really want to solder or weld on.

What I came up with was a standard 1/4 inch diameter bolt which has a hole drilled down the middle that connects with a cross hole. This is bolted THROUGH the bar:

Oiler for Long Chainsaw Bar - Slabbing Saw Mill-img_20181005_142151399.jpg

In order to bore a hole in that hardened bar, I tried a number of things,but eventually wound up using these 'glass - ceramic' drills that I got from the Chinese Tool store: https://www.harborfreight.com/carbid...-pc-61617.html using those running at normal speed drilled right through the bar where about everthing else I tried failed.

To determine the placement of the hole for the bolt, I used my calipers to measure the depth of the slot in the chainsaw bar.. I zero'd the calipers, then I added 1/2 the diameter of the bolt, .125" and marked the location on the bar a few .001's less than that. In the photo you can see where the hole just crosses the bottom of the slot in the bar, (The Factory oil hole also feeds the bottom of the slot instead of flooding the bar, so I followed suit).

I put RTV - Silicone on the head and nut of the bolt to seal it and also to help in locking it in place. Trying to torgue this down will break the bolt :-).. Here is a photo of a flashlight demonstrating that the oil hole does align with the bottom of the slot. To locate the cross hole, hold the bolt next the bar and mark the center of the slot...