Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I will pick up from the fine review by "Master of None" who states he is familiar only with an old Granberg model and did not have the current Granberg 106B. I do have the new Granberg 106B Granberg Bar-Mount Chain Saw Sharpener, Model# G-106B and have found it to be excellent. Before I bought the Granberg 106B I used the Oregon 23736A for about 80 filings and I have now done about 100 filings with the Granberg 106B, so I am pretty familiar with both jigs. The quick report is that I agree with other reviewers that the Oregon jig is flimsy. I will add that it is also jerky, slow, and strange. I find the Granberg 106B to be rigidly built, streamlined for speed, and with an excellent height gauge that I use to set the file height exactly. Both jigs have insufficient documentation. As I write this review, I can see both jigs, but you can see almost all of the important details in the Amazon pictures. Both jigs have the same 8" file, so you can judge the different scales of the photographs. The Granberg is much more rigid because it is very compact and has all-metal construction with solid, thick walls. I think you can see from the pictures that the Oregon is quite a bit taller, which naturally makes it more limber, and the frame distorts in normal use. The Granberg has fully solid sidewalls with no light-weighting. On the Oregon picture, you can see three panels of light-weighting that make this tall frame even more flimsy. The Granberg frame holds its shape when you tighten the body screw. Because the frame keeps its shape, you can easily keep the chain centered under the pivot point of the rotating frame and go side to side with no adjustment of the stop screw. With the Oregon jig, it visibly distorts with normal torque of the body srew, making it hard to match the cain location with the pivot point of the rotating filing frame. With the Oregon, I always had to adjust the stop screw when I went side-to-side leading to longer filing time because of this extra operation. Although it is painted black like the metal parts, the Oregon filing frame is made of plastic, giving it a mushy feel. This leads to less accuracy and longer filing time. On the Oregon, I could hold the cutter lengths to no better than 0.015". The Granberg has an all-metal filing frame and has a crisp feel. I routinely control the lengths to three times better at about 0.005"--as good as factory-ground chain. With the more rigid filing frame you get a nearly abrupt stop and fewer strokes are made with contact against the stop screw. Since most of the time your file has a full bite, you will benefit from shorter filing time. Notice that the chain clamp on the Granberg is rather short at about 1" while the Oregon clamp is roughly twice as long. Also (Sorry, you cannot see this), there is problem with the bottom feet of the Oregon clamps. The Oregon clamp feet are just bent metal and do not provide sufficient control to prevent the clamp from pitching forward and back and catching on the cutters as the chain is advanced. The feet of the Granberg clamps have a special design feature for precise registration. With the Granberg, I can pull the chain smoothly through the clamps for both 0.325" and 3/8" chain. In contrast, the Oregon clamps tend to hang up on the cutters when I advance the chain. This problem is especially bad with 0.325" chain. The red hex nut you see on the top of the Oregon frame is the height adjustment. The hex head dial is too small to achieve accuracy, the numbers are tiny, and the red-on-red marks have low contrast. Each of the six sides is divided into two sections each amounting to 0.009" of height adjustment, so you have twelve sections each of 0.009" making a total of 0.108" height change per revolution. OK, why use a hex head dial instead of the customary round dial? Why design for units of 0.009"? It is a bit hard to see in the picture, but the Granberg height adjustment has a generous head size and, thankfully, is a round dial. The raised marks are easy to read with the gray metal giving sharp shadows for good contrast. One rotation is exactly 0.100" and you have ten clearly marked divisions of 0.010". This math does not hurt my head. I can easily read within a division to achieve an accuracy of 0.002". The Granberg height adjustment is very handy and I use it to set my file height at the start of every filing, so my cutters always have exactly right hook. I do like the knurled retaining nut on the Oregon jig, and replaced one of the wingnuts on my Granberg with a 3/4" check nut 3/4 (A), 7/32 (B), 1/2 (C), 5/32 (D), 10-32 thd., Steel, Check Nut, Reid Select for faster side-to-side switching. Did I mention that the Granberg is lighter by 1/3 and costs less? In summary, the Oregon 23736A is outclassed by the Granberg 106B.