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#Post#: 89370--------------------------------------------------
Oregon sprocket rims
By: Chainsawrepair Date: August 2, 2022, 6:41 am
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Oregon sprocket rims.
From a guy that says he works there. = Get ready for Chinese
rims. Rims made in the USA soon to be no more
If anybody on this sub-reddit uses Stihl, Husqvarna, or Oregon
rims get ready for a drop in quality in the coming years. Oregon
Tool, formerly Blount or Omark, will cease production of rims
made in the U.S. and will be outsourced to China by June 2023.
I'm one of the guys who makes those rims and Oregon tool makes
the majority of all those rims for those 3 companies. If you're
wondering why it's because Oregon Tool will likely not be around
for much longer they're furloughing all production workers
worldwide and are cash poor. The company has been managed into
the ground. The company just keeps getting passed from one
investment banker to another and bleeding the company dry. If
you enjoy the Oregon brand, I'm sorry but I don't see the
company lasting another 5 years unless something changes or is
bought by another company.
The biggest reason for the outsource was Stihl and bad
management on Oregon's part. The high temp furnace is from 1969,
anneal was rebuilt a couple times but is WW2 era. Goff is from
the 80's. In other words Oregon didn't invest in the department
and the equipment is failing they asked Stihl for a price
increase to fund new equipment as about 70% of what we make is
for Stihl and it's not very profitable as it was first
introduced to act as a bridge between Oregon and Stihl for
another deal decades ago.
No they are made in a foundry.
If you care the process is as follows: First a plastic model of
the rim is made, then 108 of those plastic rims are assembled
into 18 layer trees, those trees get sent to ceramics and a
robot dips them in sand and ceramic to make the mold. After
curing they are sent to the foundry loaded into a 2100 degree
furnace where the plastic is melted and all that's left is the
ceramic mold we pull them out of the furnace and pour steel into
them while they're still hot. After they cool we load them into
a goff where it blasts the ceramic off the parts then a hammer
is used to knock the pieces off the center of the mold. After
that the parts are weighed out and loaded into a 1700 degree
furnace to soften the steel then they get sent to id size where
they are punched to widen the inside diameter of the part. The
parts are then loaded into a vacuum furnace to harden them up,
after that they go to cnc grinders which grind the outer
diameter to size. They are then sent to shot ping which uses an
abrasive machine to give them a uniform finish. Lastly they are
sent to functional gauge where inspection is performed on 100%
of the parts. There a few more steps but that's a brief overview
of the process
There's going to be a drop in quality our foundry has 40 years
experience making the rims, it's a long process about 5 weeks
from start to finish for a batch. They've tried to outsource
before, but no suppliers could qualify. A supplier still hasn't
qualified and they've already eroded most of the infrastructure
in the department.
#Post#: 89371--------------------------------------------------
Re: Oregon sprocket rims
By: Chainsawrepair Date: August 2, 2022, 6:41 am
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That was interesting read. Never thought about all those steps
just to make a 5 dollar rim retail.
#Post#: 89417--------------------------------------------------
Re: Oregon sprocket rims
By: fisaw Date: September 4, 2022, 2:09 pm
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I would like to buy Made in USA oregon that are made properly.
Warning about unbranded Chinese, most of them are not made
correctly, the clutch drums are not round = the clutch slips,
the hole in the clutch drum is too big for the bearing. The drum
is too narrow, the oil pump lever not properly in place.
The sprocket teeth wrong size, and not round = The chain
tightens when the rim rotates half a turn (I have bought many
for testing over a long period of time (+15 years) Ebay, hutzl
80% defective = money back and product for scrap metal)
#Post#: 89423--------------------------------------------------
Re: Oregon sprocket rims
By: 3000 FPS Date: September 5, 2022, 10:03 am
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That is a shame because Oregon is somewhat the standard for
clutch drums and sprockets. Sorry to hear this.
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