The 511AX has a new vise that will handle 3/4" harvester chain as well as the common saw chains. The 511A requires swapping the vise. It is a very popular grinder, durable and easy to use. I have not seen the GB unit.

You might get a funny look from some if you call it a chain saw grinder. Most will call a grinder or chain grinder or maybe even sawchain grinder.

In any case, I have read a few good things about the MAXX. I read that they are Italian made. They may even make the Oregon but I am not sure. The price is about the same for the two. I don't think there are major differences between them however I only deal with smaller saws. I don't use .404 or harvester chain. So you'd have to research on each machines capability there.

On the other hand, if this is for home use Northern Tool has a decent grinder for less than $100. There are a few tweaks you can do to it to make it better, even so it is decent. The Harbor Freight offering I don't think is worth the money.

If the MAXX and Oregon are pretty much equal, I think I would opt for the Oregon due to the larger user base, better support and I would assume better parts availability.

If you just need this for home use, I'd save some cash and get the NT grinder.

I'd agree, if just for home owner use save your money and get the NT and use the extra money on a better or another saw. Chain grinders are simple and don't use a lot of power. Steve

I bought a used Oregon 511 and find it to be a well built machine. If you get the Northern grinder, you will be getting one that may need a bit of modification to make it work as smoothly as the Oregon model. Would probably work plenty well for homeowner use. On arborisite.com there has been quite a bit of discussion about the Northern grinder and one fellow was making washers used to make the machine work smoothly.

Over on the other forum someone just bought a NT grinder, took it apart and cleaned up the castings a little, says it works nice and smooth now. He said it took about 10 minutes to do. Steve

Some of the NT grinders have castings that have to be removed for it to work properly. It's not a big deal if you are at all mechanical, they are fairly simple machines and the extra castings are pretty obvious and easy to remove with a file or even better a grinder.

The shims and washer take the slop out of the machine. It's not much slop but the parts do help apparently.

masiman and ladylake, you guys do recognize that you're recommending a poorly reverse engineered product made in China, a country which has expended a tremendous amount of effort and government supported financial effort to destroy not only the North American economy and manufacturing base, but that of all industrialized nations, don't you?

I won`t buy a Chinese product unless it`s the only product available and even then I`ll try to figure out a way to do it without that product because I don`t want to send anymore jobs out of this country. Maybe it`s about time that more people in the world started thinking this way instead of always going for the cheapest product and accepting that they will have to live with it's shortcomings or find a way to improve it at home.

BTW crasha51pan, I have both the Maxx and Oregon 511 and they are both good grinders. If you have the financial means and want a truly fine piece of American engineered and produced equipment that will run circles around those other grinders, get a Silvey 510, I've tried jsut about every grinder made including several very old styles that are no longer produced and the Silvey tops them all.

Where are the Maxx and Oregon made now? It gets kind of dissapointing when I buy things with the Milwaukee, Dewalt Delta Powermatic....name to mention a few and they're made in China, Maybe the management of these companys should figure out where they came from rather than using thier name to sell stuff made in China. I try to buy USA if the price is somewhat close, not 2 to 3 times more. Steve

The Maxx and Oregon are made in Italy Steve. I agree wholeheartedly with your disappointment when you find that a name brand product is now made in China, corporate greed is killing the working man and the national economy.

Still, I try to live by the principals that seem "right" to me rather than just buying the cheapest product and sometimes I will pay two or three times as much. Almost invariably the payback is a product that is truly better and doesn`t require a lot of "field engineering" to make it do it`s job properly, second is an intangible, I get the satisfaction of knowing that I took the high road and did something to help my countrymen when I had a choice not to and when no one would have known if I didn`t.

For a while there were times where I felt like I`d been screwed to pay those prices but then when I put it in the context of the people making the products I buy being able to live on the wages they earn and the factories they work in being reasonably safe while also complying with environmental safety laws, I don`t feel so bad anymore, infact, I feel it`s my civic responsibility to support the manufacturers that I do. You ofcourse are free to do what you feel is right, that is until our countries become like China et al because the working middle class no longer exists.

I believe that there is a certain desperation associated with wages and benefits so low that the majority of people of a nation are beholden to the government for subsidies to live, and it also looks a lot like socialism to me. Socialism never made any country great nor has it ever provided a great way of life. I want better for myself and my child's children.

Sorry for making this into a long winded socio-political response but I feel it`s important to atleast make everyone think before they spend their dollars on cheap, knockoff products made in China and other parts of the world that are famous for piracy and low quality as well as widespread disregard for the health of their people or the Earth.

After this last election socialism is here, it's been headed that way for quite a while and now it's picked up speed. I just looked at my Oregon 511a, made in Italy, doesn't help our economy. I know it's built way better than the china knock off but for a few chains a year the china one should work. Silveys cost way to much unlees your a pro. Steve

Steve,

Sure a product made in Italy doesn`t directly help the North American economy but it doesn`t in any way that I`m aware of help the Chinese economy either.

The fact of the matter is that both the Maxx and Oregon/Efco grinders were engineered/developed, and built in Italy then marketed(and proved viable), and with valid patents in most developed countries, meanwhile the original manufacturer continues to build their products at home while the Chinese apparently disregard rights of ownership and law and produce reverse engineered and poorly built products to dump on people who only care about how many bucks they can keep in their own pockets with no regard to the big picture. Like I said, it`s your choice how you live your life, I`m going to continue doing what I consider to be right and part of that is to attempt to cause people to think before further empowering the empire which seeks to destroy our way of life by destroying our manufacturing base. The fact that these particular products originated in Italy and not North America is insignificant IMO, the whole premise being discussed is just another example of how too many Asian countries indiscriminately pilfer from other countries.

For the record, I am not anti-Asian, I would just like to see them operate by the same rules that most other countries in the developed world operate by.