Show us ya chainsaws

[bigfellascott]

I've got 3 now, first one's an Olemac (Italian made) goes like the clappers and has never missed a beat, the 2nd one is a Sthil 029 Super I picked up from a clearance sale a few years ago, its a good ol saw too and very reliable and the 3rd one I picked up last week is a Jonsereds 621 which I paid $25 for! that thing goes like the clappers too, weighs a ton compared to the other 2 but I guess it should considering its made of Die Cast Magnesium etc, bugger all plastic in it, not surprising as its made in the 70's to early 80's.

Jonsereds 621


Anyway if ya got a chainsaw - post up some info on it.

[North East]

I am so over Stihl chainsaws. Had one for 15 years and just got sick of the high compression starting.

So I said I'm over this and got a Husqvarna, decompression button and all the good gear….and a muzzle brake on the top.

[bigfellascott]

Love it! - Hows the Husky go? That ol Jonsereds starts first pull of the cord, not bad for an 30yr old saw I believe Husky bought out Jonsereds years ago too.

[Harronek]

I've got a few Stihl saws , but haven't really got any pics of them other than this one which was actually meant to be of the knife not the saws .



Ken

[bigfellascott]

How do you find the Sthils Ken alright? that one of mine seems to go well and does the job without fuss.

[Harronek]

How do you find the Sthils Ken alright? that one of mine seems to go well and does the job without fuss.

I've only ever owned Stihl saws so can't really compare them to anything else .
None of my saws are huge , because I have no need for a big mother .
Part of my businesses contract is tree removal , but I limit the size of the trees felled to no bigger than about 400mm at the base for liability and insurance reasons .
I use the Mini Boss saws , because they are cheap to buy , are light to carry , try carrying a big saw all day up and down banks while wearing all the safety gear in in mid to high 30's that we get here for quite a bit of the year . They seem reliable , all I've ever done to them is change the plugs and air filter screens .
When I bought them I was told by the shop that I should be buying their commercial series of saws as the Mini Boss was designed for the home owner and not everyday use .
I've had my money's worth out of mine already and everyday is a bonus as far as I'm concerned , they show no signs of breaking anytime soon .
I'll buy them again , I'll just watch for the weekend warrior specials that Stihl have every year or so .

Ken

[1290]

That old Jonsereds would respond well to a resto....
I have an Oleomac, great piece of italian macinery...until I pulled on of the bar studs.... #$%^, would give me a workout to start her up (current have decomp buttons??)
So I bought a bunning special when I was in need of some chainsawin. apparently chainsaw are now a single use throw away item

[bigfellascott]

How do you find the Sthils Ken alright? that one of mine seems to go well and does the job without fuss.

I've only ever owned Stihl saws so can't really compare them to anything else .
None of my saws are huge , because I have no need for a big mother .
Part of my businesses contract is tree removal , but I limit the size of the trees felled to no bigger than about 400mm at the base for liability and insurance reasons .
I use the Mini Boss saws , because they are cheap to buy , are light to carry , try carrying a big saw all day up and down banks while wearing all the safety gear in in mid to high 30's that we get here for quite a bit of the year . They seem reliable , all I've ever done to them is change the plugs and air filter screens .
When I bought them I was told by the shop that I should be buying their commercial series of saws as the Mini Boss was designed for the home owner and not everyday use .
I've had my money's worth out of mine already and everyday is a bonus as far as I'm concerned , they show no signs of breaking anytime soon .
I'll buy them again , I'll just watch for the weekend warrior specials that Stihl have every year or so .

Ken

That's good to hear Ken, I hear you re weight, lighter the better if your using them all day every day. That Jonsereds is bloody heavy compared to the others but not a real concern for me as I only use it for wood cutting duties (trees on the ground already) but if I was using it on a daily basis I wouldn't be using it! fark that for a joke.

To be honest I really enjoy using the Olemac the best, it's light and really punches above its weight and cuts quicker, I've cut up a whole massive gumtree that fell down in the wind years ago, would have been around 600mm at the base but the little Olemac soon had it sorted.

[bigfellascott]

That old Jonsereds would respond well to a resto....
I have an Oleomac, great piece of italian macinery...until I pulled on of the bar studs.... #$%^, would give me a workout to start her up (current have decomp buttons??)
So I bought a bunning special when I was in need of some chainsawin. apparently chainsaw are now a single use throw away item

Yeah mate I will give the top cover a spray paint with silver again, the rest is in very good condition considering its age, the pic is how I got it, I've since given it a good clean and the red paint is in very good condition so no need to touch it.

I took it down to the local Husky Dealer and he reckoned they were excellent saws and the professional version as such, so built to work and last, she's certainly still going strong and even he said its in excellent condition and couldn't believe I picked it up for $25! - he wasn't the only one! The bars in excellent condition (very heavy too) the oiler works perfectly, theirs nothing on it that doesn't work or is broken, only thing its missing is the spike on the front (not sure of its correct name) but it wouldn't take much to make one up or possibly mod an existing one to suit.

Everythings a throw away these days, which really annoys me, I like to buy things to keep but its getting harder to do that these days with the way things are made to have a short life span and the fact they are designed to be tossed when something breaks.

My brother bought a Chinese saw a while back, lasted 1 season before it crapped out! cost him around $100 so no real surprises there I guess. Really when you think about it its such a gross waste of precious resources.

[North East]

:lol: Love it! - Hows the Husky go? That ol Jonsereds starts first pull of the cord, not bad for an 30yr old saw I believe Husky bought out Jonsereds years ago too.

This is a Husqvarna 455 Rancher Auto Tune with a 20' bar. Decompression switch makes it easy to start…a nice change from the old Stihl. Only brought it a short time ago and sold the old Stihl Farm Boss to a mate. Plenty of power and cuts well. Tried a few plunge cuts with it the other day, no problem.

This is the whole thing with a spare chain.

[mausermate]

Just a plain old Stihl man here. The new 66 is awesome.

[bigfellascott]

Some nice saws here fella's - keep em coming.

[Chronos]

I bought a used stihl last year as my first saw, just something to put in the 4wd for camping trips, you know a bit of firewood on friday for the weekend then to clear a track if required. I bought a used ms180 and had it serviced. had trouble getting it to idle but it it ran ok at first....then it stopped

got it home, pulled the plug, hole in the piston. when i started stripping it i saw that "someone" had left one nut off the airbox/carby screws, probably caused it to suck a bit of air and run it lean.

so i ordered a new piston and rings and went back to the service guy and he offered me a new ms180c (tool less chain tensioner) that wasn't running. i planned to swap the carby and ignition from the old saw but soon found out why it wasn't running, some clown had burned out the crank, probably reving it with the chain brake on

this time i hit the spring chainsaw sales and bought a new husky 336, the baby for $249, husky bar oil and 2 stroke oil added another 40 bucks but also lifted the factory warantee to 5 years, hard to beat for under $300

i bought a talon box for about half what the husky box cost. so far it's taken down one 4m tree at home and cut a bit of firewood at mudgee, i'll drain it now and put it away for the summer

Chronos





if anyones interested the stihl stuff is for sale, old bar has been linished, the other is a new bar and 2 chains are worth more than what i paid for both saws. make me an offer....will accept beer or hunt invitations

[bigfellascott]

That Husky looks about the size of the little Oleomac I have, might be one size smaller, but I reckon the little saws are perfect for what you bought it for.

[Chronos]

That Husky looks about the size of the little Oleomac I have, might be one size smaller, but I reckon the little saws are perfect for what you bought it for.

Yeah the 236 has a 14 " bar and is light weight, like all the "toy" saws it's mostly plastic.

However I know a bloke that sold 17 of them to a large fencing crew, in two years of running most of them daily they've had one failure and it was replaced under warrantee

Chronos

[North East]

I wouldn't go less than a 20" bar especially for getting rid of trees across tracks. Make sure you get wedges as well…nothing worse than getting the bar stuck. Also a good idea to do a cross cut and felling course to understand the pressure points on trees and how to relieve the stress . Get used to using the top of the bar on under cuts. Understand kick back dangers and how to avoid them….and wear chaps.

[bigfellascott]

I wouldn't go less than a 20" bar especially for getting rid of trees across tracks. Make sure you get wedges as well…nothing worse than getting the bar stuck. Also a good idea to do a cross cut and felling course to understand the pressure points on trees and how to relieve the stress . Get used to using the top of the bar on under cuts. Understand kick back dangers and how to avoid them….and wear chaps.

Thanks for those tips NE, some good advice there, you're right about the bars being a PITA when they get wedged (happened a couple of times over the years but I'm learning to avoid such issues these days (well most of the time)

They can be very dangerous the ol Chainsaw, I know of one fella who spend a day or so trapped under a tree he was cutting down, bloody thing spiraled as it came down and changed direction on him which resulted in him being pinned under up by the arm, bloody lucky not to have been killed but has lost the use of his arm pretty much, he can still bloody shoot alright

One very lucky man and serves as a reminder to not go cutting trees down on your own, I hate going out and cutting wood thats down on my own as things can go wrong and with chainsaws that can have some rather devastating results when they do.

[Chronos]

I wouldn't go less than a 20" bar especially for getting rid of trees across tracks. Make sure you get wedges as well…nothing worse than getting the bar stuck. Also a good idea to do a cross cut and felling course to understand the pressure points on trees and how to relieve the stress . Get used to using the top of the bar on under cuts. Understand kick back dangers and how to avoid them….and wear chaps.

Thanks NE

The guy I know services saws for pro guys up around the New England and he said all those guys are going to smaller lighter saws. His comments were along the lines of you can still fell a 36" tree with a 16" bar it just takes more cuts.

He has a massive pile of 009's he's traded in for smaller pro saws.

I'll definitely grab some wedges for the kit and I've already looked at chaps (there's a great demo of chaps on one if the saw safety vids) but at this stage I won't be doing any felling on any of the places I hunt or camp. I've been wielding a 9" angle grinder in my trade for nearly 25 years so I'm well aware of the dangers and energy developed during a kick back. I'm quite safety conscious myself.

Chronos

[North East]

This is a pretty informative video on chainsaw use, albeit a bit long. But it's appropriate to any chainsaw, be it Husqvarna, Stihl or whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUW7JNk ... XWBq_8gBzw

[bigfellascott]

Nice video N/E - thanks for that mate.

What do people use to sharpen their chains? I've got a couple of these for the diff chains and they are fantastic, I can highly recommend them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucIpjJ-BNWQ

[Warrigul]

Thanks NE

The guy I know services saws for pro guys up around the New England and he said all those guys are going to smaller lighter saws. His comments were along the lines of you can still fell a 36" tree with a 16" bar it just takes more cuts.

He has a massive pile of 009's he's traded in for smaller pro saws.

I'll definitely grab some wedges for the kit and I've already looked at chaps (there's a great demo of chaps on one if the saw safety vids) but at this stage I won't be doing any felling on any of the places I hunt or camp. I've been wielding a 9" angle grinder in my trade for nearly 25 years so I'm well aware of the dangers and energy developed during a kick back. I'm quite safety conscious myself.

Chronos

If you don't know anything about a subject then for gods sake don't mislead others.

-Anything smaller than an old 009 isn't worth having.

-Anyone who tackles a 3' tree with a 16" saw is asking for trouble,

-A 9" grinder kickback bears absolutely no relationship to a chainsaw.

As far as a small engine mechanic's opinion, many-not all- seem to have done most of their falling and blocking at the sales desk, out of the three in my area only one actually has a forestry background.

[North East]

Nice video N/E - thanks for that mate.

What do people use to sharpen their chains? I've got a couple of these for the diff chains and they are fantastic, I can highly recommend them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucIpjJ-BNWQ

I use a 3/16 " file at an angle of 30 degrees. That's appropriate for the chains I use. Also a depth gauge and a flat file. If it starts going around in circles while cutting I have a mate who has an Oregon bench grinder that will get it back on track. I always carry spare chains though in case I hit dirt which blunts them almost immediately.

[Warrigul]

Nice video N/E - thanks for that mate.

What do people use to sharpen their chains? I've got a couple of these for the diff chains and they are fantastic, I can highly recommend them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucIpjJ-BNWQ

The 2 in 1 was easy when I used one at our local dealer and if I only ran standard chains and angles I would buy one(doing the depth guages is a pain)but they are no good on the skip chains I mostly run. I also cut a bit of dry wood at times and run the tooth angle at 20-25 degrees so it lasts a bit longer.

I am stuck with standard files and guides. I prefer to sharpen in a vice on the bench and usually take spare chains.

[bigfellascott]

Nice video N/E - thanks for that mate.

What do people use to sharpen their chains? I've got a couple of these for the diff chains and they are fantastic, I can highly recommend them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucIpjJ-BNWQ

The 2 in 1 was easy when I used one at our local dealer and if I only ran standard chains and angles I would buy one(doing the depth guages is a pain)but they are no good on the skip chains I mostly run. I also cut a bit of dry wood at times and run the tooth angle at 20-25 degrees so it lasts a bit longer.

I am stuck with standard files and guides. I prefer to sharpen in a vice on the bench and usually take spare chains.

Yeah I usually have a few spares in the kit too, saves mucking around out in the field sharpening them, I too do the sharpening using a vice, so much easier when the chainsaw is held solidly.

[North East]

Learn or get shown how to do a plunge or bore cut. This is vital in some felling situations to create a trigger. Probably best to get shown by someone experienced in this cut. There is a very high risk of kickback if you stuff it up.

[Kater]

So I said I'm over this and got a Husqvarna, decompression button and all the good gear….and a muzzle brake on the top.

Duh, every chainsaw needs a muzzle brake

[bigfellascott]

Gave the Ol Girl a bit of a paint job and clean.

BEFORE




AFTER

[1290]

good stuff BFS, maybe you can come over and fix my 'mac now!

[bigfellascott]

good stuff BFS, maybe you can come over and fix my 'mac now!

what have ya done to the Mac mate?

[bigfellascott]

This bloke loves his Mac too - NOT! they sound like a PITA to work on, as he said no wonder they all look new when they are that difficult to maintain and repair!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sg_XgfTqFM