Stihl MS251
Husky 445
Dolmar 421
Mods here are shit
Some other saw
Inspired by this thread, I picked up an MS200t off fleabay. Finally used it yesterday. Didn't get into anything big, but dang, it runs sweet. Disappeared the stuff I wanted gone in a hurry. I don't remember my dad's small saws doing anything like that when I lived at home. No ragrets!
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Not another dime.
Jelly. How much did it run ya?Originally Posted by OlongJohnson
#RESIST
It was $470 shipped at the time, which wasn't the cheapest price, but it is cleaner than many of them were. Showed up with a bent bar, so I threw on a new Stihl part. After buying a bar-chain combo on fleabay, I discovered that my local http://www.cypressace.com/ Ace Hardware actually had better prices on bars and chains than I could find online.
It's an awesome store, left over from before all the freeways were built, when Cypress was a rural community well outside Houston, rather than a relatively close-in commuter suburb. It has great people and a ton of stuff, including quality tools and hardware, that you'll never find at the big box stores. Unfortunately, anything it has that HD or Lowe's also sell is significantly more expensive.
More than I had to spend to get the jobs I currently have done, but I'm painfully aware of the ongoing death of quality. I can't tell y'all how many things I've worn out and been unable to replace with an item of equal content and quality when I wanted to. So I kinda looked at it as an investment in a ticket to the past. Locking in the right tool for the job, while it can still be had.
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Not another dime.
Since it’s been so long without any activity...
The best all-round saw we have at work is our MS216CM saws with 20 inch bars.
The saws I use the most are MSA200C with 14 inch bars (battery powered), and the MS362CM saw with a 20” bar The MS661CM (36” bar) is a bear to run on anything besides vertical. A lightweight bar would be nice. Two days of running it for 8 hours a day wore holes in the webs of the gloves from vibration.
Unless your work is solely on dead/decayed stuff, I really recommend a ful chisel chain (I don’t prefer safety chains because they don’t clear the chips as fast).
These battery saws are amazing - especially the pole saws. They all run a narrow curf low profile chain and just cut.....so well and fast. I typically switch batteries at lunch, and never fully drain two batteries when I’m in the bucket (I get gas powered once the diameter is above 12 inches). It’s a really nice feature to not have to pull start before every cut (also really dangerous, the saw is always on if the battery is in - 2 stroke the motor has to be running).
If you’re going to have just one saw, the MS261CM is amazing. If you’re going to be doing ground processing as well, get the MS362CM - the extra torque makes it so aggressive and hard to stall the chain (even if it’s only .7 more horsepower). The Husky Mark2 series are supposed to be impressive, I just don’t know anybody that has one that will let me demo them. I’m looking at their saws for my personal saws at work, if I can test them first.
If you have a lot of spare coin, look at the new MS462CM - same weight as the 362 essentially, but with 6 horse versus 4.7
Last edited by jeep45238; 03-23-2019 at 12:14 PM.
I am a lifelong Stihl fan. A close second would be the Husky option. If I was shopping, I would not even be looking at other brands.
Only exception- you want a saw for stupid little stuff.....and use it every few years for an hour. Even then a used Stihl or Husqvarna would be better.
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Also - protective gear - wear it always. You’re not faster or stronger than the kickback even on a small saw (and those are the saws people get complacent with).
RAC chaps are amazing. Husqvarna chainsaw gloves are pretty decent. Put a TQ on the chap waist belt near the buckle. Steel toes are a minimum for foot ware, chainsaw shoes are even better. My helmet is a Petzl with 3M Peltor 31nrr earmuffs and a face visor, I also wear Surefire defenders when I’m running a saw all day. Elvex WELGG50 AirSpecs Steel Mesh Lens glasses to a superb job of keeping crap out of your eyes without fogging up. I also keep a combat dressing in my cargo pocket and a cellphone in the other. My climbing harness has a Spyderco rescue knife that lives on it in case a line or harness needs to go to get down safely.
This stuff is deadly - logging/aboriculture is the top industry for injuries and deaths. Struck-by incidents outnumber chainsaw incidents by a large portion.
Get educated - lots of good books. Learn rigging and wedges. Don’t cut faster than you can think. Listen to your gut. Know if something is beyond your skill, don’t try to bolster skill with equipment.
Be safe.
Last edited by jeep45238; 03-23-2019 at 02:02 PM.
I haven’t read the thread, so my apologies for redundancy:
Never work a chainsaw (or a chipper) alone. A slipup and you can bleed out from a wound that a buddy could do something about.
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
Very true. A struck by incident from falling deadwood can be fatal as well, buddy system all the way.
It’s also important to have sufficient medical gear on site, preferably on person, for hemorrhage control. With something that can cut a 20” tree to the ground in minutes with a dull chain, your body stands no chance and a slip up will be very bad. Chaps work - they saved one of my guys from a chain spinning down when he rested it ala low ready, no chaps would have meant a major laceration on the thigh under no throttle. A saw bucked during a stump kit and caught the owner just above the knee full throttle. The chains stopped and no physical injury in both cases.
My company thought that boo-boo first aid kits were sufficient. We’ve now got some good kit coming in from NAR and training scheduled for the whole crew. Make sure your partner knows how to use the med gear.
You can see my TQ belt mounted in the screen shot below when I was running a MS661CM (7.2 horsepower, 16.3 pound engine). My TQ goes in the bucket with me as well.
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Last edited by jeep45238; 03-24-2019 at 12:01 AM.
Another week or two and the snow will be gone enough to start back at the fuel reduction thinning on the property and heading out to the National Forest to cut firewood. Pretty excited about it.
I’ve watched all the you tube videos on the Stihl 462, looks like the saw to get. Add a lightweight bar and you’d be ripping. Maybe if overtime season is good to me, working on paying off the house so it is hard for me to make big purchases.
The mesh bug goggles have been a game changer running saws, typical safety glasses just underperform.
Gotta say I run a saw alone all the time. Need to figure out some additional controls to make sure it doesn’t go bad.
It's been 30 years since I routinely worked with a chain saw. I had a hardhat with attached earpro and a mesh full-face screen. That also made burning the brush pile tolerable. Only the bit-time pros had chippers then.
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
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