Chainsaws and those who use them

[Daniel Cary]

Square ground semi skip .063 is a beast on just about anything other than really hard woods. 28” stihl, Tsumura, or Sugihara lightweight bar on a 70cc saw of your brand preference is about all you need for most anything under 50” in diameter.

Not sure if you’ve thought about it much, but I’ve noticed square ground chain is a lot easier to fix imperfect face cuts with. It doesn’t try and follow the existing cut if you undershot the first one a little bit, it just carves where ever you aim it. Which can be a little annoying when you’re bucking and you don’t get perfect alignment when finishing the cut from the opposite side. But it’s pretty rare I’m working on something big enough that it’s a struggle to align cuts with my 32” bar lol. Only downside is they dull faster than round grind, and have a lot more of a learning curve to sharpen properly. I’d love to get one of the simington sharpener grinders but at something like 1-2k, it’s a bit rich for my blood.

Thank you! that's interesting, "you're not chasing the cut so much with square ground". etc I ran it on that 500 with a Cannon Duralite. @Rifleman97, the dealer even asked how I liked that loop .. no compromise,


1990 Production Faller with an 084, unreal!

 

[Daniel Cary]

Production Faller with an 084. 1990
Unreal.

 

[Ravensview]

Chainsaw attachment for skil saw and Beam cutters one bought and one home made

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Welcome to winter in Northern Arizona !!!

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Jonsered CS2166. The best saw I ever had...

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My little helper...

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Almost too easy

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This will keep you in shape

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I remember the time when we used horses for that in the French Alps...

I got me one of them little helpers too, my sisters boy in an absolute rage that he can’t take his stihl into the school with him. I gave him the saw Christmas time and he’s hardly set it down sense.

 

[Daniel Cary]

I know there the same, but Jonsered's sound particularly better, imo.

 

[CM McKenzie]

Since we are throwing helpers in.

My little fence builder.

 

[Certus]

I have a Stihl and an electric Ryobi pole saw for around the house type chores. A buddy of mine has a hydraulic splitter, so I usually cut and split a cord of wood each year. It doesn't get that cold, that often, in Louisiana, so I don't burn a lot of wood.

I recently bought some land in Oklahoma, near where some of my kids and grandkids live. I wanted to do some clearing around the fence lines and also expand a couple of food plots. For about $2k, I had a guy with a mulcher on a track skid steer work for 2 days. It was amazing results and money well spent.

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I’ve got about 500 hours on one of those. They’re really good and can take down some decent size trees, too.

 

[.300RUM]

Stihl 211, 440 magnum, Homelite super xl-12

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Stihl 211, 440 magnum, Homelite super xl-12

Is the homelite red or blue

 

[.300RUM]

Had both, the red one is still on the farm, the blue one went away some time ago. Great saws, just could not keep up with the times.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

they predate me father spoke highly of them but by the time I was in the picture he was running husky 266s had a few 162s left still working.

I’ve got a few homelites under the bench in the shop along with some old macs and a few pioneers.

 

[ZG47]

Since we are throwing helpers in.View attachment 679763My little fence builder.

Is she absolutely ruthless when it comes to checking your fence line straightness?

 

[Tam Dl]

Could it be quarter sawn? Would get clear of the rotten heart wood.

I mentioned cutting the heart out in smaller logs, of course the kerf doesn't get everything. But on larger logs I case the heart, and usually I will end up removing it, then the side pieces of are quartered which is important for a lot of projects. For instance the framing of cabinet doors. Or parts of musical instruments, etc... Then there rest is flat sawn for efficiency and better figure. In theory one could do a classic quartering job, but that does waste a lot of material, just because of all the cuts. Again, one can rip it into quarters (4 pieces), then proceed on a stationary band resaw.

 

[Tam Dl]

If one has short logs, one can usually just split them, either with power or manual methods. But logs, even as short as 3 fee, can be heck to split if they are even slightly imperfect in the grain. The guys that do a lot of split work often buy veneer grade logs, which makes sense given their products, process, and the dollars they are trying to attract. But structurally split veneer logs are way overkill. So in a sense it is wasteful. They could be sawn. And they would be fine for any greenwood project.

So here is the deal: When one scarfs two pieces of wood together, say to lengthen some 1x1s to make a canoe rail. You need to make a 1x8 ratio scarf joint, and all will be well. Same with the runout, but normally one can get much better grain than 1x8 in a board.

Then you get into aircraft, and it turns out they want a 1-20 scarf, at least for critical components. All the wood that goes into an aricraft needs to be tested and graded, so the higher standard is required.

Then you get into archery, and true, it is not traditionally scarfed, but you want the related degree of runout to be no worse than about 1 in 90. And they test every arrow not just every lot. Archery rules.

So how wood is cut or split should be relative to the project, but given that I got so far off track on this. Think about where you want the wrist of your next boomer to be relative to grain runout, given what is at stake on occasion. I have see a lot of grain that is very runout on rifles. In the wrist, straight is good, and following the shape is even better.

 

[WAB]

I love the collections and enthusiasm for the vintage chainsaws on this thread.

I moved to a rural location where I may have to cut 100 trees in a week, but then may not use a saw for 8 months. Due to my erratic service intervals, I got rid of all my gas chainsaws and got one of the new Stihl 300 M/C professional grade battery operated saws. It’s a beast for a battery operated saw. 18” bar. The battery will let me cut roughly 45 sixteen inch logs per charge and I have a few batteries for it.

My worst fear is having an emergency on the property where i need to buck up a tree that is blocking the driveway. (Happens every year) I’ve had too many clogged carbs due to stale ethanol fuel over the years.

TLDR; if you’re suspicious of battery operated saws and think they are consumer grade, times are changing. (I still wouldn’t endorse one if you use your chainsaw weekly, gas is better if used frequently)

Never, never, never use ethanol in small engines. Use non ethanol gas and add stabilizer if your use is intermittent. Your carb is likely plugging with the remains of gaskets and connectors.

 

[CM McKenzie]

Is she absolutely ruthless when it comes to checking your fence line straightness?

We are getting her trained. That girl loves everything ranch.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Never, never, never use ethanol in small engines. Use non ethanol gas and add stabilizer if your use is intermittent. Your carb is likely plugging with the remains of gaskets and connectors.

Only thing that saves me from headaches is frequent use, almost impossible to get ethanol free gas here and you’ve got to have a tail number registered for an airplane to buy av gas. I used to be able to get a few gallons a year to the drag track but the gentleman who was selling it passed on.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Since we are throwing helpers in.View attachment 679763My little fence builder.

What do fence posts run you there? I get 3$ a piece for them here 6’6” not peeled and 5$ peeled.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

What do fence posts run you there? I get 3$ a piece for them here 6’6” not peeled and 5$ peeled.View attachment 679800View attachment 679801

What do you cut for posts? Around here it’s hard to find a post that isn’t hedge, unless someone had a pile of old telephone poles or railroad ties.
Hedge doesn’t grow nearly that strait, but I don’t think there is a more rot proof wood.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

What do you cut for posts? Around here it’s hard to find a post that isn’t hedge, unless someone had a pile of old telephone poles or railroad ties.
Hedge doesn’t grow nearly that strait, but I don’t think there is a more rot proof wood.

Mostly black spruce or hemlock , those posts are cut out of a stand I’m thinning so they’ve been forced to grow straight and tall to compete with their neighbours. Starting to yield the benefits of silvaculture work we did in my early teens. Once the stand is thinned growth really takes off and it will be ready to harvest logs off of in 15 or so years. It was a really good system when we had a pulp mill every 15 years you harvest half the tract as pulp and then logs 15 years later the multigenerational outfits that embraced it early reaped the most benefits.