# MS660 compared to 3120XP



## zoulas (Aug 20, 2009)

Hello, new to the group. I most likely will buy one of these units. If anyone can tell me the pro's and con's. As far as I know , they are both great.Thanks


----------



## Nailsbeats (Aug 20, 2009)

zoulas said:


> Hello, new to the group. I most likely will buy one of these units. If anyone can tell me the pro's and con's. As far as I know , they are both great.Thanks



One's bigger, one's smaller, one says Stihl on it, one says Husqvarna. That's it in a nutshell. For milling I would want the biggest saw possible.


----------



## Freehand (Aug 20, 2009)

zoulas said:


> Hello, new to the group. I most likely will buy one of these units. If anyone can tell me the pro's and con's. As far as I know , they are both great.Thanks



I've read about the 3120 having a limited rev coil...a real PITA for the modders.

The 3120 is considerably bigger at 118.7 cc's but they're awful pricey...I would buy 2 660's for my money.


----------



## treeslayer (Aug 20, 2009)

not really comparable, 2 different sizes. I've owned an 880 and a powerported 3120, and both rocked. 

The 660 is better for lots of extended bucking, due to much lower weight. heck, I pull em up in the tree all the time. 

milling? go with horsepower.


----------



## BobL (Aug 20, 2009)

freehandslabber said:


> I've read about the 3120 having a limited rev coil...a real PITA for the modders.



Yep the 3120 is coil limited to 10,000 rpm, and it has no H adjustment either.

The weight difference is very significant, the 3120 is 22.9 lbs, 660 is 16.5 lbs

The 3120 has inboard drive sprocket whereas the 660 has an outboard.

But these saws are in quite different different classes, you should be comparing the 880 with the 3120.


----------



## glennschumann (Aug 20, 2009)

I use an 066, and based on the weight of the 3120xp (I have one of those too), I prefer to stick to the 066 as much as possible. The 066 is ballenced well on a 36" granberg mill. I'd start with the 660. If they are both used and cheap, get them both and start your collection...


----------



## sketchtrack (Aug 21, 2009)

I've got a 660 I use on a granberg 36". It's a great saw, but I wish I had gone one more step up.


----------



## BobL (Aug 21, 2009)

sketchtrack said:


> I've got a 660 I use on a granberg 36". It's a great saw, but I wish I had gone one more step up.



A 36" conventional style mill like an alaskan means a max of about 30" wide cuts. On a 30" wide log, half the cuts will be 25" wide or narrower, and in the sort of soft stuff available in your neck of the globe an operator just won't find much of a difference in cut times between a 90 cc saw and a 120 cc saw, at these widths. The bigger saws only really sing a significantly better tune when you start talking big logs and big bars, and even then if the wood is soft don't expect a huge difference in cutting time.

If an operator is finding a difference in cutting times then I usually ask;
1) How well/often is the operator sharpening their chain(s)?
A bigger saw can perhaps push a blunter chain through a log than a smaller saw but all that does in the long term is blunten the chain even more, so the operator has more to sharpen later. 

2) What raker heights is the operator using?
Using a single raker height means the saw will cut slower and slower as the cutter gets shorter. There are plenty of posts about this on this site

3) How easily does the the mill bog down on the side of your logs
Some operators confuse slow sawing speed with the saw bogging down on the side of log and think this is due to saw power problems when it's due to mill design problems. 

In the long run the small amount of time I save on each cut with a bigger saw is really quite marginal compared to the other activities and I don't see a lot more slabs piling up at the end of the day when cutting smaller logs.


----------



## excess650 (Aug 21, 2009)

I have a 3120, 066 with big bore kit, and a 660. The longest bar I have at present is 36" for the 066/660and it allows me about 31"" max width cut with my 36" Alaskan. A 42" bar would allow the full 35" possible cut.

Having run these saws side by side on the mill, I'm really impressed with how well the 066BB works. It has noticeably more torque than the 660(with tightened squish for higher compression), but still won't match the 3120.

True, my 3120 is a mid 90s saw with the higher rev limit coil, so stronger than current 3120s. That said, as a milling/bucking combination saw, I prefer the 066BB.

If buying new, the MS880 a better choice than the 3120. If you're not planning on milling beyond the 36" Alaskan, I would opt for an 066/660 or Husqvarna 390xp/395xp.

Comparing prices, there is a big difference from MS660/390xp/395xp as compared to MS880 or 3120. The difference is enough to make up for the price of an Alaskan Mill, Mini Mill, various lengths of bars/chains, etc. and still have $ left in pocket.

On the Chainsaw board you'll see varying opinions of the aftermarket big bore kits. Mine was installed unmodified on a decent 066. It has been used almost eclusively for milling, and still impresses me whenever I run it. If it was going to fail, it should have by now because I put it on the mill within a couple of tanks of fuel run, and have milled in hot weather. I did tune it to keep maximum revs to about 11K, and run a synthetic blend at 40-1. It works for me.


----------



## sketchtrack (Aug 21, 2009)

BobL said:


> A 36" conventional style mill like an alaskan means a max of about 30" wide cuts. On a 30" wide log, half the cuts will be 25" wide or narrower, and in the sort of soft stuff available in your neck of the globe an operator just won't find much of a difference in cut times between a 90 cc saw and a 120 cc saw, at these widths. The bigger saws only really sing a significantly better tune when you start talking big logs and big bars, and even then if the wood is soft don't expect a huge difference in cutting time.
> 
> If an operator is finding a difference in cutting times then I usually ask;
> 1) How well/often is the operator sharpening their chain(s)?
> ...



I milled a large white oak that was dead before it fell, and sat for a while, so the tree had already dried some. I milled the absolute largest width planks possible on a 36" granberg, and it was very slow on the bigger width. I just figured why not have a little more power.


----------

