Thinking About Buying A Long Bar

Arrrggghhhh!! I was outbid on a 60" bar and chain combo on fleabay. Arrggghhh!

I have a 36" bar on my 394, but am worried about kickback when cutting root-balls into slabs so they can be cut again into firewood. There are alot of rootballs along the banks of the Kuskokwim because people around here don't have big saws. I do though so want to use it. I believe it would be easier to have a bar at least 60" long to just slab them babies rather than cutting one side, then the other.

Has anyone else done/do this? I would put the long bar on my 3120. Anyone have a long bar cluttering up the workshop that they would like to see go to a loving and caring home? Must be 0.063".

We got these at a low enough price that it would be worth experimenting.
http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=GBLB+60+HU63&catID=

Link count for that 60" bar

Grande Dog,

What is the link count on the 60" bar?

Thanks.

That is such a good deal I think I may have trouble sleeping tonight! Now all I have to do is make up a loop and stumps beware!! I have marked several stumps already, and yesterday I saw one that is going to use every single inch of this bar. This stump wood is good to save for the winter since it burns slow and hot. I am really looking forward to testing it with my Stihl .404 RS chain. I don't have skip or full-skip, so I'll go slow, but I have a feeling it should cut real well.

Still waiting on Parcel Post to get my 3120 to me.

Thanks for that link Grande Dog, you have definitely made my day!

Sawmill_Bill said:

Grande Dog,

What is the link count on the 60" bar?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

.404x172DL, I believe.

Nitroman said:

That is such a good deal I think I may have trouble sleeping tonight! Now all I have to do is make up a loop and stumps beware!! I have marked several stumps already, and yesterday I saw one that is going to use every single inch of this bar. This stump wood is good to save for the winter since it burns slow and hot. I am really looking forward to testing it with my Stihl .404 RS chain. I don't have skip or full-skip, so I'll go slow, but I have a feeling it should cut real well.

Still waiting on Parcel Post to get my 3120 to me.

Thanks for that link Grande Dog, you have definitely made my day!

Click to expand...

You WILL need full skip chain for that bar. I've tried full comp on my 60"/084, out of ignorance & inexperience. It wasn't fun, safe or smart.

Since you haven't used a 60" bar before, you should know that you cannot turn it sideways and have it unsupported!!!!!! The bar will bow and the chain will come flying back at you. You will need to start any sideways (felling) cuts with a shorter bar, then switch to the 60".

Read these threads, lots of good long bar info.

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=65162

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=61087

Ed

If I understand correctly, you haven't received the 3120 yet? If not, I would get some trigger time on it and then decide if you want a 60 inch bar. I find them a bit akward, but a 50 inch Cannon a dream (no sag).

Also, I decide years ago lif'es too short to cut up rootballs unless the wood is pretty darn special. Bits of mineral hide in them and often make cutting them even with semi chisel a real pain (dull chains).

Thanks for the advice Ed, I'll make a call to Madsen's for a length of chain.

Mr. Turner, no, unfortunately our friends at the P.O. are penalizing me for trying to save a few bucks. The first DB saw I bought was mailed on May 23, and showed up yesterday. Four weeks travel time. The 3120 was mailed roughly the same time so it should show up any day now. To compare this, I bought another DB and had it mailed Priority ($$$!!!), and it was here five (5) days after it was dropped at the P.O. I'll never mail anything Parcel Post again.:censored:

The cost difference between 60" Cannon ($350.00), and the GB ($90.00), is significant. There is a fellow on fleabay with a NOS Cannon 60" and it looks like a racing bar with the huge belly. I'd love to have it and would be willing to deal with the weight, but the cost is too much.

There is some wood along the shorelines that me and the wife cut and put into the boat when we are out and about, but for the most part, the big logs are snapped up on the way down by villagers along the river. Even so, it is not a hard job to cut several hundred pounds of smaller (10 inch), wood when looking for it. A fellow in my church had gone upriver and made a pretty significant raft of logs, including a 32" diameter (I measured it), that he was going to let me play with, but as time dragged by he decided to cut it all up so it would be dry by the end of the summer and cooler weather.
So now to the roots. I should take a photo or two of some of these. I think just two or three downward cuts, use the 394 with the 24" to make these into three pieces and I could drag the pieces into the boat.
I have told a couple people what I am going to do and they think I'm nuts. Oh well, I'll have the wood, and they won't. Want to bet next year I'll see some big saws on the river?

Besides, I think cutting up wood is fun.

Waiting that long takes alot of the fun out of buying stuff.

I think cutting up big wood is fun, too, so I get it completely. It is just that around here rootballs generally mean more grit.

With shorter bars I typically run Oregon or Stihl ES because of the lightness and good value, but with bars in the 50+ inch range I think the extra money for Cannon or something equivalent is worth it. The steel and wide belly make the bars so much stiffer that the I don't want to screw around with floppier bars. My time and safety is worth the extra money to me. I've seen guys with really long floppy bars have the chain jump off when they pulled the trigger because of the sag.

So I prefer to pay the price and buy a good bar (will last me the rest of my life with as little as I run really long bars). And I never attack wood without at least three chains on hand for a long bar (stuff happens) so even buying chain by the reel makes the cost of the bar itself only part of the story.

172 Drive links of .404.