046 Question

[jetmecanic]

I have a question for the group. A guy that I just met has a tree service here in the Atlanta area. He runs 046"s (has 35 of them) and I asked if he did any mods to them or just run em'. He said all he has ever done was to remove the spark screen as soon as he bought one. I asked why and he said that they get clogged all the time. I suggested that it is probably poor quality mix oil too much oil in his premix. He did not agree. He said these saws are only lasting him about 18 mos. I could not believe it according to the life most of the posters on here. Any thoughts?
I will definitely pass the info on. Thx!!

 

[bwalker]

asked why and he said that they get clogged all the time. I suggested that it is probably poor quality mix oil too much oil in his premix. He did not agree. He said

Poor quality oil causes deposits, the amount of oil doesnt. Good quality oils can run clean at 16:1. Now if he is only getting a year and half out of his saws doing tree service work he has problems. I would look at the people running them and the maintenance they recieve as the reason for there short life.

 

[TonyM]

I did some cutting of logs into firewood for a guy that has a lawn and turf business that also sells firewood. I did all the cutting with a stock 372XP. The owner normally has his employees cut the logs with the company's 066 Stihls. The guy was absolutley amazed at how fast I cut up the logs, and was convinced he was buying Husqvarna next time around because his 066's weren't holding up at all. Now, all the cutting was done on either cement or stone, and I was very careful not to hit any of it, and I usually give three strokes to the chain every two tanks of fuel. I asked him how often his guys were sharpening chains, and he said that he had a grinder and would sharpen once for each day. Those poor 066's. They must have been cutting half the day with a chain that looked like the one on my kids toy chainsaw. That'll kill any saw. I wouldn't worry too much unless the owner of the saw is the only operator, and he says the saw won't hold up.

 

[treeclimber165]

All good responses so far. I agree that crappy mix oil will clog a screen. But leaving the mufflers in their stock (extremely restricted) state and dogging the saws in hard cuts with dull chain will kill ANY saw.

Too bad this dude seems so unreceptive to your advice. But it is his money and if he enjoys throwing it away and burning up his saws, then he will only resent you for pushing unwanted advice on him. If he WAS receptive to advice, I'd teach him how to use a file. That will help his saws as much or more than any muffler mods.

 

[stihltech]

saw life

I had a few loggers that hired cutters and supplied them saws for a while. Those saws were not maintained and had short lives. He then supplied the first saw and in the end only hired cutters with their own saw. His repair bills went down drasticaly and saw life more than tripled.
If the cutter has to pay for the equipment, they will soon learn that maintenance pays. Or they spend a lot of money on saws.

 

[bwalker]

ST, whats the average life of a well maintained Stihl pro saw when used for logging?

 

[Tony Snyder]

Ben , you didn't ask me, and I don't sell Stihls.

But for what its worth I would make an all around averaged guess of a saw per year per man. The saws ,of course, get a lot of abuse. Most of them keep them sharp, but man, some of the stuff they use for fuel mix. It's real popular around here to get 2 cycle oil at the WalMart.

Many pro saws seem to succumb to accidental death if they are old, or theft if they still look good.
A decent thief could get a half dozen saws a day from trucks parked around restruants, at least for a while.

 

[bwalker]

Tony, In all actuality Walmart aircooled oil is as good as any factory mix. Both can be outperformed by similar priced products IMO. Walmarts super tech line is actually shell products BTW.

 

[JimL]

I still got the same 066 I bought back in 1999 when i got serious about cutting, used the saw almost every day since then. Still runs good, good power.

 

[jetmecanic]

Went over to this guys shop where he keeps all his trucks tonight. His saws are just poorly maintained. We talked about the kind of oil he is using for his premix and he said he has one of the guys do all the mixing for him. We looked around and found a gallon of 2 cycle oil from Walmart. He was apparently under the impression that this guy was using a synthetic oil for all the saws. Needless to say he was not happy. Convinced him to make sure his guys are using synthetic oil and gave me one of the saws to mod the muffler and let him see the difference. Also walked away with 7 046's that he had said were no longer usable to him, so his mechanic says. I think his mech might have a little explaining to do tomorrow!!!!! Thanks for all the great replies as usual!!!!!!

 

[Chainsaw_Maniac]

Based on my experince cutting firewood for sale I'd say a saw will last for 500 full cords before it is used up if properly maintained. That's a rough estmate though, beacause in an average year I will use several differnat saws for differnat purposes.

You gotta be careful though when people are using saws that belong to their boss. I had a teenager this spring working for me that would hit alot of rocks while cutting. I also caught him running a saw with no bar oil one time and he said he "forgot to fill it". I think dirty air filters, dull chains, and improper fuel mx are the main causes of short chainsaw life span.

Hitting rocks shortens a saws life span because it makes the chainsaw dull, and the guy using it might try and continue running it rather than admit it needs sharpening (if he doesn't own it).