Brent Nowell
Addicted to ArboristSite
Bit the bullet on this saw, I now have my dream milling machine... got a grant for plumbing school so I spent it on what I loved. My wife was not impressed.
Bought a 42” Oregon bar in 404 with a stihl milling chain. However the guys at the store only put 120 links together instead of 122, I knew something was wrong when I couldn’t get the chain on after 20 minutes...
Funny cause something happens every time I get a saw, something doesn’t line up and I end up not being able to run it...
put on a 20 just cause it was easy to maneuver and had a hell of a time getting the clutch cover on, found that the chip deflector is quite literally of a terrible design. It blocks almost the full free area of the throat for chips to escape. I tried wrapping my head around it for 20 minutes fitting the cover on and off and on again and came to conclusion that it would be best to trim it. I trimmed it in line with the cover for maximum clearance, but the bosses that guide the deflector on the oil pump housing and cover are still blocking a large amount...
before I make any permanent changes to the cover and pump I decided I should put it in wood first. The deflector is a piece of rubber and shouldn’t be hard to replace if I made a mistake.
I figured I would post some info that I could not find on the forum and maybe show people what they get when they buy this saw.
Facts you may not know
this saw has an Oiler dump lever, similar to a manual Oiler but toggled either on or off. It locks into position by pushing it to the right, to release push the lever itself towards the case and it unlocks. I played around with it and the cable doesn’t even move in the sheath, it seems like it’s jammed up. Before I take it apart and see exactly how it works, I’ll run the saw on the lowest Oiler setting and see if the switch dumps it out or not while running.
This saw has a throttle lock! Been a while since I’ve seen that! Looks like a high idle lock, works the same as the oldies!
This saw has a massive chain brake spring, that is quite sensitive to even the slightest forward movement.
This saw is still made in Sweden, surprising...
This saw drank a quart of fuel and still had room for more... never seen a full husky can gone in one pour....
This saws Oiler really like on the highest setting. Much more than the 395, bars 36” plus should not be a problem milling.
This saws muffler is the size of a baby’s head! I have never seen a muffler this big on a saw before!
This saw does top out at 9000rpm
not gonna tune this out side of wood. I’m really curious if it will make power at above 9k in wood.... I ordered an adjustable carb from mastermind which is in the works so before I really put this through it’s paces in cold weather I’ll wait. With the fixed jet I’m just running husky 50:1 fuel right now for break in, looking at the plug from my initial run the jet is sized rich. At least for 3500’ @ -10C (14F)
It’s too bad if your looking to buy this , it really does seem to need modifications to reach its full potential. There is no adjustable H jet, for a saw this big and this expensive that really sucks. I’m sure the EPA gave husky a choice, it was this or it was a cat and or a strato design.. husky probably chose this route at least thinking that people this serious about a saw will have the know how and connections to get an adjustable carb.
It’s yet to be seen if the 9k limit is a burden in wood or not in stock saw form I’ll update when I know.
