CHAINSAW AUCTION WEST VIRGINIA STYLE PIONEER 610s, CONTRA, MACs, HOMELITES

[7oaks]

In a town near our place in WV a Honda and Stihl dealership went bankrupt about a year ago. The owner had died about 2 years before that and left it to his family who didn’t seem capable of managing it.

The deceased owner, besides being a dealer, was a known “hoarder” of motorcycles and chainsaws. Note I didn’t say he was a “collector” because he displayed few and kept the rest in an old shed/barn for decades untouched.

I waited 3 years for there to be an auction of his chainsaws and just luckily stumbled upon it one weekend when I went to town. Early Saturday morning I was there to register. There were 50, mostly antique, chainsaws, 250 collectors’ motorcycles (some still in crates after 20 to 30 years and lots of bike parts and accessories.

I immediately spotted a couple of chainsaws I was interested in – a nice Pioneer 600,

a hardly used looking Mac 250

and most of all a damn fine looking Contra.

All filthy after sitting unprotected in a barn for 3 to 4 decades.

The pictures show the saws better than they looked in the shop because they were in a back wall that had very little light. My strobe lit them up You can see the years of encrusted gunk on them.

I had to wait through the morning until the chainsaws were auctioned off in between motorcycles. The highest bidder number I spotted was 963. There were bidders from across the country with hundreds of large trailers parked all over the small town.

The bidding on the chainsaws started slow as they brought out the least desirable ones first – most going for $25 or so. I had hope. Then they brought out a couple (all brand new or nearly so) 028s, 024s and 026s that all went for the $300 range. At that point I was getting nervous, as they still hadn’t brought out any of the saws I was interested in.

Finally, they brought out the Pioneer 600 I thought looked nice. The bidding started at something like $15 and ended at $50 with my bidder number on it. Two more, pretty beat up, Pioneer 600s came in short order and both went for around $50 as well – without me bidding on them. Then the Mac 250 came up and again started at somewhere around $20. It ended at $50 with my bidding number on it.

I was sweating bullets by now wondering if I’d get the Contra for nearly the same price and then it was there. The bidding started at $50 and before long another gentleman, behind me, and I were the only bidders. I had set my limit at around $150 but was quickly past that number and hung in there until my final bid of $475. He immediately bid $500 and I was out. I stopped to talk with him on my way out and he said he owns 5 stores and was not going to restore the saw just display it. In other words it was a tax-deductible item for him. I don’t know where he would have stopped.

Anyway, I was happy to finally get a Pioneer 600 and the Mac 250 just seemed too nice to pass up. I was broken hearted that I didn’t get the Contra but, hey, I have four at home already.

Here’s another interesting saw that I thought about bidding on but didn’t because I was saving my money for the Contra. I would have if it had been offered after the Contra.

I’ll be posting pics of the Pioneer and Mac in a short while showing them all spit polished! LOL




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[Jacob J.]

Sounds like a pretty awesome auction. I would have loved to see the bikes. I'm switching over from vintage saws to vintage bikes.

 

[cpr]

Any other pics of the one you wanted to bid on, but didn't? Appears to be a PP powered gear drive, but one I haven't seen before.

 

[7oaks]

A couple more photos

Here is the Pioneer once I got it home. It turned out to be a model 610 not a 600.

Here's the MAC 250 cleaned up a bit:

Next will be pics of the cleaning, painting, etc.













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[7oaks]

It was a great auction

Sounds like a pretty awesome auction. I would have loved to see the bikes. I'm switching over from vintage saws to vintage bikes.

You would have loved it but left broke. LOL Here's a link to the auction with pictures. I don't know how much longer it will be online.

Public Auction Sale: The Estate of Skip Miller On location Skips Honda - Keyser, WV

Any other pics of the one you wanted to bid on, but didn't? Appears to be a PP powered gear drive, but one I haven't seen before.

Sorry I only took the one photo of it. Don't know why I didn't take more photos of all the saws, just lazy I guess. I thought it was a Homie but am not sure now.

 

[Guido Salvage]

The 758G is a Sears saw, with a 95 cc Power Products engine.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Here is the Pioneer once I got it home. It turned out to be a model 610 not a 600.

Here's the MAC 250 cleaned up a bit:

Next will be pics of the cleaning, painting, etc.


Very nice catch,...the easy way to tell a 600 at a glance is that it has a solid green tree on the engine shroud, the 610 has the tree outlined like the one you ended up with. The 600 came with a green tree on the recoil also but the starter mechanism was not up to the task, the plastic/nylon pawl would shear off, so they were mostly refitted with a Fairbanks Morse recoil assembly.

 

[Jacob J.]

You would have loved it but left broke. LOL Here's a link to the auction with pictures. I don't know how much longer it will be online.

Yep- I would have tried for the CB450 and one of the Triumph Bonnevilles for sure if I had the cash.

 

[7oaks]

The rest of the story

So I get the Pioneer 610 into the shop and start cleaning it up and the first thing I see is that the chain sprocket has almost zero wear. The previous owner couldn't have run more than a tank or two through it.

The handle bar is pretty rusty...Wonder how I'm going to clean it?

Worst of all the settlement bowl is frozen in place.

I get on line to AS and get several suggestions on how to unfreeze it from members who've faced the problem before. I end up trying one suggestion - tapping it with a soft hammer. I do this and after a half dozen light raps it pops free to reveal this mess of sappy/congealed varnish. UGH!!!

A an hour or so in the ultrasonic cleaner and it is like new.

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[barneyrb]

I would have been all over that Yankee, Trail Breaker, Suzuki Wankel, Trail 90, Whizzer, and that old Triumph trail bike. Yeah, I'd be broke when I left there. If there had been a Bultaco there I would have emptied the ATM account too.....

 

[7oaks]

I would have been all over that Yankee, Trail Breaker, Suzuki Wankel, Trail 90, Whizzer, and that old Triumph trail bike. Yeah, I'd be broke when I left there. If there had been a Bultaco there I would have emptied the ATM account too.....

Yep- I would have tried for the CB450 and one of the Triumph Bonnevilles for sure if I had the cash.

For me it was the Honda 400 four cylinder. I had one but had to sell it when I moved to Panama for 7 years, back in 1985. Mine was blue - much prettier than this ugly yellow but hey the tank could be repainted. However the wife was ready to leave me so I paid for the two saws and left without knowing what it went for.

 

[7oaks]

The 758G is a Sears saw, with a 95 cc Power Products engine.

You know, that sounds right Guido. Thanks!

 

[7oaks]

Finishing up a bit

I have IPLs for the 600, 610 and 620 and none of them show this air filter. Any ideas?

So I made a major mistake in cleaning the saw. I started with too powerful a cleaner and it started bubbling the paint off of the clutch cover. Boy was I mad at myself. The cover was probably in the best condition of all the exterior pieces.

As you can see I stripped the entire cover then repainted it. Not something I wanted to do. I searched and searched for a color match and finally settled for a color Sherman Williams Auto Paint stores have.

And here is the final result. I'm pretty happy with the paint match. The whole saw seems to have several shades of the original Pioneer Yellow. The only way you can really tell that it is repainted is that it is much more glossy. I think I'll scratch it up a bit to make it less "new". LOL

The handle bar looks way better too. I got the rust off the handle bar by polishing it with a rubble polishing wheel on the dremel. It cleaned up really nice though I think I'll try polishing a bit more with a buffing wheel.




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[pioneerguy600]

The Pioneer 600 and most 610`s came originally with the Purolator element air filter here in Canada.

 

[7oaks]

The Pioneer 600 and most 610`s came originally with the Purolator element air filter here in Canada.

Interesting...Wonder if this saw came out of Canada or maybe Pioneer's IPLs didn't keep up with some of the changes.

 

[Tzed250]

Some cool bikes in that auction. The Daytona Special, CB400F, GS550ES, GT550, CR125.

 

[thomas1]

Skip's was great. Skip was a hell of a nice guy and even better to deal with. 2.5 hours from me and well worth the ride to buy ATVs and bikes. I wish I had been able to attend the auction.

The "new" shop was an old IGA supermarket. The old shop was a site to behold, they built the place themselves out of whatever material was available, I don't think building inspectors were involved.

The first time we went Skip met us there on a Sunday to sell us ATVs, even though the shop was normally closed on Sundays. We pulled up and saw a mountain of new Honda crates, outside, 10 yards off the road, 5 or 6 high, maybe 6-8 long and 6-8 deep. 200+ bikes right beside the road, no fence, no cameras, no nothing. At that time my local Honda dealer was selling 30 bikes a month, I asked Skip how business was and he told me they sold 80 bikes, yesterday. The new shop had things spread out, the old shop stuff was piled everywhere, literally enough room to shuffle through the piles two people couldn't pass on the same path. You could see the history piled up.

I remember going to the parts counter and having Skip look up parts, on microfiche, then going to "the book" to get a price, no computers in sight. That was 2003.

More impressive to me was the wall behind the parts counter. It was the Honda Specialty Tool Wall, the one with the blue silhouettes of all the tools, mentioned in the manual, that most people make due without. They had all of them, ALL of them, from whenever they started as a Honda dealer to the present. All perfectly laid out on that wall. Granted, they were a dealer, but to see the rest of the showroom in the condition it was in and then see the tools in perfect order was impressive.

RIP, Skip.

Thanks for bringing back the memories, Carl.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Interesting...Wonder if this saw came out of Canada or maybe Pioneer's IPLs didn't keep up with some of the changes.

What type of filter is shown in your IPL`s, I would be very interested in seeing a different filter on them. All 600 and 610 saws I have ever seen had that Purolater filter on them.The RA had a heavy cast airfilter base with a very open mesh filter.

[video]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-YrILDwgyjrQ/SZdc2lFctCI/AAAAAAAADjA/vpwZPbrRhSM/s576/IMG_3383.JPG?gl=US[/video]

 

[7oaks]

Skip's was great. Skip was a hell of a nice guy and even better to deal with. 2.5 hours from me and well worth the ride to buy ATVs and bikes. I wish I had been able to attend the auction.

The "new" shop was an old IGA supermarket. The old shop was a site to behold, they built the place themselves out of whatever material was available, I don't think building inspectors were involved.

The first time we went Skip met us there on a Sunday to sell us ATVs, even though the shop was normally closed on Sundays. We pulled up and saw a mountain of new Honda crates, outside, 10 yards off the road, 5 or 6 high, maybe 6-8 long and 6-8 deep. 200+ bikes right beside the road, no fence, no cameras, no nothing. At that time my local Honda dealer was selling 30 bikes a month, I asked Skip how business was and he told me they sold 80 bikes, yesterday. The new shop had things spread out, the old shop stuff was piled everywhere, literally enough room to shuffle through the piles two people couldn't pass on the same path. You could see the history piled up.

I remember going to the parts counter and having Skip look up parts, on microfiche, then going to "the book" to get a price, no computers in sight. That was 2003.

More impressive to me was the wall behind the parts counter. It was the Honda Specialty Tool Wall, the one with the blue silhouettes of all the tools, mentioned in the manual, that most people make due without. They had all of them, ALL of them, from whenever they started as a Honda dealer to the present. All perfectly laid out on that wall. Granted, they were a dealer, but to see the rest of the showroom in the condition it was in and then see the tools in perfect order was impressive.

RIP, Skip.

Thanks for bringing back the memories, Carl.

You knew Skip obviously. I purchased my first ATV from him in 2003 if I remember correctly. You surely would have loved the auction. All the tools and parts went as well.

 

[7oaks]

Pioneer 600 series filters

What type of filter is shown in your IPL`s, I would be very interested in seeing a different filter on them. All 600 and 610 saws I have ever seen had that Purolater filter on them.The RA had a heavy cast airfilter base with a very open mesh filter.

[video]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-YrILDwgyjrQ/SZdc2lFctCI/AAAAAAAADjA/vpwZPbrRhSM/s576/IMG_3383.JPG?gl=US[/video]

Jerry - of course you are right. I had obtained the 620's IPL first and saw the flocked filter (note it says at the top of the first pic 600 series) then went to Aker's site and saw it said the 610 has a "flocked filter". When I got the 600-610 IPL I failed to notice that the filter listed there is the same Purolater as mine.

My mistake but I'm glad to be corrected.

My filter looks brand new but aged like fine wine. Doesn't have speck of sawdust on it.

On another subject - do you know where I can get a new gas line and filter? I did get the carb kit yesterday but won't be back to the farm until the middle of January so won't be able to do the rebuild until then.

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