Drop starting saws

[Bwildered]

Nope. You have been starting your saws correctly, and the way they were designed to be started: by drop starting. Even at the Stihl saw demo in Eugene at the logging show about 10 years ago? They were all drop starting at the demo saws the way I learned when I was 12: with your right hand on the top handle, left hand on starter grip, push your right arm out and down while pulling up on left grip. You are much better balanced in this position, and the saw was actually designed to be started this way. If your saw is between your knees, you are off-balance. If your foot is in the saw back handle and you are kneeling, you are way off balance. It is actually a lot easier to start a saw by drop starting them, and IMO, there is less chance of injury drop starting a saw. The 290 I had would snap back and yank on my wrist when I tried starting it on the ground. I sprained my wrist that way and stopped starting saw on the ground, when I tried starting my saws "the OSHA way" for a while a long time ago. With my 660 if I am tired, I will ~sometimes~ set it on a stump to start, with my foot in the back handle. But that is rare.

I have never seen a pro or even good amateur arborist, sawyer or faller start a saw any other way other than drop starting here in the wild west in my entire life, EXCEPT when OSHA was around, at a logging demo, or at a safety training event. Or some noob or rookie starting saws at some chipper jobs I have been at with my Bandit chipper.

BTW: at the Stihl demo and at several Stihl shops that I have bought saws at, they actually multi-drop start saws in a repetitive motion that I have yet to master. I pull one at a time, they pull three times in a row. I am sure there will be gobs of flap over this, as there always is on this site. I also assume that the brake is off whenever I start a saw, and I usually start my saws with the brake off. I learned to run saws that did not have chain brakes (neither did my last Oly and Jred saws).

Get a hold of an 090 with a 30" bar & try & drop start it cutting for a day while trying to holding down the decomp
button, I find that I try to never lift that thing unless it's going, it's just too heavy to be doing anything with one handed
Tanks

 

[rwoods]

Nope. You have been starting your saws correctly, and the way they were designed to be started: by drop starting. ... .

Learn something new everyday as I see I have been drop starting wrong handed - an almost guaranteed roll effect. I always thought starter was moved to the left in a right hand world to give more right side clearance. I was raised in a world dominated by gear drive McCullochs with pulp wood bows and right hand start. Held rear handle aloft with left hand, prongs on the ground and rip with right hand - some drop action but not much.

My preferred method for starting my 30+ year old Macs is to set them in a cut and pull almost straight back. My 125s are easy to start and usually restart with a gentle pull. The 800s can be a little harder so I have retrofitted a few with old style roller recoils as shown below. Ron

 

[Scablands]

Being an amateur, I start with handle locked between the knees, chain brake on. Call me out for being unprofessional (surely I'm not a pro), but at least it's safe. I used to drop start, but gave it up after watching some training videos. It takes no longer to do once you're used to it. I have no balance issues other than the normal issue of being on steep, uneven ground.

 

[Big_Wood]

i drop start always but i run a longer bar and rest the tip on a log or whatever else is around. i figure it's pretty safe. i do the drop holding top handle on a cold start and the drop/push start holding rear handle if saw is warm.

 

[a. palmer jr.]

I have a couple or three saws that you'd better drop start if you don't want a sore arm. Don't know why some saws kick and some don't. I have a 330 Homelite and a couple of MS390, 039 saws that kick back if you don't drop start them. It's possible the 330 needs a little carb work but it runs fine so I haven't bothered it. The Stihls probably should have a de-comp..

 

[Gypo Logger]

The drop start seems to be a North American thing, but in Europe they do the 'Nut Cracker' start that looks both dangerous and gay. Lol.

 

[Trx250r180]

The drop start seems to be a North American thing, but in Europe they do the 'Nut Cracker' start that looks both dangerous and gay. Lol.

Sounds like a lot of the guys in here have their skirts caught in their chains lol

 

[a. palmer jr.]

Pardon me, that's not a skirt, it's a kilt..

 

[CascadeHusky]

Keep the gun pointed in a direction so that if it shoots, there will be no significant unintentional consequences.

Keep the bar away from your body, so that if the boogeyman revs your saw(and, if necessary disengages your brake), you wont be cut. If you can do this while starting a typical saw, congrats you are in a club with everyone else.

If you cant control a saw while drop starting, there's a good chance you can't control it while operating either.

 

[ssm1699]

I have drop started everything I have ever used. I can't get my feet into the handle of any of the saws that I was using, if they were built for that to happen. My feet are to big for that and I am not one for a potential racking by putting the saw behind my thigh. If I don't do a drop start (99.9% of the time), I will sit it on the ground (the other .1%). I have never found any other way to be comfortable, that includes starting on the ground.

 

[wombler]

This seems like a fine demonstration of the drop start technique:

 

[wde_1978]

This seems like a fine demonstration of the drop start technique:

Those two don't even realize how much overtime their guardian angels clocked that day!

 

[rynosawr]

Those two don't even realize how much overtime their guardian angels clocked that day!

They should have been Darwin Award winners, yet, instead, like you stated, their guardian angels must have felt sorry for them.

 

[Rx7man]

I always drop start.. Friend of mine has an old husky that has so much compression it WILL NOT roll over when you pull on the cord, but it does when you drop start it... I usually have the brake on (if equipped)

 

[a. palmer jr.]

I have a place on the top of my right hand that I got from drop starting my 390. Wish I could find out which part is doing that and file it down a bit. The saw doesn't have a de-comp and kicks back a bit if I don't pull it through with some oomph.

 

[Gypo Logger]

Pardon me, that's not a skirt, it's a kilt..

Why do Scotsman wear kilts?
Because sheep can hear a zipper.

 

[Rx7man]

I haven't found (one man) a saw I can't drop start yet, provided the bar isn't so long it's unbalanced.. I pull with my left arm, and roll the saw toward me at the top, and roll it away from me as I drop it, gives me just a little more power and snap to the pull.. 2100's with 180 PSI are just fine, and they have no decomp.

 

[Woos31]

I'm In the always drop start side too. All saws. Unless it's a top handle all saw I run are 28" plus bar, rest bar on something wood, brake off, cord in left, trigger in right, full choke for 2 pulls on my ms460 till it pops over, switch to run, drop again at half throttle, and the way she goes. Done that on 066/660 and 084 just for the halibut to say I started it. Let the weight of the saw pull against my pull of the cord seems like gets a bit more out of it but that could be me wishful thinking. Safe cuttin

 

[Bwildered]

Why do Scotsman wear kilts?
Because sheep can hear a zipper.

And become terribly nervous around gumboots or cliffs.
Tansk

 

[Etap73]

I always dropstart, I am left handed and hold the top bar with the left and pull with the right. My saws don't need anything else. Sometimes the hotsaws at work need some throttle if a fng floods them out, in that case I hold the handles with the throttle in and let the culprit do the pulling!

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