Few boards from Sunday

[gr8scott72]

Here's what I did in a few hours on Sunday. I've got some kind of problem I'm trying to sort out with my chainsaw that makes it hard to re-crank once warm. This happened twice so I just stopped and went inside for awhile.

These are white pine boards ~18" wide x 1.25" thick and 6' long:
(One slab behind the 8 pine boards is the latest from my red oak slab project.)

 

[TreeWinder]

Nice, always liked nice wide pine. What kind of mill? thickness and finish looks great.

 

[gr8scott72]

Nice, always liked nice wide pine. What kind of mill? thickness and finish looks great.

Alaskan, but I had to use my 60" bar even tho the cant was only 18" wide. lol

My 32" bar's sprocket is on the way out and starts to smoke after just a little cutting. Saw is oiling correctly and the groove is clean and the other bars on that saw work fine. That's what makes me think it's the sprocket. Oh well, windsor speed tips are only $15 from bailey.

I took 6 of those pieces and trimmed them down to 16" and squared off the ends and ended up with 6 pieces that are 1.25" x 16" x 67". That is my first completed project with my Alaskan mill. That is the top to the two saw horses I just built to put all of my mill stuff on when I'm working.

 

[dustytools]

Looks good Scott, thanks for the pics.

 

[Brmorgan]

Nice boards! What's the piece they're leaning up on though? That looks promising.

So are you having a hard time re-starting the saw if you shut it off hot? There are a few basic things to check.

If you're not also having trouble with it wanting to stall out when it's hot, then the first thing to check is the spark plug. A plug running outside its heat range will still produce a good spark at high RPM but won't fire at the RPMs produced when pulling the recoil if it's still too hot. I've chased my tail a few times with this problem. I'm unsure if a worn-out plug could develop this symptom; the times I've encountered it, it was the wrong plug altogether. Also make sure you don't have a "blue" plug with an internal resistor - these can cause major issues and can apparently even damage ignitions.

Other possibilities with hot-start issues are either a bad ignition coil, or a malfunctioning fuel tank vent. Both of those usually cause issues with the saw while it's running as well though; either wanting to stall or not idle, or significant power/RPM loss. The tank vent is easy to check though - if you're having trouble, crack the cap and see if it helps. Ignition is a bit trickier to check; if you've ruled out the spark plug, you can check for spark the old-fashioned way. But if you have a good digital voltmeter, you can pull the plug and put the meter between the ignition wire and the saw. With a solid pull you should get at least 10,000 Volts , though 15-20KV is better for a good modern coil.

 

[gr8scott72]

Nice boards! What's the piece they're leaning up on though? That looks promising.

So are you having a hard time re-starting the saw if you shut it off hot? There are a few basic things to check.

If you're not also having trouble with it wanting to stall out when it's hot, then the first thing to check is the spark plug. A plug running outside its heat range will still produce a good spark at high RPM but won't fire at the RPMs produced when pulling the recoil if it's still too hot. I've chased my tail a few times with this problem. I'm unsure if a worn-out plug could develop this symptom; the times I've encountered it, it was the wrong plug altogether. Also make sure you don't have a "blue" plug with an internal resistor - these can cause major issues and can apparently even damage ignitions.

Other possibilities with hot-start issues are either a bad ignition coil, or a malfunctioning fuel tank vent. Both of those usually cause issues with the saw while it's running as well though; either wanting to stall or not idle, or significant power/RPM loss. The tank vent is easy to check though - if you're having trouble, crack the cap and see if it helps. Ignition is a bit trickier to check; if you've ruled out the spark plug, you can check for spark the old-fashioned way. But if you have a good digital voltmeter, you can pull the plug and put the meter between the ignition wire and the saw. With a solid pull you should get at least 10,000 Volts , though 15-20KV is better for a good modern coil.

Spark plug is good. Saw runs great when running. No idle problems or problems under load. It almost seems like it is something that is caused because it is sitting on it's side on the mill. I don't really have this problem when using it bucking wood but I also don't run it nearly as long or hard when bucking up wood.

Doesn't do it in cold weather. Sunday was the first time I have had this problem in quite a while. It was about 60°.

Sometimes, when I go to re-crank it, it will actually crank and I can rev it up for a few times and then when I think it's going good enough to let go, it will die and then will NOT restart. It is almost like it is flooding out as I can sometimes smell gas when this happens.

Oh, that big slab is part of this project:
http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=118850

 

[Brmorgan]

Flooding is indeed possible. You might have your L jet turned out way too far and the idle adjust screw turned in too far to compensate - this will cause the saw to pull far too much fuel through the low jet at high RPM, and will often cause a stall if you quickly let off the throttle after running the saw hard at WOT.

The metering needle valve in the carb could be sticking or misadjusted, allowing the carb to dump way more fuel than the saw needs.

Another (unlikely) possibility is that you have an air leak around the clutch-side crank seal and bearing. This could cause you to mis-tune the saw as above - the L jet would need to be opened farther to get the saw to start in the first place due to lower impulse vacuum. However with it opened this far, it might dump so much fuel into the case that the fuel puddles around the crank bearing and seals the leak off while it's running, so it appears to operate normally.

Just some ideas to kick around. Hope you get it sorted, and hopefully it isn't an air leak because that will eventually kill your saw if left unchecked, guaranteed.

 

[TraditionalTool]

What can be said...beautiful boards...I WANT SOME TOO!

 

[Andrew96]

I might have had a similar problem with my saw (660). I tried to check everything and came up short. I did locate a funny looking diaphram in my fuel pump (bottom of the carb). It was weeping from the wet side, to the vacuum side. I was concerned since it would have allowed for low fuel pressure...as well as allowed raw fuel into the crankcase. The diaphram was worn from a sharp edge on the casting of the fuel pump...worn..but not failed as in a full blown crack. You might have this problem. Mine would flood slightly but only after it had run (flood once the fuel pump was fully primed again). Seemed to start fine cold though. It would almost start perfect on 1/2 a pull if sitting upright..but needed 4 or many more if left on it's side even for 2 minutes. I'd pull the carb..have a look at your fuel pump diaphram just to confirm if you don't find anything else. Solved my problem.
There are cheap $5 spark testers (adjustable spark gap jumper) that you can use to test your coil. Of course...test it when it's hot.