Follow recommendations from manual

[Berkshires]

Hi Folks,

Just bought a new chainsaw for the first time in like 20 years or more (thanks for the good recommendations for everyone who posted in my other thread), and saw two things in the manual I don't remember seeing before. Wanted to get thoughts on whether each of these was really necessary, or if I should go about doing things as I have always done:

1 - Start chainsaw with break bar on. On my old saw I just made sure the chain wouldn't hit anything if it started to spin, braced with my foot, and pull cord. Never thought to engage the brake bar. Is this something I should do?

2 - Lower viscosity oil in winter. I always just used "standard" bar/chain oil, but the manual says to use 20 weight in the summer, 10 weight in the winter. Might do a bunch of work this Feb, do I need to get lower viscosity oil? I can imagine if not maybe it will be hard to start, but maybe if I need to I could drain the oil, warm it up, and put it in, and should start okay? Not sure.

While I'm asking, one other question: Is it a lot harder to buck up wood when it's below freezing? Is the frozen wood much harder to cut?

Thanks!

Gabe

 

[OM617YOTA]

Oil in this case refers to bar oil, not fuel mix oil. Doesn't impact starting at all, just keep using your normal fuel mix oil.

If the oil flows to the bar just fine in winter, no need to change anything. For instance, it doesn't get cold enough here for me to change between summer and winter bar oil. Some places where the high temp for the day is still negative F, yeah winter bar oil is probably handy.

 

[BeatCJ]

Hi Folks,

1 - Start chainsaw with break bar on. On my old saw I just made sure the chain wouldn't hit anything if it started to spin, braced with my foot, and pull cord. Never thought to engage the brake bar. Is this something I should do?

Absolutely set your chain brake before starting. Where I work, it's a requirement by policy. And those are people that use a saw on a regular basis. For a part time user, in my opinion it's even more important.

I have to work hard to remember to do it myself, but the first two saws I ran didn't have brakes. I do it to set a good example, if people see me doing it incorrectly, they "assume" they have permission to do it that way, too. I have worked hard to break myself of drop starting, too. 30 years of unaccepted practice is hard to break, even after 15 years of trying to do correctly.

 

[Berkshires]

Oil in this case refers to bar oil, not fuel mix oil. Doesn't impact starting at all, just keep using your normal fuel mix oil.

If the oil flows to the bar just fine in winter, no need to change anything. For instance, it doesn't get cold enough here for me to change between summer and winter bar oil. Some places where the high temp for the day is still negative F, yeah winter bar oil is probably handy.

Sure it gets colder here, but if I'm out working, it's probably at least up in the 20s. So I probably don't need to worry about the chain running poorly or acting like it's "dry"? Thanks, good to know!

Gabe

 

[OM617YOTA]

Keep an eye on the chain and make sure it's not running dry anyway, just good practice for a lot of reasons.

 

[WoodmanSr]

Hi Folks,

Just bought a new chainsaw for the first time in like 20 years or more (thanks for the good recommendations for everyone who posted in my other thread), and saw two things in the manual I don't remember seeing before. Wanted to get thoughts on whether each of these was really necessary, or if I should go about doing things as I have always done:

1 - Start chainsaw with break bar on. On my old saw I just made sure the chain wouldn't hit anything if it started to spin, braced with my foot, and pull cord. Never thought to engage the brake bar. Is this something I should do?

2 - Lower viscosity oil in winter. I always just used "standard" bar/chain oil, but the manual says to use 20 weight in the summer, 10 weight in the winter. Might do a bunch of work this Feb, do I need to get lower viscosity oil? I can imagine if not maybe it will be hard to start, but maybe if I need to I could drain the oil, warm it up, and put it in, and should start okay? Not sure.

While I'm asking, one other question: Is it a lot harder to buck up wood when it's below freezing? Is the frozen wood much harder to cut?

Thanks!

Gabe

Yes, be safe but also know good & bad. Read recent abuse of chain brake. You must blip throttle as soon as engine starts to get off fast idle (else Clutch damage, other damage possible)

https://www.arboristsite.com/threads/brand-new-ms391-meltdown.377731/page-3#post-8361117

On 2nd question, good approach to use All-season label bar & chain oil. I've used Winter & Summer labels of Save-A-Chain brand as what my dealer sold. These days I like PoulanPro all-season with purple dye color. Easy to see if spreading down the bar. Also, though Mystic all-season quite decent. I figure most brands All-season will suffice.

I made mistake buying cheap Winter oil. Seems more like water & don't use. All-season suits me at 20°F or even 0°. The saw will warm oil some during use.

My saw also respond well to being bought onto heated porch for about 2 hours. Saw much easier to pull but no compression release on my models. I feel a bit of heat also adds vapor pressure to fuel tank & fast start, also no purge bulbs.

Read manual on Bar Oil Pump adjustment. You have 2 factors on the cs4910; one what B&C oil viscosity, & 2nd what oil pump lubrication rate (pump oil screw setting). Understand the oil Adj Screw, monitor that using 1/2 to 3/4 of oil tank capacity per 1 tank of fuel. Don't cut corners on bar lube oil. Bar & chain will wear better.

Congrats on your new Echo.

 

[Berkshires]

Interesting to read that thread about the guy who melted his saw because he (probably) never took it off fast idle. I did read a warning about that in the manual as well. Interestingly, the first videos and instructions that come up online when you search for chainsaw starting procedures say to do exactly what that guy did. One even shows the guy revving up the chainsaw without mentioning to disengage the chain brake. It then says to disengage the brake before you start cutting (but presumably after warming up).

With bad/incomplete info like that so common, it's definitely a good warning for people.

GO

 

[BeatCJ]

It is an excellent point. I start my saw and immediately blip the throttle and take the brake off as soon as I have both hands on handles. It's pretty much second nature now. We are supposed to set the brake when we are walking/ moving. One of the things I see is people not letting the saw idle down before setting the brake. If your chain doesn't stop as it idles down, it's not running right. The only time the brake should stop a moving chain is to prevent an accident.

 

[WoodmanSr]

Interesting to read that thread about the guy who melted his saw because he (probably) never took it off fast idle. I did read a warning about that in the manual as well. Interestingly, the first videos and instructions that come up online when you search for chainsaw starting procedures say to do exactly what that guy did. One even shows the guy revving up the chainsaw without mentioning to disengage the chain brake. It then says to disengage the brake before you start cutting (but presumably after warming up).

With bad/incomplete info like that so common, it's definitely a good warning for people.

GO

Here the guy did okay. He mentions to warmup saw but at that time in video the chain brake is disengaged, chain is spinning.
Just that a moment later states to disengage Chain Brake before cutting.
Is misleading between elapsed time & his remarks. Nothing said about kicking choke linkage off Fast Idle. So, yes, leads watchers down an improper path.

But, he did it properly in segment of the video clip.. only throttled up Chain Brake disengaged. Agree, misleading details.

 

[Berkshires]

You're right, he only throttled up after disengaging the brake - we know that because the chain is spinning. But if you didn't know you were supposed to do that and just did what you were told in the video, you'd rev the engine and wonder why the chain wasn't spinning. At some point you'd realize you'd left the chain brake on, but maybe too late.

In the video they never show him blipping the gas to get off fast idle. They never say to do that either. They never show him disengaging the brake before revving the engine, and don't say to disengage the brake at all until the end of the video "before cutting". And they go directly from starting the engine to revving it, while telling the viewer to warm up the engine. So yeah, definitely leads the viewer down the wrong path.

Gabe