To the OP.
You say; Also, I have decided I am going to make the repairs myself.
My opinion: You might as well give er a shot.
I've seen quite a few chainsaws that were reported to be low compression and bad due to bad piston and or cylinders and found several that just had minor issues, such as pulse line cracked or carb needed some attention and the compression was good.
What you got into is why I work on my own stuff,
BUT as Clint Eastwood says: A MAN HAS GOT TO KNOW HIS LIMITATIONS.
Pull the muffler and post up some pictures of your piston and cylinder and get yourself a GOOD TRUSTWORTHY small engine compression tester and tell us the compression results.
If you have not already done so. I did not read all 6 pages of this post.