McCulloch Chain Saws

[Maintenance supervisor]

MS I still grin when I read about you using that 700 on the job thats really cool




What are ya setting them with Ed?

https://www.ebay.com/c/588456914
Really simple nothing to it put it over the raker and file it till it stops cutting move and repeat. I find on stihl chain the soft setting is a little hungry unless in Really Reeeally soft wood and big grunt eg young pine 20 inch bar and an 850 on the end of it

What I can't understand is why more people don't use them?
I mean I'm definitely not rolling in money but if you can find a good running ProMac700 for a couple bills you could do just about any kind of work with it.
I have a few saws in my small collection that are older and some newer and I use the saws I like and when felling a decent size tree the 700 is well suited for the job.
Lately I've been using the 800 and a hopped up 034 I built, and it's taking me some time to get the hang of them . The 800 is deceptively fast and I've damn near cut through 2 hinges, but I'll keep at it.
I've got a few favorites and I try to get them in my work rotation (even fire wood duty) because honestly for me its no fun if you don't get to play with them.

 

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

I've got the raker tool,but when I put it on the chain the entire raker sticks through.Obviously I'm doing something wrong.Lol

What style have you got Ed? To really work well it needs to be a progressive type. So basically it sits down on the chain landing on the in front of the raker and on a cutter with the raker poking through the hole. Jump on the tube and hunt out a video.

 

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

What I can't understand is why more people don't use them?
I mean I'm definitely not rolling in money but if you can find a good running ProMac700 for a couple bills you could do just about any kind of work with it.
I have a few saws in my small collection that are older and some newer and I use the saws I like and when felling a decent size tree the 700 is well suited for the job.
Lately I've been using the 800 and a hopped up 034 I built, and it's taking me some time to get the hang of them . The 800 is deceptively fast and I've damn near cut through 2 hinges, but I'll keep at it.
I've got a few favorites and I try to get them in my work rotation (even fire wood duty) because honestly for me its no fun if you don't get to play with them.

Yeah well said the vibration thing is something I guess but unless on it all day everyday thats not really going to be a medical issue besides the 700 has a nice rubber handle that seems to help alot.

I completely agree if handy on a spanner you can get alot done on a 40 year old saw. My "modern" saws are poulan 4000s lol. I cut probably 5 years worth of firewood last year between the 800 and a few 70s but really if I still only had the 700 and the 800 I'd be fine and they will do that for a man's lifetime lol and still running happily for its next owner too. I assume the homies are the same too

I payed basically 160US for my clean 700 and simply for an insurance policy to give me a running mac for my lifetime and then my son too no doubt. They heat our house mums house grandparents house sisters house many friends and sell a we bit to buy chains. To me that's bang for buck let alone the enjoyment.

The 850 was about 300us and its still very fresh the 800 also and it was less than 100us lol. Yeah I would of grabbed a 288 to give the 800 a rest but that 850 came up and between the both I think that will do the bigger wood for most of my life. I'll keep snatching up 10 series here n there so in 30 years I'll have clutches and oilers n bits n bobs.

I've still spent far less than a new flash bigger saw and are they going to last as long?

Do they cut a little quicker? yeah
Are they are little lighter? Yeah
Do they sound as good? ??

Does it really matter if they cut a round 2 seconds quicker for firewood?

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

Well like I've said before "most" if not all of the old growth forests were cut with saws before the 90s . I think the home owner sales really pushed the anti- vibe and weight , the day in day out cutters were using 125s, big homelites and stihls non of which were light and cushy.

 

[2broke2ride]

So PM610 number 2. This is the one that I paid $20 for that ran but had goo in the oiler tank. I put on the parts to soak in a vat of boiling water and mean green. I was able to remove 90% of the worst of the crud. Next I am gonna bring the parts in the house and give them a good scrub in the kitchen sink with dish soap. Hopefully that will finish it off. I will.never curse people using used crankcase oil again..... this is far worse!!!!

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[Jethro 2t sniffer]

Well like I've said before "most" if not all of the old growth forests were cut with saws before the 90s . I think the home owner sales really pushed the anti- vibe and weight , the day in day out cutters were using 125s, big homelites and stihls non of which were light and cushy.

That's a good point about the old growth. I hear people say stihl anti vibe hasn't been very good till kinda recent times but I have no clue myself. How does the AV on say a 125 compare to an 850?? To me the 850 is very good n squishy although I've got an adjustable front mount set up and the 800 is pretty soft too.

Imagine hanging onto a 797 day in day out or a gear drive how are vibes on those?? Do old loggers get white finger bad?

 

[MacAttack]

Carb / coil reassembled on my Mini Mac 25. One thing I've learned is to never reassemble a Mini Mac without testing for spark, which this picture demonstrates my high-tech test stand. This saw has a strong spark, I'd guess around 200 rpms it's sparking. If the carb works like it should after the rebuild it will be a nice little saw with little running on it.
Having worked on Mini Mac 25s and 30s, I still have no idea what any physical difference is between them, same displacement, Im almost convinced they are identical saws unless there was some obscure difference in tuning, etc

 

[briguy26]

The 640 had an auto oiler, that saw does not.

Another suggestion was a 250 block with a gear drive attached a Frankensaw of sorts. Why would anyone do this??

 

[northwest saws]

Another suggestion was a 250 block with a gear drive attached a Frankensaw of sorts. Why would anyone do this??

I saw that gear drive you put up on ebay, very interesting haha. Was that a 840 frame they put that 250 block in?

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[northwest saws]

Carb / coil reassembled on my Mini Mac 25. One thing I've learned is to never reassemble a Mini Mac without testing for spark, which this picture demonstrates my high-tech test stand. This saw has a strong spark, I'd guess around 200 rpms it's sparking. If the carb works like it should after the rebuild it will be a nice little saw with little running on it.
Having worked on Mini Mac 25s and 30s, I still have no idea what any physical difference is between them, same displacement, Im almost convinced they are identical saws unless there was some obscure difference in tuning, etc View attachment 862319

I can't tell of many differences either, they are both equally a pain in the ass to work on.

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[edju1958]

What style have you got Ed? To really work well it needs to be a progressive type. So basically it sits down on the chain landing on the in front of the raker and on a cutter with the raker poking through the hole. Jump on the tube and hunt out a video.

I'll try to get a pic on here tomorrow of my raker tool.It's an Archer tool,same thing as the Husky.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

That's a good point about the old growth. I hear people say stihl anti vibe hasn't been very good till kinda recent times but I have no clue myself. How does the AV on say a 125 compare to an 850?? To me the 850 is very good n squishy although I've got an adjustable front mount set up and the 800 is pretty soft too.

Imagine hanging onto a 797 day in day out or a gear drive how are vibes on those?? Do old loggers get white finger bad?

Ive heard rumors of this"white finger" and honestly I have never heard of this before the internet? But I worked construction jobs since I was 15years old and if sanders ,air nailers and reciprocating saws don't have anti vibe I'm confused because they run em just as much if not more than chainsaws . I'm sure that all the healthy living had nothing to do with circulation problems? Smoking,drinking,good eating, and whatever else gets you through the day. I believe half of what I see and little to none of what I hear.
I have notoriously warm hands.

 

[Brian Thacker]

I'll try to get a pic on here tomorrow of my raker tool.It's an Archer tool,same thing as the Husky.

This is the tool I use to measure the depth of my rakers. It is quick and easy to use. I do not sharpen chains in the field if I can keep from it. I just keep spear chains, and saws. Takes too much time while out cutting. I use a grinder at the shop. I have a blade/stone for my grinder that is flat. I set it at about 50 degrees. It also has a stop where I can set it's depth. I use the gauged to measure the raker to see how much to take off. The stop will stop the cut when I set it and the flat stone will stop and I go on to the next, until all are the right height.. Then hang on the wall for use.

Brian

 

[edju1958]

This is the tool I use to measure the depth of my rakers. It is quick and easy to use. I do not sharpen chains in the field if I can keep from it. I just keep spear chains, and saws. Takes too much time while out cutting. I use a grinder at the shop. I have a blade/stone for my grinder that is flat. I set it at about 50 degrees. It also has a stop where I can set it's depth. I use the gauged to measure the raker to see how much to take off. The stop will stop the cut when I set it and the flat stone will stop and I go on to the next, until all are the right height.. Then hang on the wall for use.

Brian

I haven't sharpened a chain in the field in almost 40 yrs.I tried hand filing when I was in my 20's.I got a free kit when I bought my first saw in '82,but my brothers lost it on me.I gave up on filing for about 30 yrs,then I got ticked off when I took a chain to the saw shop & when I got it back I couldn't figure out why my saw wouldn't cut worth a damn.The guy tried telling me that my bar was shot,so I bought a new bar.I put the same chain on the new bar & had the same problem.Finally I took the chain off & took a good look at it & found that the ******* had only sharpened one side of the chain.Right after that I had a guy show me how to file a chain.The way he filed was a bit on the odd side,but I got the general idea.

 

[jp233]

So PM610 number 2. This is the one that I paid $20 for that ran but had goo in the oiler tank. I put on the parts to soak in a vat of boiling water and mean green. I was able to remove 90% of the worst of the crud. Next I am gonna bring the parts in the house and give them a good scrub in the kitchen sink with dish soap. Hopefully that will finish it off. I will.never curse people using used crankcase oil again..... this is far worse!!!!

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Good deal. Missed a few pages of this thread, been stoopid busy. Yeah the Purple Power type stuff can be really great on stubborn gunk, if the Dawn doesn't do the trick. It will eat into aluminum though, so if you ever had to use it on Alum you gotta be quick and don't let it soak long. Edit: I assume it's same or even worse with cast Mag, due to the porous nature of the metal,,,, it will work it's way in and weaken it. I need to look at a label here shortly as I've got a few nasty gunk saws to clean soon.

on car parts, I used to use a plastic bin with Simple Green solution, and using an old fish tank pump to keep some circulation go on. Let stuff go for days if need be. Works great as an initial step (things like cyl heads and valve covers with tons of build up oil varnish crud). Harder stuff then got purple power in small amounts (but again, most of that was aluminum so I was really careful with the Purple Monster).

Boy I've got a few PM600 oilers to figure out, I need to get on it.

I was able to use a 24" bar/chain setup from Mark on a big leaner oak though, the 610 did pretty good but needed a little tuning, I did a crappy notch but the 24" wasn't even big enough for a single-side cut. Either way the tree is down and it didn't hit the garage, so even though it fell not the way I wanted, Win. I keep forgetting to use the manual oiler, need to change my brain.

Also got to use the Mini Mac that Mark fixed, that was fun! bunch of little stuff, also kept forgetting to oil it. with previous posts, yeah even the 4-6" stuff I cut a notch...

 

[edju1958]

I'm just the opposite with an auto oiler,my thumb keeps searching for the oil pump button.Lol

 

[MacAttack]

Also got to use the Mini Mac that Mark fixed, that was fun! bunch of little stuff, also kept forgetting to oil it. with previous posts, yeah even the 4-6" stuff I cut a notch...

For many years (at least 15) the ONLY chainsaw I owned was my Mini Mac 30, 12" bar, no chain brake, I used it for everything around the house. It was also the only saw I carried with me when I was doing the stump grinding side business. I used that little saw to cut some stumps lower to the ground as best I could. Other than having to fix the recoil and one time it vapor locked, I've never done a thing to that saw except change the plug and clean it. Still runs and refuses to die. I was shocked when I started to get more saws and learned what a bad reputation they have!

 

[vizette]

Ive heard rumors of this"white finger" and honestly I have never heard of this before the internet?

Sounds like "Atari thumb" for chainsaws

 

[sawfun]

That's a good point about the old growth. I hear people say stihl anti vibe hasn't been very good till kinda recent times but I have no clue myself. How does the AV on say a 125 compare to an 850?? To me the 850 is very good n squishy although I've got an adjustable front mount set up and the 800 is pretty soft too.

Imagine hanging onto a 797 day in day out or a gear drive how are vibes on those?? Do old loggers get white finger bad?

The 800 series Mac's are exceptionally smooth. In fact I think my like new 800 is as smooth as my 372. The 125 is not as smooth as the 800 but still not bad and I could see running it all day without issue. Sure the 797 & 895's have more vibes but seem smoother than the 066's I've had. The non-AV 090 is the one that you REALLY don't want to run for long as its vibes are positively awful. Even though the geardrive version is non AV, the gearbox seems to tame the viibes a good bit, sort of a counterbalance effect.

 

[ML12]

That's a good point about the old growth. I hear people say stihl anti vibe hasn't been very good till kinda recent times but I have no clue myself. How does the AV on say a 125 compare to an 850?? To me the 850 is very good n squishy although I've got an adjustable front mount set up and the 800 is pretty soft too.

Imagine hanging onto a 797 day in day out or a gear drive how are vibes on those?? Do old loggers get white finger bad?

I have spent some time running 3 different large gear drives and the vibration is not great, on the steep reduction ones with big chain its almost as if you can feel each tooth digging in. I also have run a 10-10 enough in a day to have 'buzzing hands' and that's not great either. The worst saw I have is the 090 which I use to mill. As to which is the lesser of the evils... its tough to say.