Most abused saw you've seen?

[John in MA]

Just thought of asking this now that I've started tearing into my new/old orange 011aveq. This thing's covered with more crap than there is saw. The air filter was last cleaned when it left Germany. It looks like it was used for several years after the muffler bolts both worked their way out. No paint left on the bar, bad chainbrake, worn out AV mounts. The compression's so low I'm surprised it ran at all, but the piston and jug are good.

So, what's the worst running diaster you've seen? Something that's still used even though it had every right to dismember the owner?

 

[Methoss084]

Well the worst running thing I've ever seen was a TS350 cutoff saw. Some guy was cutting a presure main and it burst. The guy got out but the saw didn't. After the whole event was over the saw was recovered. It was packed full of sand and dirt all the way to the wrist pin needle bearings. After a thorough cleaning and new bearings, it ran again! Except now it didn't have a drop of paint left on it from being sand/water blasted.

 

[earache]

Worked on a Husky 61 last week. There was no paint left on the bar, and there was a 1/2" long piece missing from the bar. All of the cutters were rolled over and blued from heat, not to mention you couldn't see the wear stripe on the cutters. The roller tip half-way down and 3/4 of the way back to the powerhead was blued. Oh yeah, and you could put two fingers between the bar and chain. When I saw it, I asked the guy what happened to the saw? Initially, he said, I don't know, when I cut, it only makes powder. I figured he had cut with it and strapped it to the rack of his four-wheeler and drove through mud. He hadn't. After futile attempts with a pickup, the stump still wouldn't come, so he cut the roots with the saw. You can picture what the rest of the saw looked like. When I finished it, he gave me his Mac to look at!!!

 

[sedanman]

A little Craftsman teapot. I thought the clutch was siezed because the chain turned with the crank, turns out the sprocket was cut in two from the chain, bottom of chain pounded. This saw not why the saw stopped getting used, the starter pulley melted to the fan housing and snapped off a piece of the housing when an attempt was made to re-start the saw.

 

[chainsawworld]

where to start? would it be brand new seized craftsman that the guy put gas in the gas tank and oil in the oil tank? what do you mean i have to mix the gas and oil? the brand new 372xp that a guy was going to work a log pile and the very first log he rolled off the stack crushed the saw? the 288 that got left on the skidder tire and some how got caught in the tire chain and made a few revolutions before there was nothing left to let you identifiey it as a saw? the new 088 that was backed over with a bucket truck and when the driver heard the noise drove ahead before he got out to look and see what he hit? the new ms290 that the very first tree the guy cut sat on the saw and crushed it? then there is always the wrong mix,drain oil in the oil tank,mis-adjusted jets(oh,thats what their for?). a weak recoil spring in the starter and the guy just kept tying knots in the rope as it got longer(the wieght of the knots would pull the rope when the saw was running and ate the plastic starter parts). saws left outside all year. goodness, the list goes on. it is hard to tell which was the worst.LOL! marty

 

[eyolf]

having no paint on the bar isn't much of sign, is it? When I went off to get "educated", my first landlord asked me to help get a tree down at his brother's house accross town. Between the two of them they owned a homelite 330, almost new. I used that saw to get the tree down for them, and as payment got the saw.

The School was adding on, and I had a work-study job with plant maintenance; the school agreed to to remove 13 trees as part of the contract. The head of maintenance didn't want to use staff, so he contracted it out...to me. I made enough to buy a used 3/4 ton Ford pickup, which I used to deliver the cut and split firewood from the trees.

Word got around, I bought some ropes and chains, a winch, and had an arrangement with a rental yard for other things. I paid off my first year's student loans the next year, going to school part-time for anothger year, all the while still using that Homelite 330. I even used it to make some lumber and a 10" x16" x 14' fireplace mantel
(two red pine logs, and a long day!)

There was no paint on the bar.

 

[tony marks]

i keep a saw just to loan out to friends
craftsman36 cc.they get the others ,im gonna be running it.some real nice people could tear up an anvil.

 

[stihltech]

abuse

I had a Husky that fell off a skidder, got lost in the mud, found 3 weeks later when it got caught in the skidder chain. I recieved it as a ball of mud. Not 1 straight or salvagable part on it. The saw was 3 months old.
Other than that, anything that the Amish community used before last year. They are just learning what maintenance is around here.

 

[homelite360]

me and my dad were cutting with his old poulan 361. and we were using a big case 4690 articulating tractor as a skidder and i set the saw on a stupm and my dad didn't see it as he ran it over and dragged a 40" diamter tree over it. needless to say it was a twisted pile of green metal. before that i didn't know a bar could be twisted so that it looked like a corkscrew. needless to say neither of us were too happy.