After listening to all the good and bad reviews on these saws, like others on this forum I decided to buy one just to satisfy my curiosity. Don't need another 50cc saw, but it's cheap entertainment. The one I settled on is a 52cc saw badged as a SWISS KRAFT INTERNATIONAL.model 5200. It's part of a general Chinese series of 4500,5200,5800 saws and is one of the more common ones. As part of the "grey market chainsaws", it can be found with a lot of different badges, but they are all basically the same saw with different side and top covers. There are distributors in the USA that sell these saws for less than $100 but won't ship to Canada, so I ordered this one from China at $98.00 US with free shipping and paid an extra $25.00 CAN for fast delivery. The main reason I selected this saw is all the parts are available on line from many different sources and they are CHEAP, for instance a piston and cylinder combo is $30.00, which makes this an ideal saw for anyone wanting to experiment with port and squish changes. Saw came with a laminated 20" bar with 4 nose rivets, 0.325" pitch chain, a cute little (useless) mixing container for fuel, a sqrench that was so flimsy it wouldn't remove the plug, a file, a neat fitting bar/chain cover and a good English operators manual. The engine case includes the oil tank and bar mount studs, is all aluminum and seems to be a good quality casting. Cylinder looks to be chrome plated, don't expect any nikasil for this price. Piston has 2 rings and compression right out of the box is 115psi, should improve after some running. Top and side covers are good quality plastic and fit well, although the starter cover has a screw hidden behind the front handle that makes it a pain to remove. Weight with both tanks filled is 13.5 lbs. The other common line of Chinese saws is the Redmax, Earthquake, etc., and this line of saws is REALLY cheap. You can recognize them by the oil tank right beside the fuel tank.
PERFORMANCE:
The operators manual lists the max no load engine speed at 10,000rpm, so it is not a high speed screamer, however it does produce a reasonable amount of power. It has no trouble pulling chips out of 12" of sugar maple but I would not expect it to do the same thing with the whole bar buried in hardwood. I personally like longer bars, but a 18" or 16" one would probably be more appropriate for this saw. Saw has a nice light feel and a good anti-vibe system. The engine is easy to start when cold and after the carb got dialed in, it is a consistent one-pull starter when hot. I have only run about 4 tanks of fuel through it, so I have no valid opinion on how it will perform later on.
IMPORTANT FEATURES:
...Old school controls, separate ignition switch and choke lever and a button on the handle to hold the throttle partly open. No decomp valve. No primer bulb.
...Excellent quality carb with standard 3 adjustment screws. No special tool needed and no lame autotune here. Carb diaphragm kit is $4.00.
... 3 segment steel clutch. Had to make yet another tool to get it off.
... Adjustable oiler driven from the clutch drum. No wasted oil at idle.
...Good rubber carb mounting block and fuel tank is part of the plastic rear handle assembly. Should keep fuel cool and help prevent vapor lock.
...Small lid on rear of top cover can be removed for access to plug and air filter.
...Good nylon air filter. No tools needed to service it.
...Bolt on steel dog spikes.
...Inertia chain brake.
NEGATIVE FEATURES:
...Worst quality chain I have ever seen. Several links were so tight they would barely pivot. Chain had never been properly sharpened and was more chipper than semi-chisel. In keeping with the theme, I bought a replacement chain from China ($10.87 CAN), a much better quality semi-chisel with chromed cutters and after a large initial "stretch", it settled in and cuts like a new chain should.
...Sprocket integral with clutch drum and is a very loose fit on the crankshaft. Replacement drum and rim sprocket available for $13.
...Throttle trigger was catching on inside of handle and I had to grind away some plastic to make it operate smoothly.
...The ground electrode on the spark plug had such a crappy looking weld, I threw it away.
...The flywheel has strange nylon starter pawls. Pull starter has spongy feel, probably because of these pawls. Metal ones are available.
... Paint was peeling off the bar before it was even used. Ah well, who needs a pretty bar.
IS IT WORTH IT?
If this saw is a fair example of the whole line, it has to be a good deal, however quality control, perhaps use of sub-standard material and manufacturing tolerances could combine to produce a few lemons. Long term reliability and how it would withstand heavy use are unknown, but remember if something breaks, the parts are cheap. If these saws need to be repaired, you might not be able to just drop them off at your local shop. They won't have parts, will have to order them and some shops may not even want to work on these saws. Anyway, if you buy a saw for $100, it doesn't make much sense to pay more than that to have it repaired. Parts are cheap but labor is not. The only way these saws are a good deal is for you to do the trouble shooting, order the parts that may take a long time to come and fix it yourself. Another approach, when something goes wrong, is to just buy another saw and keep the broken one for parts, hoping the same thing doesn't break on every saw.
PERFORMANCE:
The operators manual lists the max no load engine speed at 10,000rpm, so it is not a high speed screamer, however it does produce a reasonable amount of power. It has no trouble pulling chips out of 12" of sugar maple but I would not expect it to do the same thing with the whole bar buried in hardwood. I personally like longer bars, but a 18" or 16" one would probably be more appropriate for this saw. Saw has a nice light feel and a good anti-vibe system. The engine is easy to start when cold and after the carb got dialed in, it is a consistent one-pull starter when hot. I have only run about 4 tanks of fuel through it, so I have no valid opinion on how it will perform later on.
IMPORTANT FEATURES:
...Old school controls, separate ignition switch and choke lever and a button on the handle to hold the throttle partly open. No decomp valve. No primer bulb.
...Excellent quality carb with standard 3 adjustment screws. No special tool needed and no lame autotune here. Carb diaphragm kit is $4.00.
... 3 segment steel clutch. Had to make yet another tool to get it off.
... Adjustable oiler driven from the clutch drum. No wasted oil at idle.
...Good rubber carb mounting block and fuel tank is part of the plastic rear handle assembly. Should keep fuel cool and help prevent vapor lock.
...Small lid on rear of top cover can be removed for access to plug and air filter.
...Good nylon air filter. No tools needed to service it.
...Bolt on steel dog spikes.
...Inertia chain brake.
NEGATIVE FEATURES:
...Worst quality chain I have ever seen. Several links were so tight they would barely pivot. Chain had never been properly sharpened and was more chipper than semi-chisel. In keeping with the theme, I bought a replacement chain from China ($10.87 CAN), a much better quality semi-chisel with chromed cutters and after a large initial "stretch", it settled in and cuts like a new chain should.
...Sprocket integral with clutch drum and is a very loose fit on the crankshaft. Replacement drum and rim sprocket available for $13.
...Throttle trigger was catching on inside of handle and I had to grind away some plastic to make it operate smoothly.
...The ground electrode on the spark plug had such a crappy looking weld, I threw it away.
...The flywheel has strange nylon starter pawls. Pull starter has spongy feel, probably because of these pawls. Metal ones are available.
... Paint was peeling off the bar before it was even used. Ah well, who needs a pretty bar.
IS IT WORTH IT?
If this saw is a fair example of the whole line, it has to be a good deal, however quality control, perhaps use of sub-standard material and manufacturing tolerances could combine to produce a few lemons. Long term reliability and how it would withstand heavy use are unknown, but remember if something breaks, the parts are cheap. If these saws need to be repaired, you might not be able to just drop them off at your local shop. They won't have parts, will have to order them and some shops may not even want to work on these saws. Anyway, if you buy a saw for $100, it doesn't make much sense to pay more than that to have it repaired. Parts are cheap but labor is not. The only way these saws are a good deal is for you to do the trouble shooting, order the parts that may take a long time to come and fix it yourself. Another approach, when something goes wrong, is to just buy another saw and keep the broken one for parts, hoping the same thing doesn't break on every saw.
