Hello all, just wanted to introduce myself. I spent a lot of time felling and cutting firewood as a kid, but haven't used a chainsaw in many years. Hurricane Irene changed that, and suddenly I find myself in a bit of a chainsaw "renaissance" (my wife thinks I am nuts of course).
The day before the storm hit here in tidewater VA, I decided to take out two 24' Leland Cypresses that had gotten too big and too close to my house (they were only about 1' tall when planted 10 years ago, which boggles my mind) as well as some limbs hanging over my shed. I pulled out my ~40 year old Poulan S25DA, a veritable family heirloom (more on that below) and got the job done, but the saw was very temperamental, especially re-starting. There was much swearing that day.
After the storm hit, my cutting workload increased exponentially. At my mother in law's place over in Surry county, three large hickory and poplar trees fell on her carport and car, a large gum tree fell over on her cabin, and there were 10-15 other trees down on her property and roads. The day after the storm, my brother-in-law and I were humiliated when both of our ancient hand-me-down saws failed to run reliably (more swearing). Besides that, it was obvious that my Poulan and its 14" blade were outgunned. So my brother in law bought a new Stihl 250, and for variety I grabbed an Echo CS-400 (it was a coin flip for me at the $300 price point, as both saws cut and ran well in my testing, and both had minor pluses and minuses).
The following weekend we cleaned up all of the small and medium stuff. The weekend after that, we teamed up with a neighbor who used to own a tree service, and got all the big trees off the houses using tractors, ropes, pulleys, you name it. It was quite an operation, and a good learning experience working with a pro. Finally this past weekend, we finished bucking and clearing up the last piles of limbs, and cleared 7-8 trees off the neighbor's driveway.
Incidentally, that former tree service pro runs a Stihl 044 for big stuff, and swears by little top-handle Echos for tree work. Both my brother-in-law's new MS250 and my new CS-400 ran great (a big step up from our old saws) and with a couple other people pitching in, it was an impressive show of chainsawing. We probably moved 25-30 tons of trees overall.
Speaking of old saws, I completely tore down the Poulan for inspection and cleanup. It had a full ~40 years of sawdust and bar oil gunk inside, and I found two big issues that explained why the saw was so temperamental. First, the rubber tip of the carb inlet needle was broken off, and was likely alternating between working and "floating" inside the inlet tube. That explains why the saw flooded easily sometimes. Second, the spark plug wire had a large gash in it, and was shorting on the bottom cooling fins. That explains why it would alternately run or not run when I fiddled with the plug. I rebuilt the carb, sealed and taped up the plug wire (re-routing it away from fins this time), installed a new fuel line and filter, filed and trued up the bar, and put the saw back to together. It fired right up, and ran great after a few minor carb tweaks.
Here's a shot of the old Poulan next to the new Echo:
The Poulan has led quite an interesting life, having cleared 4 pieces of land up in New England, providing firewood for 15 years, and being the go-to saw when neighbors, family, and friends had tree issues during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. It tackled a lot of heavy felling and bucking that I would never have picked a top-handle 14" saw for (didn't seem to be an issue for my dad). I'll put the Poulan into semi-retirement and just use it for light work every now and then, for old time's sake. At some point, it will need a new drive sprocket, as the current one is a bit worn down. It's an oddball 9-tooth 1/4" pitch sprocket and chain, and I may convert over to 3/8" pitch since it's more common (I haven't been able to determine if the current sprocket is original equipment or not).
I bought a 14" blade for the Echo, which will be make it more versatile for typical work in my yard than the stock 18" blade, and that will do most of the heavy lifting for a while. It cuts well enough with the 18" blade, so I imagine it will fly with a 14" blade.
The problem is that now I have the bug. I'll probably look for an old project saw to work on, and have the lust for a bigger saw along the lines of an 044 at some point...
thanks for reading,
219 (Craig)
The day before the storm hit here in tidewater VA, I decided to take out two 24' Leland Cypresses that had gotten too big and too close to my house (they were only about 1' tall when planted 10 years ago, which boggles my mind) as well as some limbs hanging over my shed. I pulled out my ~40 year old Poulan S25DA, a veritable family heirloom (more on that below) and got the job done, but the saw was very temperamental, especially re-starting. There was much swearing that day.
After the storm hit, my cutting workload increased exponentially. At my mother in law's place over in Surry county, three large hickory and poplar trees fell on her carport and car, a large gum tree fell over on her cabin, and there were 10-15 other trees down on her property and roads. The day after the storm, my brother-in-law and I were humiliated when both of our ancient hand-me-down saws failed to run reliably (more swearing). Besides that, it was obvious that my Poulan and its 14" blade were outgunned. So my brother in law bought a new Stihl 250, and for variety I grabbed an Echo CS-400 (it was a coin flip for me at the $300 price point, as both saws cut and ran well in my testing, and both had minor pluses and minuses).
The following weekend we cleaned up all of the small and medium stuff. The weekend after that, we teamed up with a neighbor who used to own a tree service, and got all the big trees off the houses using tractors, ropes, pulleys, you name it. It was quite an operation, and a good learning experience working with a pro. Finally this past weekend, we finished bucking and clearing up the last piles of limbs, and cleared 7-8 trees off the neighbor's driveway.
Incidentally, that former tree service pro runs a Stihl 044 for big stuff, and swears by little top-handle Echos for tree work. Both my brother-in-law's new MS250 and my new CS-400 ran great (a big step up from our old saws) and with a couple other people pitching in, it was an impressive show of chainsawing. We probably moved 25-30 tons of trees overall.
Speaking of old saws, I completely tore down the Poulan for inspection and cleanup. It had a full ~40 years of sawdust and bar oil gunk inside, and I found two big issues that explained why the saw was so temperamental. First, the rubber tip of the carb inlet needle was broken off, and was likely alternating between working and "floating" inside the inlet tube. That explains why the saw flooded easily sometimes. Second, the spark plug wire had a large gash in it, and was shorting on the bottom cooling fins. That explains why it would alternately run or not run when I fiddled with the plug. I rebuilt the carb, sealed and taped up the plug wire (re-routing it away from fins this time), installed a new fuel line and filter, filed and trued up the bar, and put the saw back to together. It fired right up, and ran great after a few minor carb tweaks.
Here's a shot of the old Poulan next to the new Echo:
The Poulan has led quite an interesting life, having cleared 4 pieces of land up in New England, providing firewood for 15 years, and being the go-to saw when neighbors, family, and friends had tree issues during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. It tackled a lot of heavy felling and bucking that I would never have picked a top-handle 14" saw for (didn't seem to be an issue for my dad). I'll put the Poulan into semi-retirement and just use it for light work every now and then, for old time's sake. At some point, it will need a new drive sprocket, as the current one is a bit worn down. It's an oddball 9-tooth 1/4" pitch sprocket and chain, and I may convert over to 3/8" pitch since it's more common (I haven't been able to determine if the current sprocket is original equipment or not).
I bought a 14" blade for the Echo, which will be make it more versatile for typical work in my yard than the stock 18" blade, and that will do most of the heavy lifting for a while. It cuts well enough with the 18" blade, so I imagine it will fly with a 14" blade.
The problem is that now I have the bug. I'll probably look for an old project saw to work on, and have the lust for a bigger saw along the lines of an 044 at some point...
thanks for reading,
219 (Craig)
