OK, I scored a saw. Now I need help deciding how bad to feel.

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It's worth more than $40 in parts to the saw shop.

How much is it worth to you?

An offer of $40 would be an insult if I owned it. Recommend asking the owner what he wants for it before burning any bridges on future dealings.
 
I think its good that your conscience is telling you something is up. Its not about etiquette its a trust issue. Its not like you saw it at a yard sale and offered a low ball gambling on it running or not, you know its a runner and you know what its worth and you also know that the guy made a mistake one way or another. He probably got the saw mixed up at some point and he may remember once he finds the "other" saw, who knows. Its not worth the risk in my opinion to get a deal and maybe tarnish your reputation down the road, but hey its totally your decision of course and I think a lot of people would just do it.
My take is this: Come totally clean and tell him what you found and offer him what you think is fair for a saw in that condition. If he's decent he will see that you had an opportunity to screw him on the price and didn't take it and maybe he would give you a good deal on it for that. I think probably, as someone else mentioned I think, its best to buy the saw for whatever price you are willing to gamble on, take it home and then your conscience is clear. If it needs a lot of work you didn't pay full price and if its in suprisingly good shape, you got lucky and all's good. Sounds like the guy let you take the saw home on good faith and you should be at least as straight with him.
 
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I don't know what that dealer charges for labor but if the bar stud was stripped and the oil pump was weak, the parts and labor may well have been more than the previous owner was willing to put in an older saw.
Tell him you got the saw running and the bar stud fixed and ask him how much you owe him for the saw.

He will very likely shoot you a great price and may even let you work it out in the shop.



Mike
 
Don't feel bad about something stupid simple like that.



At least your life ain't ####. I'm pissed and miserable right now.
 
If the shop quoted him a new set of cases to fix that stud, the P.O. probably just bailed on it. I am not sure if Stihl calls out a heli-coil for stud replacement on an 034 or not. There are lots of opinions on thread inserts. Maybe the shop owner was not interested in trying one on a bar stud. No telling. I'd just go ask him if he'd do $50 or whatever you'd otherwise pay for a parts saw. Tell him you're going to try and fix it and see what he says. The guy likely forgot he had the saw, and $50 is probably more than he has in it anyway. If he actually wanted to part the thing out, there would have been some stuff missing from it when you found it.

FYI, you can save yourself the T-bone next time, and just use an 056 MAG bar stud. They have a 10mm thread in the case. A 10mm tap would have been cheaper than the steak and calling in a favor.
 
Offer him the $40.00 (hopefully he'll accept it), and never again mention the saw to him, especially if turns out not to need much to put it back to cutting wood.

Don't feel guilty. The man runs a saw shop, he's a good mechtech, & he sent a repairable saw to the junk/donor pile. That was his doing, not yours.


This is what I would do. Just make sure you are square on the deal before you leave. be it 40 or 100 bucks.
 
Oldmar,
I think we met at Oscars GTG back a few years ago. I admire your honesty in this situation. Tough balancing act when you mix money and friends. I would do whatever makes you sleep best at night. You answer to only you at the end of the day.

I use a shop near my often and ask him all the time for saws and he says he just throws them out. I say i'll pay you for them and take the parts. HE looks at me funny. I got friendly with the techs there and they pull stuff out of the garbage for me sometimes. I give them beer, they are happy. The gave me a ms180 a few weeks ago. Just dropped it in my truck at work said "here have it it was in the garbage anyway". When I got it home I started checking it out....yup you guessed it...nothing wrong at all. Just bad gas. I told the tech who dropped it off and he said..."well it was in the garbage---so don't worry man"

Handle every situation in a way that you could explain to your children and have them be proud.
A
 
Be honest, number one rule in life!!!!

That dealer prolly just tell you to keep the saw, an easy repair for you does not mean a cheap repair for Joe home owner.

A lawyer charges 400 bucks an hour, now how long did it take you to fix it???
 
FYI, you can save yourself the T-bone next time, and just use an 056 MAG bar stud. They have a 10mm thread in the case. A 10mm tap would have been cheaper than the steak and calling in a favor.

The oversize stud was not available locally, so I went with the Time-sert. The guy at the garage gets the steak regardless, he's paid me plenty to fix cars with him, and saved me several fortunes on my own cars. Last week he helped me fix the AC in my wife's car. Total cost of repair; six dollars twenty-eight cents. Guy makes me look like a hero.
 
Oldmar,
I think we met at Oscars GTG back a few years ago.

Handle every situation in a way that you could explain to your children and have them be proud.
A

Angelo, we did indeed meet at Oscar's place, how are you? Speaking of explaining things to kids, I haven't been around AS for a while, as we have a new addition, our first, as of the week before Christmas. Best to you and yours.
 
If the saw was sold by a widow that had no idea what it was worth, then guilt feelings should be in there somewhere. But a saw sold by a dealer, well, don't worry about it.
 
Angelo, we did indeed meet at Oscar's place, how are you? Speaking of explaining things to kids, I haven't been around AS for a while, as we have a new addition, our first, as of the week before Christmas. Best to you and yours.

Ok then if you have a little one in the fold then no more thoughts to this saw...focus on the new addition and Mom...

I'm doing well, thanks. I see John often as we have become pretty good friends. He's trying to teach me to climb but I'm way too smart for that !!!! I keep promising JP( Ambull) to get back up his way but schedules are tight with 3 little un's and baseball and Karate and soccer and football camps and ....
 
Ok then if you have a little one in the fold then no more thoughts to this saw...focus on the new addition and Mom...

I'm doing well, thanks. I see John often as we have become pretty good friends. He's trying to teach me to climb but I'm way too smart for that !!!! I keep promising JP( Ambull) to get back up his way but schedules are tight with 3 little un's and baseball and Karate and soccer and football camps and ....

Oh, I can find a few minutes for chainsaws, and guitar amps, and tractors...

Sometimes the baby sits in her jogger and watches dad fix things.

I'm pretty sure JP is not far up the road from me here. If you're ever wanting to visit, I'm pretty sure I can swing food and a guestroom. We should do a GTG here in the fall. I'll check into the insurance end. It's nice up here by the lake. Say hi to John for me when next you see him, I very nearly dropped in on him back in November or so, when I was down that way.
 
Oh, I can find a few minutes for chainsaws, and guitar amps, and tractors...

Sometimes the baby sits in her jogger and watches dad fix things.

I'm pretty sure JP is not far up the road from me here. If you're ever wanting to visit, I'm pretty sure I can swing food and a guestroom. We should do a GTG here in the fall. I'll check into the insurance end. It's nice up here by the lake. Say hi to John for me when next you see him, I very nearly dropped in on him back in November or so, when I was down that way.

10-4...I say we meet a JP's he's got a mini truck thing I gotta drive before too soon. Maybe we take the Harleys for a pocono run.
 
Many company reps pressure their dealers to put as many of the older saws in the scrap pile as possible, and sell NEW saws to make better numbers for the reps. That makes better business sense for the OEM and the dealer both. Many older saws end up needing parts that are NLA, and a shop can get burned on anything they work on but can't readily finish and get paid for.
 
OK, here's the resolution. Hand To God, this is how it happened. I'm still laughing.

I told Dude that I wanted to keep the saw, how much cabbage would be appropriate? He says he would've got 50 worth of parts out of it, so give him 50. I'm tempted to offer more, I mean it's a 34 Super, not a 290, but he's perfectly happy with 50. Probably shouldn't argue.

I kinda need a push mower every now and again, does he have anything I can adopt/fix? Sure, take that orange one there, it makes funny noises, and it's been here for a year. See if you can fix it, and test it out on your lawn, like every week or so.

OK. Tighten blade, replace flywheel key, install air filter, mow that little spot in front of the house that I hate using the tractor on. I decide that I like orange mower very much indeed, which of course means that the folks who left it at the repair shop a year ago will be in touch presently. I mean, how could they not be, right?

The following morning, I $h!t you not, someone stops in looking for the aforementioned orange mower. Which, I should mention, would still be out in the shed, undiagnosed and unfixed had I not (temporarily) adopted it. Dude calls, uh, can you run that mower over?

Yup. I tested it, and it works fine.

Let me pay you for fixing the mower, he says. How much?

How 'bout that 034 from the pile?

Sure.

Cool. :msp_tongue:

I swear, the stories are almost better than the saws. BTW, been cutting with the 034 a few times this last week. I don't love my 026 any less, but the 34 is a whole 'nother animal. I'm pretty happy. It's got an 8 pin rim, and it really throws chips when you keep the revs up.
 
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