Review Oregon PowerNow Cordless Chainsaw

[Philbert]

Heavy Use Feedback

As noted above, I put the saw to heavier use at the charity wood cutting event yesterday, and passed it around to others interested in trying it. I had a great photo of Grandpatractor cutting a 14” log with it, until I realized that I had grabbed the GPS from my glove box instead of my camera. At least I know where he tried it.


Steve NW WI

As noted, the saw worked best on logs up to 4” diameter, although, it would cut through larger stuff if you were very patient. I gave up on the larger stuff after Thorcw showed me how fast he could cut the same logs with his 372xp. I asked a few A.S. members what kind of wood we were cutting. They replied, ‘firewood’. It was mostly some type of green, scrub maple.


Denny - event sponsor

I used the saw mostly to clean up and limb some maples that had gotten tangled and felled together, then used my 353 to cut up the trunks. This was an interesting comparison. The OREGON saw was quieter to use, and silent in-between cuts, whereas the Husqvarna kept idling. For stop-and-go limbing and clearing, the quiet saw, and instant start was nice. For limbing, it worked comparable to other, small saws. For production cutting, it could not keep up with the gasoline saws.

I got less than an hour of working time for each of the higher capacity Endurance batteries, doing the stop-and-go cutting with a variety of wood sizes. Zogger’s post is much more quantitative and scientific on this. The bar and chain oil in the tank outlasted 2 batteries - it is probably still a good idea to check this each time you change out a battery.

One problem we had was saw chips building up under the cover. I think that this is related to the design and location of the self-sharpener device. It is pretty easy to clear with the tool-less side cover removal, but not something I want to do on a continuing basis.


'firewood' chips

It takes a little getting used to the saw stopping when the battery runs out of charge. It is a sharp cut off, as advertised, instead of winding down, so I kept thinking that the circuit cut-out had engaged, or that the battery might have popped loose. After a second or so, I would remember to check the LED battery life indicator, and figure it out.

One positive feature I discovered is that, without a muffler, the saw does not get hot. So after cutting, it can go right into the case. The 353 had to cool off a bit before I could pack it away. Oregon may want to say that this is not just a ‘grab-and-go’ saw, but also a ‘stop-and-stash’ saw.

Philbert

 

[zogger]

Started on the field sides cleaning

Today my canine supervisors and I started on the cleanup of all the trees I dropped last week. I went out with a three saw plan, but wound up only using the Oregon, and two batteries.

The goal today was a white oak, 12 inches at the stump

OK, I limbed off all the real small stuff, and bucked to this point..end of battery one, got a lot so far, and very little -negligible- trash left in the field

Final haul. finished the whole tree down to the real thick pieces, still had enough battery left to buck up one small big dry pine branch that was handy, plus a standing dead dogwood, all going into the stack at home. Total volume, 12.5 cubic feet....but..this is all mostly real dang good serious pieces of white oak, some I split into fourths, some into halves, and dog wood, with just a few pieces of the pine kindling mixed in. And that's a tight stack in the box, I filled in the nooks and crannies well.

In retrospect, because I had so much battery left over after finishing bucking the oak, I am thinking I could have dropped the tree and bucked it all up on two batteries. I also noticed that the batteries, towards end of charge, if you get the thermal overload shutdown or they show zero LEDs lit up for state of charge, indicating nothing..wait a few minutes, like three minutes or so, they come back to life for three or four more decent cuts. Then that's *really* it, they need recharge.

That's the smallest tree of this week's work, so I know I will be using the gassers as well. Next all battery saw test will be after they are done, and I go back to taking out some smaller standing dead trees, got my eye on two decent elms.

 

[Philbert]

Heavy Fuel's Cell Phone Videos

Cell phone video by Heavy Fuel.
Taken at the charity wood cutting event (a little embarrassing that my hearing protection looks like Elmer Fudd. Not needed for this saw, but, I could have at least parked them a little neater!)

On YouTube:

Philbert demonstrates electric saw with no throttle blipping.
Philbert demonstrates electric saw with no throttle blipping. - YouTube



Philbert Sharpening Chain
Philbert Sharpening Chain - YouTube

 

[zogger]

Instant on/off is great

As noted above, I put the saw to heavier use at the charity wood cutting event yesterday, and passed it around to others interested in trying it. I had a great photo of Grandpatractor cutting a 14” log with it, until I realized that I had grabbed the GPS from my glove box instead of my camera. At least I know where he tried it.



As noted, the saw worked best on logs up to 4” diameter, although, it would cut through larger stuff if you were very patient. I gave up on the larger stuff after Thorcw showed me how fast he could cut the same logs with his 372xp. I asked a few A.S. members what kind of wood we were cutting. They replied, ‘firewood’. It was mostly some type of green, scrub maple.



I used the saw mostly to clean up and limb some maples that had gotten tangled and felled together, then used my 353 to cut up the trunks. This was an interesting comparison. The OREGON saw was quieter to use, and silent in-between cuts, whereas the Husqvarna kept idling. For stop-and-go limbing and clearing, the quiet saw, and instant start was nice. For limbing, it worked comparable to other, small saws. For production cutting, it could not keep up with the gasoline saws.

I got less than an hour of working time for each of the higher capacity Endurance batteries, doing the stop-and-go cutting with a variety of wood sizes. Zogger’s post is much more quantitative and scientific on this. The bar and chain oil in the tank outlasted 2 batteries - it is probably still a good idea to check this each time you change out a battery.

One problem we had was saw chips building up under the cover. I think that this is related to the design and location of the self-sharpener device. It is pretty easy to clear with the tool-less side cover removal, but not something I want to do on a continuing basis.



It takes a little getting used to the saw stopping when the battery runs out of charge. It is a sharp cut off, as advertised, instead of winding down, so I kept thinking that the circuit cut-out had engaged, or that the battery might have popped loose. After a second or so, I would remember to check the LED battery life indicator, and figure it out.

One positive feature I discovered is that, without a muffler, the saw does not get hot. So after cutting, it can go right into the case. The 353 had to cool off a bit before I could pack it away. Oregon may want to say that this is not just a ‘grab-and-go’ saw, but also a ‘stop-and-stash’ saw.

Philbert

Instant on off is great! It's real nice to just set it down, it is off, take your time, remove all the trim branches that are in the way, then get back to cutting. I like the trims out of my way, plus makes it easier to find and grab all the bucked off pieces you want to save once they *are* out of the way. No sitting there with an idling saw wasting fuel, no reyanking it to get started again. I like to clean up as I go, instead of wading and tripping through mess piles.

Glad the other guys got to try it out.

I still haven't tried mine with regular 3/8ths low pro, I will once this sharpening stone is shot and I have to take it off anyway, see how the chip clearing does then.
I would also like the tool-less cover to have a bit finer threads, so it takes more turns, but tightens better.

Yep, bar oil life is fantastic. I am getting the same, two + batteries worth per tank. And it is a small tank, so a jug of oil will last a long time. And it does oil very well, the chain stays clean and lubed, and it leaks so very little at rest it is almost non existent. So bar life should be pretty good.

Did you look at that chain close? Sure looks like you could, if you wanted to or had to, keep it sharpened with a flat file, at least somewhat sharpened. I guess you'd need a diamond flat file for that diamond sharpening cutter though, or something like that.

Did the other guys like it, knowing what it was designed for?

 

[Philbert]

Did you look at that chain close? Sure looks like you could, if you wanted to or had to, keep it sharpened with a flat file, at least somewhat sharpened.

On this chain, I have really only sharpened it to show people how it works. A couple of times over 5, full battery charge/runs (I'm starting to keep track like other guys measure tanks of fuel run). Not sure that I want to get creative with this as I don't think I could get each tooth consistent.

Did the other guys like it, knowing what it was designed for?

Most of these guys are accustomed to running bigger saws. There was definitely some curiosity, and I think that several were impressed, compared to their expectations. I am hoping that a few will post comments; positive, negative or neutral, in their own words.

Philbert

 

[Steve NW WI]

Originally Posted by zogger

Did the other guys like it, knowing what it was designed for?

That's me in Philbert's first pic. I do think it's a nice little machine that would work well for a homeowner that does occasional pruning, or for someone that wants a no fuss saw up at the cabin to cut some campfire wood. I was pretty impressed with the torque it had, but kind of expected that out of an electric. My only dislikes were the price (perhaps it will come down in the long run, but right now it's not competitive with even the smaller Stihl, Husky, etc. saws, let alone the box store stuff), and the fact that while everything else (sharpening, bar cover, etc.) is toolless, you still need a screwdriver to tighten the chain.

Based on the little I've run it, and you guys' reviews, I wouldn't hesitate to mention it as a good option for homeowner friends.

To use the car dealer line: "What's it gonna take to put you in one of these babies?" Probably half or less the current $400 price tag, and a little more long term testing (but that's just me - I'm not an "early adopter").

What would I change? A little smaller sizewise would be good. Philbert and I speculated that probably it's size and styling was deliberate to make it look as much like a "real" saw as possible, probably good for a first generation tool like this, but after they catch on, lets not make em bigger than they need to be. Also the chain cover plugging issue, which I suspect is due to the cupped cutter style on the Powersharp chain, could possibly be fixed by diverting some cooling fan airflow to the area.

 

[zogger]

Chip plugging and today's tree and economics costs

On retrospect, the only time I got a cover fulla chips was noodling a beech crotch.
I remembered this morning, and seeing as how I hadn't cleaned it since yesterday, I opened it up..bupkis, nothing, just a bit of oily dust and a few chips. Looked like any other saw with a sharp chain after one tank of fuel. And that was two full batteries in mostly green white oak. Nothing like what Philbert got.


So todays project was a much larger wild cherry. I was three saw planning it, so only took one battery. I ran it out, got all the trims off completely, then bucked, and I counted as I stacked, 146 pieces, worked out to 6.5 cubic feet. I stacked that in the forward row to get a pic, before I bucked with the gassers, didn't want to confuse the two "score" amounts of wood. Final tally was 18.5 cubic feet in the back row, the 6.5 in the front, leaving a dozen or so of the largest main trunk rounds behind. I'll pick them up later... Call it a fifth of a cord, close enough, 100% pure cherry.

Here is the saw sprocket area and the cover, showing one full battery of debris, after I cleaned it (rag and little stick action in the field) before I started cutting today
.
(notice it is six pin, with the 14 -need to change that above where I brane pharted and got that wrong bar, kept calling it a 16. I am thinking a 7 pin and maybe a 12 inch bar with normal low pro as an experimental mod....)(the shipped bar also looks like it will take the regular external powersharp sharpening cassette..so you could lose the internal stone and just use external, along with the stone moving apparatus, if you still wanted the self sharpening system. That would open up the discharge area more, and take some weight off the saw, not much but some)

I got this far on the tree, trims off and the smaller pieces bucked off with one charge.

The battery only part of the score.

As to the over all size issue, I don't think it is too big. It's small saw size. For one, it needs to be that wide to fit those big batteries. You want some length in the rear handle for a balance with the bar. The ergonomics of rear handle styled chainsaws are pretty set, I don't see how they could make it much different. the other little battery saws have the battery in the handle, but these batts are so big and heavy that would seriously screw up the balance.

Some rainy day coming up I will clean it well then disassemble it for a tear down set of pics, so we can look at it better.

As to cost..hard to compare. It isn't a gas saw. It's not sold as a gas saw, it is sold as the ultimate "you grab it anytime and it just works, on/off" no hassle saw for various jobs. No fuel, no mix, no taking it to the shop for sharpening tool. I checked around for an hour or so on google this morning, I can't find anything close to it for a fair comparison, which would be battery powered saws. There are much smaller, less capacity, teeny bar length battery saws for cheaper, and only two others in the same "class", the Stihl and the Bosch (as far as I know). Both of those are 36 volt (close enough to the same class). The Stihl is at least a hundred adjusted bucks higher, and the Bosch is close to the Oregon. Both have smaller shipped bars. Neither of them has built in self sharpening. Both batteries stand alone replacement cost are higher in price. Heck, even the smaller you can get it here now Makita cordless saw battery is much more expensive than the Oregon. Oregon is the *cheapest* of the better battery saws out there now, looking at performance specs at least.


The deal with homeowner saws is...they buy one with the do dads, use it twice, it sits, next year they go to use it and it won't start. They take it to the shop, shop quotes them a ridiculous high figure, they sell it a big loss on Craigslist and go buy another cheap saw, or entry level big name brand saw. The next year the same thing happens again, even with the alleged good saw, because we know they just slap will not do maintenance, and cut with a dull chain, or put it on backwards, and use incorrect mix and so on, then leave half a tank in the saw for six months to a year or more, put the mix in the bar oil and vice versa, all that stuff.... No start, endless yanking and cussing, back to the shop, where they get hit with repair sticker shock all over again.

They have now spent what one of these Oregon saws cost, plus the aggravation of no start/no cut when they need it, and they still *don't own a reliable for them running saw*. They have to buy another one, or get the old one fixed, now they are way over the cost of one of these.

And we all here know that happens, because we buy those gunked up dirty saws they sell at a loss, yes? Millions of them out there, and millions of annoyed homeowners. This saw was designed to address all those issues, and pretty much nails it. The only thing left to do is somehow come out with a bar and saw chain that doesn't require bar oil....

If you look at it that way, this is a much better deal economically for them up front.

 

[zogger]

Chip buildup revisited and I think solved

OK, I have gone several charges without getting the massive chip build up scenario..until this morning. This morning's job was a 12 inch at the base sweetgum. Got all but the last three cuts with the Oregon saw, it was still cutting fine and just ran out of battery, and still throwing chips.

However, when I pulled the cover for inspection, it looked like this:

Ok, that sucks, but I know why it happened now! It was definitely the self sharpening system. What happens is, there is a small gap between the moving stone assembly and the case side, real thin, but there. I carefully flicked out those chips a little at a time so I could follow the buildup pattern. Found it. A tiny sliver which was quite long had gotten wedged behind that assembly. The stick (mostly a long bark sliver) sticking out in the discharge chute was long enough so that chips flying by bent it back. It finally bent enough to jam, causing a pile up of chips, which in turn, made the jam worse.

I believe this happens when limbing off the real small branches, you are cutting at an angle off a larger branch or the trunk, not exactly a nice neat perpendicular bucking cut, the "slashing' styled cut in other words. If you don't get a perfect clean cut, you get a tear, it throws those long slivers, and if it hits just right, gets wedged back in there and can cause problems.

Like I said, I wasn't getting this that often, and I wanted to analyze it when it happened again, because Philbert brought it up so I went "hmm, OK, this is a design issue if we are both getting that".

The solution is be more careful and try to make sure your cuts are clean and as perpendicular to the wood as possible, or just lose the internal sharpener and put a regular low pro chain on, or switch to the external powersharp system.

I think next tree, Mr. Fiskars hatchet and machete are going with me, I am going to Conan off the real small stuff I leave in the field, then start bucking cuts only on the smaller stuff I want to keep with the Oregon saw.

I should get more wood to take home per charge that way, plus, we'll see if it eliminates the chip buildup problem, retaining the stock saw config with the internal sharpener (I like it, pretty handy thing really)

Oh, no pic, but I got about 8 cubic feet of take home wood though. Last three larger rounds I bucked with the husky.

I tell you, I think I have a coupla of the best "little" saws out there.

 

[zogger]

Ehancing Productivity with the Fiskars Upgrade Module

Today's project was the large ash tree, the largest tree of my experimental trees in this batch this week. I toted out a three saw plan, plus the fiskars hatchet and the machete.

First, the machete was a no go on limbing, not real suitable for whacking very hard wood like ash. Whereas the hatchet was superb! The little Fiskars hatchet comes pretty sharp, and it worked admirably on taking off the trims I didn't want. Why the heck I haven't been using the old woodman's tried and true standard is beyond me. Guess I got fixated on having to do everything with an engine.

Anyway, because I wasn't using any of the battery for trimming, all the cuts with the Oregon saw were "take home wood" cuts. You get a LOT more you want to keep per battery charge then.

Tree ready to start bucking, after first limbing with the "upgrade biodrive module"

Some of the small saw score (some was stacked already)

Follow up on chip build up: nothing today, perfectly empty inside after a full charge, just some normal oily dust stuff. I had just enough charge left to wipe off the stone with my finger, then run the sharpener for a coupla seconds before pulling the battery and putting it back on the charger. Keeping those long tears out keeps the chute from plugging up.

Bonus pic! The cute one with her first ever in her life split! I called her over and say "here try this, it just doesn't get any more fun or easier than these straight dry poplar rounds" (I mixed in a standing dead poplar with the ash today) A few whacks later, once she got the range and did more than a token girly swing, POP, should have seen her face,,she goes "I did it"!!!!

 

[zogger]

Cherry is just Cherry

Got to do another nice cherry tree today, and had determined this was going to be an all electric day, no matter what it took, with the fiskars hatchet doing the trims as before. (that is working out nice, fast and efficient and lets the saw do the saw work)(plus it is fun to do a little hatchet work..)

Here is the tree after the trim

Traditional saw on a stump shot-the hard working CS250E

And the score, 25 + cubic feet, or a fifth of a cord! And decent wood too, a lot of very nice rounds! Total run time, 2.5 battery charges. Had enough left on the third battery to buck up a lot of the still hanging around the back yard big pine that got dropped earlier (got tons more to go, too)

This is the third largest round from the trunk, for some scale

That's some fun stuff to split, too!

 

[zogger]

Woo HOO I beat the mud!

I didn't take any pics yesterday, but I did two more sweetgums,which were the end of my first batch of experimental + needed to go work trees. BEAT THE MUD HAPPY DANCE! hehehehehe Mom's nature nailed me on that before, and this old dog can learn new tricks then, go ahead and get hot in the summer and get r done while you got access. I got to be past well past 2013 into 2014 now. Started getting our first heavy fall rain last night and still raining today, and this will happen off and on all winter, closing up my easy access to what I call the "swamp wood" in the lower pastures. I still have upper pasture woodlot access, but it just ain't the same, and less choices. (for cull wood I mean, I just take woodlot management/pasture cleaning cull wood, small to large). You guys way up north got to wait until the ground freezes hard, down here, you have to go out when it is sun baked hard. Mud is mud, just two different ways to go about avoiding it.

No pics yesterday, but here is the final split and ready to go stack, a lot, well over 50% cut with the Oregon (bleeding edge new tech) most of the felling and much larger cuts with the grampaw (old and reliable tech, but man is that geezer thirsty for mix and bar oil) saw, the 245a, with the little husky doing some work in between. This is three rows deep, Mr. Fiskars in there to show the work he did, and for some scale.

There's another stack nearby, somewhat larger, with still a big pile of unsplit rounds, all the real big stuff yet to go. That'll give me something to do with wood (my daily woodrobics workout) once access gets limited, I can go out and split for fifteen minutes a day or something.

 

[Philbert]

Zogger,

Sorry I missed your 'Happy Dance' - got any video of that?

I really appreciate your quantitative evaluations on the battery life. Saying, 'I get a half-hour to an hour of work time' is one thing, because work habits and methods vary. Saying that you got '25 cubic feet of cherry', or 'a fifth of a cord of hardwood in 16 inch lengths', is something that people can visualize.

Philbert

 

[Steve NW WI]

Nice work, Zogger. I always thought I was pretty conservative, not leaving anything over 2" or so in the woods. You take that to a whole new level!

The saw just doesn't fit my uses, probably never will, but if I were an Oregon dealer, I'd want to have one on the shelf and another demo model ready for when the homeowners come in. I think they'll be a big success in that market.

PS - spent 3 years at Ft Benning, I know well the wet season you speak of. Luckily for me I have just a couple low spots that I have to wait for a freeze for up here, most of my cutting is done on sandy upland woods. That "Georgia Clay" has well earned its reputation for being slicker than whale snot when wet, yet still being able to stick to everything when it gets slung around. Fun to 'wheel in, not fun to clean up afterwards!

 

[zogger]

Ya, fun

Zogger,

Sorry I missed your 'Happy Dance' - got any video of that?

I really appreciate your quantitative evaluations on the battery life. Saying, 'I get a half-hour to an hour of work time' is one thing, because work habits and methods vary. Saying that you got '25 cubic feet of cherry', or 'a fifth of a cord of hardwood in 16 inch lengths', is something that people can visualize.

Philbert

Bwa, no vid of the happy dance. Last wheelbarrow to the pile then we covered it I stood and stared at the thing for awhile, then went whoop! that was it, good enough...

I liked doing the analysis and chronicling the actual production and what worked and what didn't etc. Old frustrated non scientist here....coulda woulda shoulda, water under the dam now, so I make do when given the opportunity, and this was an unexpected and fun opportunity for me.

 

[zogger]

Mud..lookit the bright side...

Nice work, Zogger. I always thought I was pretty conservative, not leaving anything over 2" or so in the woods. You take that to a whole new level!

The saw just doesn't fit my uses, probably never will, but if I were an Oregon dealer, I'd want to have one on the shelf and another demo model ready for when the homeowners come in. I think they'll be a big success in that market.

PS - spent 3 years at Ft Benning, I know well the wet season you speak of. Luckily for me I have just a couple low spots that I have to wait for a freeze for up here, most of my cutting is done on sandy upland woods. That "Georgia Clay" has well earned its reputation for being slicker than whale snot when wet, yet still being able to stick to everything when it gets slung around. Fun to 'wheel in, not fun to clean up afterwards!

It's fabulous ballast weight and a fantastic undercoating...

..gives me a great excuse to own a pressure washer

I take that little stuff in the pastures as much for being able to drive over it as anything else. I am the onliest guy who drives down there, so I don't want any problems hitting stuff, or leaving ruts. You know what tractors and tires cost.... Up on the hillsides I am not *quite* as meticulous and picky, I still takea lot of small, and use some of the slash to build little berms if I see any runoff spots handy that look like they need it. I use slash and drag around deadfalls that are half rotten. Doesn't take much time and after some years here now I can see where it makes a difference in the areas I have done that. I've got this like 20 year plan that eventually a lot of these woods will look like parks.... It's good to add to the soil tilth as well.

There's nothing that will stop the cows from making deep trails though...

This is funny, I've got this spot where the cows insist on walking across a ditch. I would rather they walked around that part, just downhill a little. Nope. They think different. No matter how much junk I have dumped in that place, I mean mountains of branches and even cut down wads of rose bush pickers and scrap rotten lumber and assorted folderol, with a week or two they got it beat down to a cowpath again.

The keeping the little stuff habit I got when cutting by hand, it works fine, just takes a little more time when doing a tree, (and you feed the stove more often, no big deal either) but I don't care about that, cutting is fun, little saw, big saw...when you get paid to cut, even indirectly, life is good!

 

[Philbert]

Suburban Safari

I have a friend who lives in the suburbs, who is not very handy with yard tools. But he had a brush pile that needed to be tamed, and a half-dead tree that he wanted cut back, but not removed. We used a long handled lopper on everything 1 inch diameter or less, and the Oregon saw on everything larger.

The 'kicker'? We did it across the street from a church on Sunday without disturbing anyone. Later in the afternoon, we heard a conventional chain saw about 2 blocks away.

The pile here took just less than one charge on the Endurance battery (we finished it off on some other stuff not shown).

Philbert

 

[zogger]

Much coolness

I have a friend who lives in the suburbs, who is not very handy with yard tools. But he had a brush pile that needed to be tamed, and a half-dead tree that he wanted cut back, but not removed. We used a long handled lopper on everything 1 inch diameter or less, and the Oregon saw on everything larger.

The 'kicker'? We did it across the street from a church on Sunday without disturbing anyone. Later in the afternoon, we heard a conventional chain saw about 2 blocks away.

The pile here took just less than one charge on the Endurance battery (we finished it off on some other stuff not shown).

Philbert

Hope that gets used for firewood! It's fun running it when it is quiet, isn't it? I mean, I like all saws for different reasons, the cs250e is just spiffy to run in ..what's a word..stealth mode.


How did your friend like the saw? Did he run it any?

Dang now ya got me thinking again, I *have* a couple of loppers, but never take them with me out cutting..hmm..the fiskars hatchet is fast, but loppers could work over head better when a tree is down and branches are way up...hmmmm

I still like that branch holder Bailey's has for like..120? Something like that. Good for those branches that go WAY up there once the tree is down, so you want to whack the whole dang branch off and do it on the ground.

Best use of battery power and so on..you had commented before on what I was writing...it comes from me being caretaker at a big spread that had a really large solar installation (well, and running my own, all my electricity for almost a year was one panel and one battery)(and plus being an amateur lay scientist..I am way more that than being an engineer..sometimes good, sometimes not so good..). I monitored and ran everything and got real good at sizing and timing jobs. For instance, keeping track, I would know within fifteen minutes or so when the battery banks were at full charge (past records, keeping track of how sunny it was, time of year, etc, previous demands during the day, that stuff), that is when we would fire up the well pump to water the garden, run the washing machine, etc. After awhile you get used to adjusting your electricity demand to when it is the most practical and economical. Really large savvy corporations do similar, saves them a LOT on their electric bill. (Homeowners could too if they offered time of day rates...)

Small mindset change, that's all, real similar to getting used to running your woodstove. You don't even think about it after awhile, you just know what size chunks and what species go in and when depending on what sort of heating day you are having. You become the biothermostat...

I am finding with the battery saw now it is about automatic, I know exactly when I should not cut a piece off the tree, and move back to smaller stuff, working around and around all the branches, and when to whip out the small gasser, or medium or large gasser. No sense wasting fuel (and engine longevity), running too of big a saw on too small of a piece, and conversely, no sense wasting battery go-juice on too big of a piece either.

 

[Philbert]

Totally Subjective Chain Comparison

A common question with the PowerNow saw has to do with the PowerSharp chains. Some people are not familiar with these, or not comfortable with them, or simply prefer their standard chains. Since you can run conventional chain (3/8" low profile) on this saw, I conducted a totally subjective comparison using the following 3 chains, on the same log, with the same user, same time of the day, day of the week, same point in the election cycle, etc.:

- PowerSharp (91PS);
- 91PX - low kickback with bumper drive links;
- 91VG - low kickback with bumper tie straps.

The PowerSharp chain was used, and I ran it through a 5 second sharpening cycle, whether it needed it or not. The 91PX and 91VG chains were new, out of the box.

The log was a 5" diameter, knotty, box elder trunk that has been down for a few months. I suppose that results could vary with the type of wood. I cut several cookies with each chain, as fast as I could swap them out, and even went back, and tried each a second time. Out of respect for bobt, I only changed chains with the saw in an upright position.

I don't have a digital video camera to show any quantitative test results.

Much to my surprise, the PowerSharp chain actually cut the fastest, averaging around 6 seconds per cut. The 91PX and 91VG were pretty close together, with the PX maybe being slightly faster, but each came in a few seconds slower than the PowerSharp chain. The edges of the cuts were not any smoother with the conventional chains either. I don't think that chip clearance is a big issue with wood this small, so the similarity between the 91PX and 91VG is not surprising. But I was not expecting the PowerSharp chain to be the fastest. It also had the least tendency to bog the cordless saw down.

Bottom line: the saw worked with all three chains, but worked the best with the PowerSharp chain on this wood. Another finding was that the dogs thought that the cookies, were, well . . . cookies and cheerfully distributed them throughout the yard.

Philbert


Test Fixture


Test supervised by unbiased inspectors.


Paws down - this cookie wins!

 

[zogger]

Pretty cool!

A common question with the PowerNow saw has to do with the PowerSharp chains. Some people are not familiar with these, or not comfortable with them, or simply prefer their standard chains. Since you can run conventional chain (3/8" low profile) on this saw, I conducted a totally subjective comparison using the following 3 chains, on the same log, with the same user, same time of the day, day of the week, same point in the election cycle, etc.:

- PowerSharp (91PS);
- 91PX - low kickback with bumper drive links;
- 91VG - low kickback with bumper tie straps.

The PowerSharp chain was used, and I ran it through a 5 second sharpening cycle, whether it needed it or not. The 91PX and 91VG chains were new, out of the box.

The log was a 5" diameter, knotty, box elder trunk that has been down for a few months. I suppose that results could vary with the type of wood. I cut several cookies with each chain, as fast as I could swap them out, and even went back, and tried each a second time. Out of respect for bobt, I only changed chains with the saw in an upright position.

I don't have a digital video camera to show any quantitative test results.

Much to my surprise, the PowerSharp chain actually cut the fastest, averaging around 6 seconds per cut. The 91PX and 91VG were pretty close together, with the PX maybe being slightly faster, but each came in a few seconds slower than the PowerSharp chain. The edges of the cuts were not any smoother with the conventional chains either. I don't think that chip clearance is a big issue with wood this small, so the similarity between the 91PX and 91VG is not surprising. But I was not expecting the PowerSharp chain to be the fastest. It also had the least tendency to bog the cordless saw down.

Bottom line: the saw worked with all three chains, but worked the best with the PowerSharp chain on this wood. Another finding was that the dogs thought that the cookies, were, well . . . cookies and cheerfully distributed them throughout the yard.

Philbert

cool experiment! Glad you did it, now I don't have to! %^)

Ya, surprising the powersharp beat the other chains.

The other cutting experiment like that I want to do is find a one pin larger drive sprocket, a shorter bar, like a 10" maybe, and get one of these PS loops made the correct size for it, or just go buy one for a shorter bar....

I'll have to take that drive sprocket off and see what it compares to. I know it won't balance as well with a shorter bar, but I'd like to bump up the chain speed a little.

 

[Philbert]

The other cutting experiment like that I want to do is find a one pin larger drive sprocket, a shorter bar, like a 10" maybe, and get one of these PS loops made the correct size for it, or just go buy one for a shorter bar.... I'd like to bump up the chain speed a little.

I don't know what to tell you about the sprocket. Maybe see if there is an Oregon part number on it that will tell you if it is compatible with another saw brand/model. As for the chain, I think that you would be better off finding a pre-made loop the right length - an Oregon rep told me that the PowerSharp chain does not seat well in most chain breakers, resulting in damaged links. I am sure you could still do it, but would take more effort than with conventional chain.

Might be an easier experiment to do using just 91PX/VG/VX chain if you need custom lengths.

Chain speed would remain the same (ft/second) regardless of the bar length.

Philbert