Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[svk]

In regards to chain touch ups....

My house is on a rock farm so if I can get through a full tank without rocking my chain I call it a success. My cabin is on sandy/clay soil so life is better up there.

My record is 7.5 tanks without a touchup...was cutting softwood with Stihl RS on my 550 and figured I would go as far as I could to see how long it would last. It was still very sharp at 7 tanks until I put the nose in the dirt.

 

[Sierra_rider]

The dealer I ended up getting the stohl from said they had a very long wait list for the 500i if/when they come in. Offered to add me to the list lol.
You happen to have a part number handy for that oiler? I got a full tank through the 400 yesterday before I had to run for my daughter and it still had about a little over half tank of oil.

There are 2 things I've found I don't care for about this saw. The oiler is garbage, and barely oils the 20" bar on it. Even then I couldn't get oil to mist off it on the butt end of a log. And the exhaust is turning the clutch side of the case brown. Not real happy about that

I don't remember the part numbers, I just ordered the control bolt and pump piston for a 461. Getting parts for the 461 wrap model will get more oil. IIRC, the standard 461 stuff only flows marginally more oil than the 362/400 oil.

You can buy the whole oiler, but putting the new control bolt and piston in the old oiler is the cheaper way to go.

 

[SS396driver]

Raining so I worked on the husky 350 . One bolt came out easy the other took the threads with it . Guess I’ll using a helicoil. The muffler took a lot of work to get the surface flat again . There is just an aluminum plate gasket and it looks a little warn guess I should replace it . The exhaust area on the head looks to be beat up from the muffler banging around . Would it be a good idea to use a high heat gasket there?

 

[sean donato]

The exhaust get pretty hot. I'd use decent gasket material on it, a smidgen of copper rtv would help seal it as well.

 

[SS396driver]

The exhaust get pretty hot. I'd use decent gasket material on it, a smidgen of copper rtv would help seal it as well.

I managed to clean it up a bit with a piece of 150 paper on a large dowel.

 

[chipper1]

Great pics.

I have a lot of respect for expert equipment operators. Armchair QB's can talk about pulling levers...but until you are the guy pulling levers you have no idea how difficult it is to do it perfectly!!!

Hold my beer....
I don't really drink, but it seemed like that was the proper place for that .
That being said, while I've never ran a crane like that, I do quite well with a 100' of stick either straight or on a knuckle boom. I really enjoy running equipment. Maybe I should get a job running a crane for a tree company, it just sucks when you're out in poor weather, rain really sucks to me.

 

[Jere39]

Hold my beer....
I don't really drink, but it seemed like that was the proper place for that .
That being said, while I've never ran a crane like that, I do quite well with a 100' of stick either straight or on a knuckle boom. I really enjoy running equipment. Maybe I should get a job running a crane for a tree company, it just sucks when you're out in poor weather, rain really sucks to me.

Mike the operator was really good in my opinion (which isn't worth all that much). But all my utility lines survived, and no divots in my driveway, so I'm happy.

Here is a two minute iPhone video of a lift, swing, and set of a large section of one of the trees:

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Nice work! Great pictures!

Thankyou!

 

[chipper1]

Mike the operator was really good in my opinion (which isn't worth all that much). But all my utility lines survived, and no divots in my driveway, so I'm happy.

Here is a two minute iPhone video of a lift, swing, and set of a large section of one of the trees:

That reminds me of when I was hauling steel on an 8-axle, I'd get the trailer in the hole just right 1st or 2nd try and they guys in receiving would be like wow, you made it look easy, then I'd say to them, so that's pretty good for my 2nd week driving truck . Some were like really . You don't just start out running a 250' hydraulic crane, I'm sure watching the way he set that down its not his first time . It would have been much easier to lean that lift away from the crane as you simply boom down, leaning it towards the crane you have to boom up and run line out at the same time. The guy in the skid has done this once or twice himself.
I bet the neighbor got a hefty bill for the work, but the guys were highly skilled and had the equipment to make it look "easy".
Thanks for the video.

 

[501Maico]

If you can lift it and put it in there they work great. The unfortunate thing is because the tubs are larger they also like to crack more because they get loaded up real heavy.
They come stock with pneumatic tires, but I have one flat free one on one of them. As you say, it does roll a little harder, but it never goes flat... Seems there's a give/take with most any product, whether it's functionality, quality, price, color(I like orange better than blue lol), service, that's why it's important to get what works best for you. The bummer is we usually end up spending a bunch of money figuring that out.
I really like the dual wheel wheelbarrows, they work great for me. Maybe you could head down to the local wheelbarrow dealer and then give them a test drive. The first time I used mine was on a large mulch job, I filled it way up(probably 2' higher than the sides) because I could lol. It was early morning and I proceeded to head down the incline to the first spot I needed mulch. When I got to wear I had to turn I tried to tip the handles like you would on a one wheeled unit, the wheelbarrow just kept going down the incline with me in tow slipping on dew covered grass. Sure would have been something funny to have gotten on video, I'm sure I was like .

Thanks for the information, I'll try to look at some before buying.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Wow, that would be nice.
The last soft wood job I did was all pine and cottonwood, I was able to do most of the job sharpening two times, that was a three day job, probably three cords of wood cut. Then the flush cutting started, and I burned thru the rest of the chain, probably filed 7-8 times that day.
When I'm working I run 18x.325 semi-chisel on my 50cc m-tronic/autotune saws so I can get 2 full tanks out of a sharpening, except the ported 261, which I run 20x3/8 on. When cutting around the house or helping cut firewood I run full chisel normally, the only reason I ran the semi on the ms251 the other day is because that's what was on it when I bought it and will be on it when I sell it .

Skip or semi skip can be fast, I prefer it on a 24 or longer bar. I see no need for it on anything shorter as I'd rather have the smoother/less grabby cut when limbing.
This is round filed semi-skip, it does alright, but no ribbons lol.

I run full comp .325 on my small saws. Like my 360 and 260 simply because in my opinion. They don't have the power to pull a 3/8 full skip or even semi skip chain. Due to the fact that there is a much bigger bite of wood in between cutters on the FS and SS chains. However, I seldom run those little saws to begin with. I'd say probably 5% of the time. The other 95% of the time it's my 660 or 661 PMS. As soon as I have my old 046 rebuilt. I'll be running that more often as well with FS chisel bit in smaller wood, say under 24".

 

[MustangMike]

Full comp chain generally will cut faster than skip, but if you are looking to use a long bar on a smaller saw, skip makes sense.

Also, in large diameter softwoods skip will clear the chips better. So, it really depends on what you are cutting.

My local tree guy uses 20" full skip because he says they hit things in the wood so often he just wants fewer teeth to sharpen!

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Full comp chain generally will cut faster than skip, but if you are looking to use a long bar on a smaller saw, skip makes sense.

Also, in large diameter softwoods skip will clear the chips better. So, it really depends on what you are cutting.

My local tree guy uses 20" full skip because he says they hit things in the wood so often he just wants fewer teeth to sharpen!

Definitely depends on what type of wood you are cutting. If I was to run 3/8 FS on my 260 limbing hard spruce limbs vs soft trunk wood the saw will chatter hard and would eventually shake loose or strip out every bolt in the saw. In the softer wood. It simply dosent have the power to pull FS chain at the proper operating rpm work load and the saw is now overload. I don't even know if they make Full Skip in .325, because I hardly ever run it or need it.

Do any of the saw chain manufacturers produce and sell .325 in Full skip or Simi Skip?

I agree on Full Skip clearing waste faster than FC and SS. As far as FC cutting faster than FS? Smoother most definitely! Faster? In my opinion. I think that all has to do with the type and angle of grind, Hard W vs Soft W, and type of cutting. Like when it comes to milling Spruce. FS will rip twice as fast as FC. I can't speak for hard woods at all, as I have very little experience cutting hard wood!

 

[ValleyForge]

Definitely depends on what type of wood you are cutting. If I was to run FS on my 260 limbing hard spruce limbs vs soft trunk wood the saw will chatter hard and would eventually shake out or strip every bolt in the saw. In the softer wood. It simply dosent have the power to pull FS chain at the proper operating rpm work load and the saw is now overload. I agree on Full Skip clearing waste faster than FC and SS. As far as FC cutting than FS? Smoother most definitely! Faster? In my opinion. I think that all has to do with the type and angle of grind, Hard W vs Soft W, and type of cutting. Like when it comes to milling Spruce. FS will rip twice as fast as FC. I can't speak for hard woods at all, as I have very little experience cutting hard wood!

I just took down a 42-inch year old dead standing oak with an ms500i 36” full skip….worked like a gem….I really like those chains.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

I just took down a 42-inch year old dead standing oak with an ms500i 36” full skip….worked like a gem….I really like those chains.

FS cuts great! Little more chatter when limbing, but I just keep the revs up before even touching and all the way through the limb. That'll prevent any chatter at all! Plus! Less cutters to file or grind and less gullets to remove when it comes time to tune the chain!

 

[JustJeff]

I managed to clean it up a bit with a piece of 150 paper on a large dowel. View attachment 991247View attachment 991248View attachment 991249

"A large dowel" he says..... Looks like part of a firewood scrounge to me!

 

[MustangMike]

I videoed my 10 mm 044 with a 28" bar, first with half skip, then with FC. The rounds were 20" Red Oak.

The full comp was a good deal faster, but it did not become real obvious till you timed the cuts.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

I videoed my 10 mm 044 with a 28" bar, first with half skip, then with FC. The rounds were 20" Red Oak.

The full comp was a good deal faster, but it did not become real obvious till you timed the cuts.

Nice! Out of curiosity? What was the time difference?

 

[SS396driver]

"A large dowel" he says..... Looks like part of a firewood scrounge to me!

Ya it’s a piece of ash I use as a small mallet.

 

[SS396driver]

Not happy with the repair one of the bolts feels like it’s pulling the threads . Most likely because the holes got oblong from the bolts bouncing up and down and not enough meat to tap it . So I’ll take it apart tomorrow and helicoil it . I had the 1/4 -28 tap and bolts on hand so I gave it a try . Had to enlarge the muffler tubes as the originals were smaller .