small stihl firewood saw - old vs new

[BC40]

My opinion for what it's worth - I live over 1000 miles south of you and live in a rural home that is supplemented by a woodstove. If you are heating primarily with wood, I think you ought to be looking at a 50 & 70 cc combination now and focused on the 70cc first with a short (18-20 inch) bar. I cut 4-6 cords a year of hardwoods, and although many saws can do that with relative ease - I prefer to use my 372 (20 or 24 inch bar for felling and bucking depending on the tree) and break out one of the 50cc saws for limbing and clean up when required. Reminder - I supplement with heat for relatively short winters of KS, not primarily heat with wood winters of BC.

Thanks. That is good info since I'm not yet sure what to expect. The softwood and occassional hardwood I'll be burning doesn't put out as much heat either. On the bright side, the house does have electric baseboards in most of the rooms. I just want to go into it using the electric as the supplement.


WHW: I realize I can get a bunch of good years out of a smaller inexpensive saw, its more a question of wanting to start off with some nice gear that I won't need to worry about (as much). The A/V and efficiency/output of a new saw would be good if I end up doing more cutting than I'm expecting. Definitely worth considering.

 

[514mach1]

Another vote here for a 70cc saw. I've used the 50-60cc saws a BUNCH and most of my cutting is firewood. My 72cc was my "big" saw for a long time but I got 3 other saws (288xp, 288xp, 394xp) that were bigger. Then I started using the 272xp for the smaller firewood since I got so comfortable with the bigger ones. The 272 is heavier than a 50cc saw but it cuts so much faster that it's actually less taxing to use because the job goes quite a bit faster. And a 70cc saw is enough to do a decent job ripping bigger chunks if needed. If you've got splitting size wood available, I'd suggest finding a way to use it.

 

[BC40]

Been busy times but thought I'd post up the verdict. Got a 026 in good shape a few months ago. Light use, good compression, started easy, ran good. Had a fuel leak tipped on its side which was just the hose not sealing at the tank. Was quite soft so I've decided to change out the impulse hose as well while I'm at it, mostly because of reading on this forum. Once it's running again this weekend I'll see if other stuff is needed. Anyways, this year should teach me a lot about saws, firewood, heating, etc. Looking forward to it

 

[computeruser]

Any of those three saws would be nice, though there is a valid argument for the 028 getting harder to source parts for as the years go on.

I'm not a fan of the 261 yet, though by all accounts it's a great saw and you could surely do much, much worse than that saw.

 

[zogger]

Been busy times but thought I'd post up the verdict. Got a 026 in good shape a few months ago. Light use, good compression, started easy, ran good. Had a fuel leak tipped on its side which was just the hose not sealing at the tank. Was quite soft so I've decided to change out the impulse hose as well while I'm at it, mostly because of reading on this forum. Once it's running again this weekend I'll see if other stuff is needed. Anyways, this year should teach me a lot about saws, firewood, heating, etc. Looking forward to it

Cool beans man!

Now that you have a saw, come over here and hang out..

http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/

 

[lambs]

Congrats on the saw, you'll like it.

You may still want to think about another saw as a back up plan where you live......maybe a 70 cc class in case you do run into something big, but another small saw would fill the back up role just as well.

Enjoy your saw.

 

[bower4311]

Been busy times but thought I'd post up the verdict. Got a 026 in good shape a few months ago. Light use, good compression, started easy, ran good. Had a fuel leak tipped on its side which was just the hose not sealing at the tank. Was quite soft so I've decided to change out the impulse hose as well while I'm at it, mostly because of reading on this forum. Once it's running again this weekend I'll see if other stuff is needed. Anyways, this year should teach me a lot about saws, firewood, heating, etc. Looking forward to it

Awesome choice. I have a 260, I just tore down to take the cylinder off for my first port job. My friend has an 026 also and we're in the process of fixing it and there has been a ton of information here and parts seem very cheap.

 

[Philip Wheelock]

Been busy times but thought I'd post up the verdict. Got a 026 in good shape a few months ago. Light use, good compression, started easy, ran good...

Great to hear. I have an MS260 Pro, and it's cut plenty of wood in the past couple of years. Runs perfectly; easy to maintain.
View attachment 298668

 

[blsnelling]

The 261 is not hard at all to work on...it's just different.