so whats the deal with skip chain?

[ehp]

Gypo you are starting to worry me

 

[CNYCountry]

So a semi getting 6-7 MPG and moving 40K is less efficiant than a pickup getting 15-17 and only moving 10k?

Way OT, but I would love to know what kind of pickup you are driving that gets that kind of mileage pulling that much!

 

[CNYCountry]

I use full skip exclusively on all of my saws, and the shortest bar I own is 20". The benefits include the chip clearance on a long bar buried in wood, and it also gives you fewer teeth in the cut to eat up hp and slow the saw. And the whole premise of chainsaws being chainspeed, it's better, (better as in more efficient and effective) to have fewer teeth cutting at full speed than to have more teeth cutting slower, or bogging the saw down completely. Full comp chains will be smoother, but when you get that many cutters in the wood at once as on a long bar, the saw's performance will fall down to where it's not cutting like it should be.

Jeff

My first reaction to the chainspeed discussion is this. We want higher chainspeed because we want more cutters to pass over the wood in a given amount of time, right? With full comp, we automatically have a lot more cutters passing in a given amount of time at a given speed, we would have to slow down full comp dramatically to match full skip's cutters/time rate at that first engine speed. So do I understand correctly that chainspeed is not really the issue, it is the amount of cutters passing in a given amount of time?

Jeff, after reading all of the discussion, I have to say that it might surprise you how well full comp Stihl RS runs on a 20" bar on a stock 361, even in hardwood, as long as the rakers are set right (0.025" with a new chain progressively down to 0.035" on almost completely used up cutters). It doesn't bog unless it's leaned on HARD. Obviously this would be even less of an issue with your muffler modded 361. In softwood you would obviously be able to run a little deeper on the rakers. I know you said you don't often use the 20" bar but I bet it would be interesting to try if you haven't already.

As far as a 24" bar, I have briefly run a Windsor SpeedTip with Windsor full comp full chisel chain on that same stock 361. This was in softer hardwood, dry red maple, and the only reason I did it was because I had to cut up a 40"+ tree. While it was not optimal and I am sure nobody would want to do this professionally, it did get the job done and did not bog with sharp cutters and rakers somewhere between 0.020" and 0.025". It was definitely slow though. I am quite sure that skip chain would have been much better but my east coast dealer does not stock any at all. The bottom line is that 24" full comp in hardwood is definitely too much for a stock 361 in anything but the most occasional careful use. But there is enough power there that I can see where full skip in softwood on that same saw with a modded muffler would be a whole different story!

Most everyone in the discussion certainly has more experience and knowledge than I do, I am just a homeowner with a not insignificant amount of forestry management before me, not a professional. I only intend to offer what my experiences have been. :angel: