Tell me about your most catastrophic saw failure.

[Woodslasher]

I've yet to have a saw grenade on me, but I have had a few major oopsies. My 440/460 hybrid took a tumble from 3-4 feet up a few weeks ago and tweaked the tank ($150 mistake! ). Back at the saw shop I broke off the end of the crank on a Husky 50 with an impact and I test-fired a chopsaw that my boss didn't torque down the flywheel on. "Braaaaaaaaa-" Clunk! Once I re-aligned the flywheel and torqued it down it ran just fine again.

I know my dad had his MS260 get moved, which caused him to run it over with the D4 by accident, and he had a tree jump off the stump and land on his 026. That 026 was the same one that split his kneecap open, and he told me when he saw the tree land on it he thought “Hah, serves you right you little p.o.s.!”

 

[olyman]

Not a chainsaw failure in itself but my little chainsaw got blocked up and stopped oiling the bar.
This was at a critical point where the tree had just got caught up a little in the other trees surrounding it.
Then my saw wouldn't start, it had overheated, me trying to just get the job done manually pouring oil in the cut and bodging it.

Basically leaning over the driveway, the tree was completely stuck.

What did the owner do? I stead of waiting 15 mins, she went ape at me and drove her car right under the tree. Floored it, thinking it was safe despite my warnings.

The worst thing was, the bar was stuck, pinched. So no running saw, no way to free the tree without breaking my saw.


I tied a rope from a car, to the tree, to try to free it. It worked. Rope then snapped, nearly took out the car.

I ran with my saw.

That tree was still caught.
We had to get a strap round it and drag it 20ft before it came down perfectly as planned, without a single bit of damage to anything.

The owner came back "why did you drag it on our driveway?" They asked...

My response "to get it out your way"...

"Why is your car in our driveway?"

"We used it to move the tree, it was too heavy to carry"

"Move your car"

"Okay, he's doing that now"

"Why did you need to drag the tree?"

"To get it out your way, so you could drive your car in"

"But I can't get in, his car is in the way"

"He is moving it (pointing to the moving car) I'm going to help see him back"

"Can't he reverse a car?"

"He can't see behind, I'll see him back"

"Can't he drive forwards"

"No, because he'd hit your front door"

"I could turn that round in two manoeuvres"

"Me too but he's a bit nervous right now, he was just scared a tree could land on him"

"Why didn't you drive then?"

"Because I was the one driving a wedge in so it didn't fall in the wrong direction while he pulled"

(Starts directing him from her car, while I'm trying to)

"How are you going to take the wood away?"

"With a trailer"

"From our drive?"

"Yes, we're going to help get it out of your way so you don't have to deal with it, we're partly doing all this to help you out and we're cutting some for firewood for you and leaving everything neat and tidy"

"Are you going to bring your trailer in the drive" (drive was two car widths wide)

"Yes"

"Why don't you carry it?"

"Silence"

"We'll sort it then be gone as quickly as we can"

"Silence" (walked away) (No "thank you" no "sorry I nearly killed myself and told you I'd sue you if I got injured or caused damage right as I had a seized chainsaw stuck in a hung tree because I was dumb enough to drive underneath it, despite them agreeing nobody would even come out the house)

Absolute nightmare of a job, that women was intent on suing us.

I rescued my chainsaw but pretty sure I damaged the bar and the saw somewhat.
The thing that didn't recover was my confidence in people, me being uninsured and unqualified doing this casually to help out.

I'm never touching a tree near a drive ever again. The guy who was helping me nearly crashed his car, the women was in such a fear-instilling rage.

Sorry for the long story, I'm sure you've all had your fair share of nightmare jobs/clients.

On the plus side it justified me to invest in a more powerful Stihl 038 magnum and decent bar which would've cut that in seconds without issue.

I genuinely now see why tree surgeons etc have sheds full of tons of different chainsaws and felling equipment, as well as a "f off and let us do our f'in job" attitude, or at the very least a "I have a big noisy fear inducing chainsaw, don't get pissy with me" and bright orange, yellow warning colour clothing.

That lady literally said to me "I'll sue you because you didn't fill out a risk assessment form". I literally was doing this as a favour, out of goodwill and in return for a little low grade timber.
We'd already agreed that nobody would be about though, I had said. She replied "I'm going to floor it under that tree and nobody can tell me what to do on my own behind my property, if I get injured that's on you".

wouldn't it be fun,,to take her behind the woodshed, and beat some sense into that liberal sow???????????????????

 

[rob066]

Not on me. I was brought a Stihl 044 because it was locked up. Once I removed the muffler the cause was reveled. The baffle was removed from the muffler, One of the muffler bolts came loose and wedged between piston and cylinder wall. I didnt end well for the piston and cylinder.

 

[rob066]

I once reved a Husqvarna 266 up. Long story short it had a loose clutch Kaboom pieces flew everywhere into the weeds. saw had no bar or cover on it.

 

[Dean-O]

Installed a clutch on a 455 Rancher with a piston stop and impact gun. Sheared the PTO side of the crank off at the back of the clutch. That was along time ago. Never again have I used a gun to remove let alone install a clutch. Breaker bar and some pull rope, don’t even use a piston stop anymore because my brain shoots back to that faithful day so long ago.

 

[Piotr Pakuła]

impact wrench, not one thing will spoil yet

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Not so many years ago, I visited a farm on the pretence of buying some parts saws a guy had in a "barn" (to use US terminology- so you all understand ).
Young guy had one he reckoned was a runner (181 Husqvarna) and was trying to prove it as I sifted through the boxes of the rest, in a typical workshop farmyard bay of a barn, tools, oily rags, open drums of used oil, oil soaked bench etc.
Pull as he would on that starter rope, the old 181 would no fire up. Smells like its flooded- says I, a fact proved by the fuel mix seeping down the face of the muffler, he just continued to try to dropstart it, I gathered up the bits I wanted and walked back to my truck parked at the house to pay his father for the stash I had gathered.
Whilst chatting to the father, we hear a yell and some swearing come from the workshop, then junior exits the workshop door with flames licking the fleece clothing covering his left arm.......
Got the boy extinguished- but not the barn, nor the 20' high pine hedge behind the barn parallel to the main highway, nor a few dozen mature hardwood trees, nor the deer handling yards.
Did manage to drive the tractor out of the bay next to the workshop, before it scorched up too bad.

Seems junior got frustrated the flooded saw would not fire, pulled the plug wire, took out the plug, put plug back in HT cable and yanked the rope again "WOOF"...... it had spark!
His clothing caught flame and he dropped the saw where he was standing, it set the general oily mess in the workshop alight.... was a windy day and that fire grew very quickly!
Maybe if the boy had thought stop, drop and roll- or ran to the water trough about 20 yards away and plunged his arm in, maybe the workshop fire could have been contained- especially if there had have been a water faucet and hose handy, or a large extinguisher close to the open door.......

 

[dozi]

was running a 441c, a year old saw, and during the cut in some greenheart it just stopped. tried to start it and it coughed and then there was some rubbing of the flywheel. the whole flywheel side of the crankcase had sheered from the bottom left, Up around the right of the crank, and up to the far right of the casing. put a new casing on and kept all the old parts and it's been going for a few years.. how bizarre

 

[thenne1713]

Not so many years ago, I visited a farm on the pretence of buying some parts saws a guy had in a "barn" (to use US terminology- so you all understand ).
Young guy had one he reckoned was a runner (181 Husqvarna) and was trying to prove it as I sifted through the boxes of the rest, in a typical workshop farmyard bay of a barn, tools, oily rags, open drums of used oil, oil soaked bench etc.
Pull as he would on that starter rope, the old 181 would no fire up. Smells like its flooded- says I, a fact proved by the fuel mix seeping down the face of the muffler, he just continued to try to dropstart it, I gathered up the bits I wanted and walked back to my truck parked at the house to pay his father for the stash I had gathered.
Whilst chatting to the father, we hear a yell and some swearing come from the workshop, then junior exits the workshop door with flames licking the fleece clothing covering his left arm.......
Got the boy extinguished- but not the barn, nor the 20' high pine hedge behind the barn parallel to the main highway, nor a few dozen mature hardwood trees, nor the deer handling yards.
Did manage to drive the tractor out of the bay next to the workshop, before it scorched up too bad.

Seems junior got frustrated the flooded saw would not fire, pulled the plug wire, took out the plug, put plug back in HT cable and yanked the rope again "WOOF"...... it had spark!
His clothing caught flame and he dropped the saw where he was standing, it set the general oily mess in the workshop alight.... was a windy day and that fire grew very quickly!
Maybe if the boy had thought stop, drop and roll- or ran to the water trough about 20 yards away and plunged his arm in, maybe the workshop fire could have been contained- especially if there had have been a water faucet and hose handy, or a large extinguisher close to the open door.......

Pretty "catastrophic", and chainsaw too

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Pretty "catastrophic", and chainsaw too

Yep, forgot to add- the 181 was a right off, just some melted goop that was metallicey plasticey, bar and chain still recognisable afterwards though by all accounts.
So I guess it was a "saw failure" with bonus extras.

 

[Northerner]

Little pin that holds the ring from turning cane loose. 350 husky with a a/m 346xp tip end. Still ran surprisingly decent when I took it apart. Lasted quite a few years.
Now I have an oem 346 top end on it.

 

[Piotr Pakuła]

something fell out of the saw ;-)