Typical use (I mean, abuse)

[slowtorque1]

My neighbor let me tinker with his Stihl 026 while he is out of town. I figured I'd just clean it up for him and sharpen the chain. He has used it probably a half dozen times over the past five years or so. It is WORK to him, for sure. Me, I just love to use and work on a saw. Anyway, I noted that the filter had likely never been cleaned, the tank was half full of bad mix, the chain took about thirty strokes per tooth to get a fresh edge on the top plate, and the chain was hanging slack from the bottom of the bar. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the paint had disappeared from the edge of the bar next to the rails. The metal was bluish in color as if it had gotten hot. The chain is worn to the point that the rivets are not far from riding on the rails (undoubtedly a safety issue). I cranked up the adjustable oiler a little. I bet he just ran it out of oil. The saw has less than 10 hours on it and already needs a new bar, sprocket and chain. As horrifying as this sounds, I bet that this is typical, and the average person treats their machine in this manner (not you guys!). You shop owners probably have much better stories than this to tell! I feel better for reviving the saw and helping my neighbor out a bit. I will try to educate him in a diplomatic manner so that the saw has a happier life than it has thus far enjoyed. I guess I have to realize that there was a time that I was ignorant to a lot of this as well.

 

[Tim Gardner]

You mean saws are not supposed to be like that?

 

[stihltech]

abuse

My favorite line is "What air filter?"

 

[Lobo]

What, the chain isn't suppose to be slack ?

What sharpening ! How the hell can you sharpen a chain !

 

[JimL]

Re: abuse

Originally posted by stihltech
My favorite line is "What air filter?"

Had a guy tell me the other day "well my snow blower doesn't have an airfilter on it"

 

[Lobo]

Jim,

Snow blower engines really do not have air filters, you do not need them as snow is not dusty.

 

[John in MA]

Neither do boat engines for the same reason.

I really liked a demolition saw that was being sold on eBay a while back. No air filter.

 

[JimL]

Originally posted by Lobo


Jim,

Snow blower engines really do not have air filters, you do not need them as snow is not dusty.

Yup!

 

[geofore]

abused saw

Try to explain to him why he should flip the bar over after each days use and you get this, "I never use it for a whole day so why should I flip it over? "
The best one this year was Brian, a guy who gets firewood from me. " I can get a deal on a only used four times husky and the guy is going to throw in 8 used chains for a hundred bucks, it's as big as your big saw." How do you use a husky only four times and end up with eight used chains?? Brian is a little slow but I'll look the saw over for him. It is way to big for firewood if it can handle a 36" bar.

 

[rahtreelimbs]

A friend of mine owns a dealer along with his father. Anyway he had a guy come in to buy a new saw. The guy took the air filter out and said " I don't need this, to much trouble."

 

[Methoss084]

I gotta laugh, I love the guys who run cutoff saws. We used to rent out 272K Huskys and PC7314 Dolmars and service privately owned units. At least twice a week we would have some guy come in with a saw they said just stopped running. Pull the air filter cover off and the filters are non-existant. "Well it wouldn't run with the filters on, so we just took them off and it ran great dor about an hour". Just gotta laugh, or stare at them with with a pitifull smirk.

 

[Dennis]

"My snowblower doesnt have an airfilter.."

I had to put one on my jetski..as I have seen melted hoods from flashbacks...lol....we use them just to save the paint

I have seen some pretty nasty stuff come into the store...like a guy that burnt out his brake band from running with it on...(guys does this sound like anyone from the Revival??) or the guy that cant figure out why his saw is smoking after he shuts it off? (because there is so much crap built up around the cylinder it looks like a beehive) Or the guy that comes in and says..."this thing just doesnt run right when I put my lawnmower gas in it.."

-The mistakes are all there waiting to be made.

 

[Tony Snyder]

I just gotta repeat this from one of my older post.

A guy come in, buys a Partner 5000 (this goes back a ways), got his son with him, about 16 years old.
Dads a semi driver; he leaves the son to cut firewood. When dad gets back home in a few days the saw is back locked up solid.

You see, the boy had a Yamaha dirt bike that had oil injection. The saw, like his dirtbike, had two tanks, one for gas and one for oil. I don't need to tell you the rest.

But, Partner gave us the parts free, now that is real goodwill PR. I guess it was such a pitiful story, they just broke down.

The boy did get nearly two pickup loads of firwood cut, allowing the saw left the shop with my mix in it.