Vintage Chainsaw Collectors Lounge

[Mac&Homelite]

I'm back ya'll! Stuff got busy back during break, and I found a little time to say something now. Didn't get a whole lot in the saw world done. Got the Homelite 350 I got from Brandon last fall in some wood. Such a nice saw to run, just needs some tuning help now. Took a look at the Partner K700 and found that the rear handle mount was wore through and the case was cracked near the fuel tank. Oh well.. Other than the super sloppy av, it ran really nicely. So...if any one has an Partner K700 Active III crankcase preferably with a crankshaft inside give me a holler. Didn't want to rebuild this one, but I guess i'm going to now. Also need some of the hardware like the blade mounting plates and the bolt for the blade as well. Then the other project saw I was talking about earlier was an ex HD Makita 6401. Well, it ended up having a scored cylinder...which was caused because of some spun main bearings. There was a bit of slop and I'm not familiar enough with these Makita's to know what kind of tolerances the bearings are supposed to have. I know some of the bearing are held in with bearing retainer, but I will have to research it more later. So I'm still thinking about what's going to happen to that one. Maybe a skidder/tree modified saw with a good case? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[s sidewall]

Should be able to get parts fairly reasonable for the k700. How long are you out of school?

Steve

 

[chipper1]

I scored a couple older saws, all I had to do was make a couple post in this thread and wouldn't you know, there they are lol.
I have a question about one in particular a poulan 400 automatic.
Any info on them, I've not found much except that they were produced in the 60's and they are a 4 cube saw.
I'll get some better pictures later.
Thanks for any info guys.

 

[Beetlejuice]

I scored a couple older saws, all I had to do was make a couple post in this thread and wouldn't you know, there they are lol.
I have a question about one in particular a poulan 400 automatic.
Any info on them, I've not found much except that they were produced in the 60's and they are a 4 cube saw.
I'll get some better pictures later.
Thanks for any info guys.
View attachment 639378

Did the Mike Acres site as I assume everyone does.. You're right.. Ain't much there. 1965-66, POULAN (Baird). Shreveport. 4.0 cube. Don't know if very little information is good or bad. Scary for parts I'm going to assume. Anyway, cool saw. Let us know if ya find out anything more. Thanks. K

 

[Beetlejuice]

Did the Mike Acres site as I assume everyone does.. You're right.. Ain't much there. 1965-66, POULAN (Baird). Shreveport. 4.0 cube. Don't know if very little information is good or bad. Scary for parts I'm going to assume. Anyway, cool saw. Let us know if ya find out anything more. Thanks. K

Post script.. Are those both DOLMAR saws? Never ran one.. Pretty good saws?

 

[Boomer 87]

You did good finding a 400, there I think the more rare of that that series, I have a model 360 and 361. As you can see it's poulans version of the xl 12 only with more power. I don't think any homelite parts will interchange. There close but not close enough. Tough saws. Good thing poulan did was make bearings and seals a nominal size, so all that stuff can be crossed through the auto parts store if need be.

 

[chipper1]

Did the Mike Acres site as I assume everyone does.. You're right.. Ain't much there. 1965-66, POULAN (Baird). Shreveport. 4.0 cube. Don't know if very little information is good or bad. Scary for parts I'm going to assume. Anyway, cool saw. Let us know if ya find out anything more. Thanks. K

Same here, and a couple post hear and there about the 400/401, @Modifiedmark said they were rare in one such post, so they must be.

Post script.. Are those both DOLMAR saws? Never ran one.. Pretty good saws?

No, one dolmar 5100s and a 357xp.
I've ran them a few times, very smooth saws.
Here's a few.

 

[chipper1]

You did good finding a 400, there I think the more rare of that that series, I have a model 360 and 361. As you can see it's poulans version of the xl 12 only with more power. I don't think any homelite parts will interchange. There close but not close enough. Tough saws. Good thing poulan did was make bearings and seals a nominal size, so all that stuff can be crossed through the auto parts store if need be.

Thanks.
That's what I was looking for, as I can't see, that's what I need my internet eyes and ears for .
I'm not very familiar with much beyond the 2 series. and the stihl 0 series although I know a few models I'm not well informed.
2 summers ago I wanted to learn about the 2 series saws so I set out to learn. Since I am a tactile learner the best way was to get my hands on them, so I set out to buy at least one of every model in that series, although I wasn't fortunate enough to get my hands on a 266, 268, or a 281( however I may be fixing the 281 issue soon ). I don't have any plans to buy up all the old saws anytime soon, but in the future I do want to get more "acquainted" with them .

 

[Mac&Homelite]

Should be able to get parts fairly reasonable for the k700. How long are you out of school?

Steve

That's what I was thinking. I can get a crankcase for $40 shipped on the bay, but the blade spacer plates are the expensive part that I haven't found much of yet. Granted I haven't looked much, perhaps I will get to spend some time on it this weekend. I just got back off of break Monday, only have 8 more weeks of grind left.

 

[Kensie1988]

If you look up the wizard 141 which was the same exact saw in orange you can see a little bit more info about the saw

 

[Kensie1988]

Thanks.
That's what I was looking for, as I can't see, that's what I need my internet eyes and ears for .
I'm not very familiar with much beyond the 2 series. and the stihl 0 series although I know a few models I'm not well informed.
2 summers ago I wanted to learn about the 2 series saws so I set out to learn. Since I am a tactile learner the best way was to get my hands on them, so I set out to buy at least one of every model in that series, although I wasn't fortunate enough to get my hands on a 266, 268, or a 281( however I may be fixing the 281 issue soon ). I don't have any plans to buy up all the old saws anytime soon, but in the future I do want to get more "acquainted" with them .

Well if you get the 281 then you need the 181 se and the 288 XP

 

[Modifiedmark]

Same here, and a couple post hear and there about the 400/401, @Modifiedmark said they were rare in one such post, so they must be.

No, one dolmar 5100s and a 357xp.
I've ran them a few times, very smooth saws.
Here's a few.
View attachment 639405

As to your Poulan 400 it was only made for one year, 1965 and the 401 was built only in 1966. They were both available as a 400 automatic and a 401 automatic also. So yes, both are pretty hard to find now days, the same story goes for the 450 and 451 as well which were 4.5 CI versions of the same saws.

The only difference between the 360/361, 400/401 and 450/451 saws were the first year saws like your 400 used a wick style fuel filter while the 401 used the fuel line and filter in the tank.

Your 400 looks extremely in good shape. Nice find. If you need any help with it, just let me know. I have the IPL's, afermarket crank seal numbers and such for them. Pretty straight forward and easy saws to work on.

I picked up a 451 last fall but its pretty rough and the top end was shot. I will take a full resto on it to get it going but I doubt I will ever find the correct top end to use on it, so it might get put back together just to help hold a shelf down. Pity though as I would like to have it going.

 

[Modifiedmark]

As you can see it's poulans version of the xl 12 only with more power.

Cody, Thats a common thought that gets thrown out a lot and its easy for folks to think that since the XL-12 came out less then a year before. I have not seen any proof ever that, that was the case and personally I'm not buying that. The XL-12 claim of being the first modern lightweight saw is also something I disagree with, it was a manual oiling only saw and by the time they added the auto oiler to it, it was not not so light anymore.

I find it hard to believe in those days that someone could reverse engineer and get tooled up to clone a saw in less then a year with the technology available at that time.

Like you said, really no parts will interchange between the Homelite and the Poulan, or any of the others of that style like Lombard, Remington etc. All the other brands making that style also had auto oilers built in from the get go.

I'll be honest, this style of saw was really not the best, yes it was much lighter compared to others from that time frame, but it had major cooling issues as well as the external oil lines etc. If you noticed, the only really successful versions of that style saw, were 60cc or less.

They just didn't have the cooling capacity to keep larger displacement versions from melting down, and they were also known to vapor lock bad from the fuel boiling in them from all the heat. Some of the larger displacements got modified with cooling fins on top the cylinder and such but it was just a band aid in the long run.

Look how hard it is to find a Poulan 4.5 ci version or a Homelite 400 or 500 with a good P/C. There is a reason Homelite didn't try to keep building the larger displacements of that version very long.

Poulan actually dropped the over 60cc versions after only 2 years and went to the much improved 200 series saws with a separate tank and handle like the Mac 10 series with much better engine cooling.

Poulan did keep the 361 in production for quite a while, though only in a manual oiler (read cheaper) version and was marketed as a farm saw. The 65cc versions were kept for a short time mostly for other customers like Dayton and in Wright colors to be sold at Wright dealers.

 

[Modifiedmark]

Thanks.
That's what I was looking for, as I can't see, that's what I need my internet eyes and ears for .
I'm not very familiar with much beyond the 2 series. and the stihl 0 series although I know a few models I'm not well informed.
2 summers ago I wanted to learn about the 2 series saws so I set out to learn. Since I am a tactile learner the best way was to get my hands on them, so I set out to buy at least one of every model in that series, although I wasn't fortunate enough to get my hands on a 266, 268, or a 281( however I may be fixing the 281 issue soon ). I don't have any plans to buy up all the old saws anytime soon, but in the future I do want to get more "acquainted" with them .

I have a really nice 268XP for you to try out if you want to. There a really nice saw, but I think they are overrated around here some. In hardwoods, they really don't pull a 24" bar anything other then average.

 

[chipper1]

As to your Poulan 400 it was only made for one year, 1965 and the 401 was built only in 1966. They were both available as a 400 automatic and a 401 automatic also. So yes, both are pretty hard to find now days, the same story goes for the 450 and 451 as well which were 4.5 CI versions of the same saws.

The only difference between the 360/361, 400/401 and 450/451 saws were the first year saws like your 400 used a wick style fuel filter while the 401 used the fuel line and filter in the tank.

Your 400 looks extremely in good shape. Nice find. If you need any help with it, just let me know. I have the IPL's, afermarket crank seal numbers and such for them. Pretty straight forward and easy saws to work on.

I picked up a 451 last fall but its pretty rough and the top end was shot. I will take a full resto on it to get it going but I doubt I will ever find the correct top end to use on it, so it might get put back together just to help hold a shelf down. Pity though as I would like to have it going.

Good stuff Mark, and thanks for the lesson as well as the offer to help, I appreciate that .
The 400 will be handed off to another member who I'm sure will make himself know here.
It's funny how much I hated history in school, but now I use it and desire to lean it so often now, I guess it just needs to be relevant to today to be made interesting to be.
Also, looks like we all made it on the evil page 666 .

 

[Modifiedmark]

Good stuff Mark, and thanks for the lesson as well as the offer to help, I appreciate that .
The 400 will be handed off to another member who I'm sure will make himself know here.
It's funny how much I hated history in school, but now I use it and desire to lean it so often now, I guess it just needs to be relevant to today to be made interesting to be.
Also, looks like we all made it on the evil page 666 .

Bad part is that part of history , I was living in it. LOL

 

[Kensie1988]

View attachment 639422

I have a really nice 268XP for you to try out if you want to. There a really nice saw, but I think they are overrated around here some. In hardwoods, they really don't pull a 24" bar anything other then average.

It seems a lot of the smaller husky saws really under perform in hardwood as opposed to soft woods, I think that's why Stihl is more dominant in the south east. But I may just be blowing smoke lol

 

[chipper1]

View attachment 639422

I have a really nice 268XP for you to try out if you want to. There a really nice saw, but I think they are overrated around here some. In hardwoods, they really don't pull a 24" bar anything other then average.

It seems guys do talk them up as being at least as powerful as a 272 which I have had and didn't think it was anything special myself as a 2166/365 xtorq in stock for will walk the dog on either.
Here's the old 272xp, she was a bit dirty here .

I see no need for the 2 series saws except from a collectors standpoint as the 3 series are great, so why not grab one or two of them up .
This was from last summer so some have sailed and then a couple were replaced with cleaner ones .
I like this vintage .

 

[Modifiedmark]

If you look up the wizard 141 which was the same exact saw in orange you can see a little bit more info about the saw

Not exact, the same other then the wick fuel filter which had a different tank body.

I just got this really nice Wright 141A a couple months ago.

 

[chipper1]

It seems a lot of the smaller husky saws really under perform in hardwood as opposed to soft woods, I think that's why Stihl is more dominant in the south east. But I may just be blowing smoke lol

I would say it depends on what you consider smaller.
If your talking about 70cc being small, mine do alright lol.