What has 50 years given us? ( In saw design )

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

My parents bought the float and shell, when I was 6 months old, they did all the plumbing, electrical and interior themselves, our boathouse had 2 small bedrooms, a basic bath, kitchen, large living room/dining room area with a Franklin Fireplace, and the main reason for it’s very being, the “Boatwell”.

The moorage where our boathouse was moored, was less than 15 minutes from our “Land House “, but a World away, we spent most weekends there, even during the Winter, it was like another neighborhood, where many were even closer than with their “Land Neighbors”, sharing the passion for boating, we often vacationed with other members from the moorage. I learned a RESPECT for the water at a very early age, and the responsibility learned there carried over into other aspects, such as chainsaws as well. I learned a Very Healthy Respect for what a chainsaw was capable of early too

View attachment 879709
This is “Plum Crazy “‘ NOT the boat we used for logging, this picture was taken back in August, if you expand the pic, you can see where our boathouse was moored, it would have been the fourth house from the shore, on the front walk.
Unfortunately Dad sold the place many years ago, and Sadly it was later destroyed in a Fire. My Mom was the Original Owner of Plum Crazy, she is a 1968 Stevens “SK” class Flat bottom with a Corvette spec’d 327 with a “V-Drive” .

This past June, Mom gave me the BEST Father’s Day Gift that I could have asked for, she handed me a plain white envelope, when I opened it I was Speechless, it had the Titles for Plum Crazy and her Trailer along with a Bill of Sale, Gifting her to me. 52 years old, and she still turns heads, and gets a lot of questions at the ramp and beach


Doug

Wow holy crap that's a nice boat.

How's your hearing in your right ear!!!

Yeah plugs and muffs together for these saws or that ear will ring

 

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

50 years? It gave you a MS 200T, MS201T, 1128 family, HT131and a MS500i.
Electronic ign, 50:1 mix for cleaner lungs, Anti vibe. Noise reduction. Reduced bar oil waste.
Reduced weight. More power per cc.
Outside of that, not much.

Mac had AV and good AV in the 60s not sure about the others. The oil waste thing hmmm I'd rather use more or oil than bars. Bar oil is cheap.

Better filtration.

 

[HarleyT]

Wow holy crap that's a nice boat.



Yeah plugs and muffs together for these saws or that ear will ring

Well, bleed too.

 

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

Well, bleed too.

Hahaha yeah they ring with only muffs. They are crazy loud and to think those boys wore nothing wow.

Better fuel economy.
Lightweight bars.

Has chain improved??

I guess bar oil in general probably after thinking about it

 

[Husky Man]

Wow holy crap that's a nice boat.



Yeah plugs and muffs together for these saws or that ear will ring

We drove from Portland, OR, to Gardena, CA, and picked her up at the Factory 2 weeks before my 3rd Birthday, I don’t remember much from before that boat was part of my life, and I plan to do my very best to keep her in the Best shape that I can

Doug

 

[stihl86]

Mac had AV and good AV in the 60s not sure about the others. The oil waste thing hmmm I'd rather use more or oil than bars. Bar oil is cheap.

Better filtration.

Your lungs aren’t.

 

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

Your lungs aren’t.

I guess you could say some is misting around and being inhaled.

I'm screwed anyway as a welder

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Fair bit of galv tube welding I'd say- you would have to have some kind of medical excuse to have a love affair with this Lemon saws.
Where on Earth did you come up with a nickname like that for them?

 

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

Every day for 15 years galv galv galv

Geee I wonder hehe some guy from down south I tend to use it often now.

 

[weimedog]

Husqvarna had piston port vertical cylinder designs since 1959. And the weight of those 1970's saws.. not that far off todays. But the anti vib ... not so good, and no chain brakes back then.

 

[KASH]

I am not into the new saws but I would like to see a test between the saws of the late seventies and eighties The test would be for the anti vibration systems old versus new..I think the saws such as 266 162 huskies and Johnserds 630 670 had good anti vibe The Partners with spring anti vibe were good also along With Macs and others. Most of these saws had Niskal coatings chain brakes etc.The performance of the old versus new is fairly close the build quality of the older saws is far better IMHO the weight is pretty close.If tuned the old saws start in 2 or 3 pulls idle great and if maintained run well and are not high strung and tempermental like the newer ones
Oh well each to his own .They were all built to do the same job.
Kash

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

I run synthetic 40:1 in all my old saws so the lung issues aren't really a problem.
Oil control bolt and thumb oilers are all with in the users control ( unlike modern oilers).
A properly tuned saw is not any different no matter what the age , except the carburetor doesn't mask leakes in a seal by compensating for it. Auto tune saws STILL burn up just like other saws.
Brake flags were available for the L77 but most buyers opted not to pay for one, they were available for almost every saw during the 70s.
Anti-vibe is probably the biggest benefit (even though most operating saws don't run but a few hours a month) and the Pro Mac 82cc saws are really just as good if not better in some cases. The ability for the manufacturer to tuck the anti-vibe into the saw is better.
Chain speed is really subjective and adjustable with rim sprockets, faster chain speed is more dangerous and the safety equipment had to play catch up. How many users check the RPM rating of their chaps?
Modern cars, phones, computers, and saws are usable with absolutely no understanding of the functional systems and that makes capitalism great, do you see anyone with a tool bag next to a car along the side of the road anymore?
Some where along the line we decided to trade convenience for freedom, " I don't want to know how to do ..." whatever so now you don't, but you can't fix it with in reason , and that is the BIGGEST advance in 50 years.
The optional list of what you can purchase with new equipment is getting smaller with everything ,we've just about eliminated any choice except for color?, I'm not saying that I'd order th 500i without a chainbrake but it would be nice to have some choices left.

 

[Old2stroke]

With the demise of reed valve engines and the advent of electronic ignition we now have higher rpm saws with faster chain speeds that allow smaller pitch chains and smaller displacement saws to be superb cutters.

Where I grew up, in the early days all bars were hardnose and all chains were chipper chains with pitches of 3/8 or larger, now we have sprocket nose bars and a wide selection of sem-chisel and chisel chains.

We now have light, powerful top handle saws that can be used with one hand, can you imagine climbing a tree with one of those old heavy brutes hanging from your belt?

In the early days you had to buy a saw from a dealer who knew the product and was happy to repair it, now we can go to a box store that doesn't service anything and buy a cheap saw that has never been tuned to run right, or we can go to a dealer who, rather than repair your saw, he would like to sell you a very expensive new one that tunes itself and understand that he probably can't repair it if it quits.

North America use to make a lot of saws, Homelite, McCulloch, Poulan, Remington, Pioneer, now all the good ones are gone or the brand purchased by distant interests and the market is dominated by two manufacturers.

 

[pioneerguy600]

We had vertical cylinder piston ported saws in the 50`s but they were heavy and had no AV or chain brakes, they cut much like the reed valve saws of that time did. With a bit of port work they were our preference during that time.

 

[farmguywithasaw]

I know some of the old macs had electric start wonder why no one has tried that again. Technology has come a long way since the 70’s

 

[Cantdog]

I think the 50 years mark (1970 on) is not really as much of a change as say from 1960 to 1970. Of course many changes have happened in the last 50 years but the truly big changes happened in the late 60's like piston porting in most saws, the first of av mounted saws and the ability to get a saw motor to turn up into the 5 digit realm rather than the loud, slow, heavy earlier saws that struggled to get up to 7-8000 rpm. As already said the newer chain profiles and the advent of the rim drive allowing the saw power/rpm to be easily/quickly/cheaply matched to to the bar length and pitch is a major late improvement also.

 

[rwoods]

A repeat of a prior post - all A/V with chain brake:

A fully loaded half wrap 79.2cc MS500i with a 25" Stihl light bar 3/8" .050" chain. A hair over19#.


A fully loaded half wrap 61.5cc MS036Pro with a 20" Stihl regular ES bar, 3/8" .050" chain. A hair over 18#.


A fully loaded full wrap 82cc PM800 modified with old style muffler and sporting a 25" Stihl regular ES bar .404" .063" chain. A hair under 23.5#.

Ron

 

[holeycow]

This is the price of an increase in turnover and power

perhaps in the first about 20 of the 50 years, but certainly not in the last 30 of those 50.

meaning many saws of 30 years ago turned the same rpms and made about the same power as today while having decent antivibe, ergos, brakes, and even less weight in lots of cases.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

Still doing what every other saw does, and a reed valve.

 

[Old2stroke]

In the early days all saws were painted metal, in the hands of a pro for one week they could look like they were five years old, with the color impregnated plastic used today, even in the hands of a pro, they can still look good after a couple of years.