Thank you all for the advice. Sounds like you are all saying thet it will help a good deal to get a larger saw. So I made up my mind. I narrowed my search down to the Stihl 280 and the Husky 359. It seems like for some reason STIHL does not allow it's dealers to advertise their prices on the internet, so I will compare the prices at local dealerships.
Thanks a bunch [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I grew up in the mountains of Arizona. We ran through and wore out many saws, but the Stihl's held up the best. I nicked my foot when I was 17 with a Stihl 90. That smarted a little and got me 70 stitches. We used to buy commercial wood permits and sold wood for spending money. We used to cut 70-100 cords per year.

 

easygo,
I own and operate a Tree Service out here in California. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 plus chainsaws in the crew lineup. They are split pretty evenly between Husqvarna and Stihl with a couple of little Echo CS341 limbing saws. Over the last 15 plus years of business I have seen the quality of each manufacturer wax and wane and have experienced both good and bad with the 2 "big" brands. Go in and see your dealer, hopefully they are a big stocking dealer of both saws and have some good commercial sales. Talk to them about what is good and bad about the current models. Commercial users like myself put serious hours on saws in a short time. If there will be problems, we're the ones that will likely experience them before any homeowner does. A good dealer should be able to steer you in a direction of what particular saw models are performing best at the time, it's up and down.

I will add, if you want to really increase your chances of getting a "good one", look to the commercial models not the homeowner models. There is a difference and not just in price. The parts in non-commercial units are not as good and I mean that in respect to how they're fabricated. Sometimes they'll use inferior bearings or crank parts, etc. Things with a shorter design life which is acceptable if the saw spends the majority of its life in a case or on a shelf in the garage. Bigger or "more power" is always a good thing but in my opinion, that is only a small part of the equation. Example, the Stihl 025 that was mentioned above. That was a Homeowner model, not a Commercial saw. It turned out to hold up very well in the commercial environment but its virtually identical brother the 026 was the actual commercial version and lasted and performed much better with heavy use. Husky has the same scenario. The "XP" models are the commercial units and can be expected to have a much greater service life. When you do have a problem with a "homeowner" type unit, many times the repair costs will exceed the economic viabilty of the repair. That's really where you will see the difference. Put $150 worth of repair into a $400 saw more than once (which is easy) and you'll really start scratching your head in wonderment. My local shop's rates are at $65 per hour now! Look toward the commercial lineup if you can swing it, it will be money well spent.

 

Or get a "Hotsaw" with the snowmobile motor in it. The ones you see on ESPN Logging Events![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

http:// www.hotsaw.com/Page1x.html This is a link to the 90hp 500cc Husqvarna motorcycle engine saw.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

nah, man this is the one you want www.compfused.com/directlink/154 , it takes a min for the vid to load. anyone got a spare powerstroke???

 

I'm glad you found that jeffro, I saw a nearly identical set up about 10 years ago at a technical training and safety seminar put on by Oregon Mfg, the company that makes the most saw chain in the world. It was an absolute kick in the pants to watch and writting about it just wouldn't do it justice without seeing it!

Good find!

 

Been cutting wood for years, my latest saw is a stihl.

I found that the recent safety inovations on the chains on all chain saws have a safety link built in.

Look at your chain you will see a cutting tooth, then a link that has no teeth. This links purpose is to prevent kick back.

I started ordering bulk chain for all my saws, make sure that is doesn't have the new safety links in it.

You should have experience to use the old type chain, as kick backs can occur.

You will find that even a small poulan will go thru dry oak and mesquite like butter with the old style chain.

It is refered to as Professional chain.

it cuts better, lasts longer, is cheaper than buying factory made chains, and you can sharpen it more times than the new safety chains.

I hope this link comes thru, it is where I buy my chain good site, good prices.
Bulk chain saw chain


bob

 

Thanks for the website i have been battling uneven cutting for a while and don't want to bring in my chains to be sharpened thats like bringing in your truck to get the oil changed!

 

I'm compelled to comment....

First, the "bumper" links that Tall Texan refers to are typically on newly sold saws and most "homeowner" chain applications. Some of the newer chains no longer use a bumper link but incorporate a "hump" on the tie strap forward of the cutting tooth that meshes with the depth gauge on the long run on top or on the bottom of the bar but actually protrudes further out when the chain rounds the sprocket tip. This is where all safety links are designed to function. Kickback comes from and ONLY FROM the top outside quadrant of the sprocket tip where the chain is changing direction from "away from the operator" to "down toward the ground" (12 o'clock to 3 or 9 to 12 depending on your orientation). If you are an occasional chain saw user you should use the low kickback chain. Even the newer low kickback chain has become easier to sharpen because the bumper is done when the depth gauges are reduced which is normally when a chain is about 1/3 to 1/2 worn. Bumper style chain is a pain in the azz because you eventually have to grind down the bumpers too or they will prevent the depth gauges from doing their job and the cutting teeth will not cut.

If you have uneven cutting or "J" cutting, it's because you're filing more off of your left cutters than you are your right cutters or vice versa. Teeth must be the same length for chain to function as designed. The same holds true for depth gauges. If they are not all uniform, some teeth will cut better than others and that will cause unusual cutting patterns.

Speaking of "filing". If you are thinking your chain is sharp when you hand file you are fooling yourself. It is impossible to maintain the complex compound angles necessary for proper tooth geometry with a hand file.....IMPOSSIBLE. You will never realize the full cutting potential of a modern saw chain by this method. The bar guides will certainly help in the interim but you will usually experience what is known as a "stay sharp" factor where more steel is removed under the hard chrome on the cutting tooth edge. The chrome will fail without the steel underneath and you will go dull much more rapidly. A properly set up bench grinder is truly the only way to get the most performance out of a modern saw chain. Perhaps every few hand/guide sharpenings you can take your chain in to be done and returned to proper specs if the saw shop operator knows how to do it. Unfortunately many don't give a rat's azz.

Also, run and sharpen your chain until there is no tooth left but keep them all even. There is a relief angle on a saw tooth. Look at a side view of the tooth, it tapers downward toward the back of the tooth. The less tooth there is, the less friction there is increasing chain performance and speed. Saw chain performance depends greatly on speed. Take a "Hot Saw" competitor for example. They'll take a brand new chain and grind it all the way down to it's last grinding for the purpose of gaining more speed, less friction and heat, and therefore better cutting performance. Just remember, as the tooth gets shorter, the depth gauges MUST be reduced accordingly to allow for the .025" difference between top of tooth and top of depth gauge.

Sorry for the dissertation. Probably more than you wanted to know about chain. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]