What Chainsaw do you run?

Building a little chainsaw box for my Milwaukee.

 

The saw is 20 years old and never ran right out of the box. I tuned it after the lines were destroyed by corn gas. Replaced them, started running non-ethanol gas, limiter caps removed, H/L set right it starts, runs, and idles great.

I think a lot of Poulans just need a little tuning to be a decent saw.

 

I used to buy broken saws and rebuild them as a hobby and one was a Poulan Pro 40's cc variant. i went through it and cleaned it up as much as possible restoring it to serviceable condition. They have a place but im just not a fan of them at any price point. Better offerings from other manuf for slightly more money.

 

I'm no pro but there are times I feel unsafe felling certain dead trees and I will cut and pull them down rather than risk being under them when they go. I hope this is useful to someone in my shoes.

This is a 16" cherry I mow under and those big dead limbs (big one 12" in diameter) had me worried so I knew this needed to come down. It is on a slope, leaning one way while the big limb is hanging out the opposite way

Tied it up for a cable pull. I made a cable lifter out of an old extension pole and loop a cable around the trunk with my pull cable hooked to it. Let's me pull from 16ft up the tree while setting the cable from the ground.


Tried a Humboldt notch for the first time.


Made a back cut and then started pulling it. It resisted and I cut a little more and drove some wedges in the back.


When this tree hit the ground the limbs shattered so I felt justified that I had put in the extra work to pull it. Someone better than me might have just dropped it but I didn't want to risk a dead limb falling on and killing me.


Limbed it with my Poulan which did have a sharp chain and cut the bigger stuff with the MS291 which performed flawless. The lightweight Poulan did awesome on the limbs and <8" stuff.




My little tractor lifting and moving the estimated 650lb trunk. It was bouncing the rear off the ground and I have 500lbs of weights on the back between the liquid tire ballast, wheelweights, and 150lbs on the rear hitch

 

Playing around with theMS291 on that cherry trunk

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6vzT6VbS1fo&feature=youtu.be
https://youtu.be/n1fpRzF0-ns

 

I used my 80V Greenworks Chainsaw to cut down and buck to size for our smallish fire pit (the rest for the burn pile) two nasty seedling cherry trees yesterday, one about 12", the other smaller, 8" or so. The first (light) 2A battery did OK. I have 5 other batteries, so I reached for the heavy 5A battery. Yes a bit heavy, but that e-saw did great. This is with stock bar and chain - which I can see have limited life, and the chain rollers are wearing quickly - chain is "stretching". I have the Oregon replacements ready to go soon.

I have zero regrets buying this saw, just the batteries are expensive.

 

Rocking a refurbished Husqvarna 435 16” the saw has been rock solid. Cut down this willow oak today using a bore cut for the first time, tree had a nasty forward lean. Dropped it exactly where I wanted it to go.

 

I bore cut everything over 10 inches. Safest way to go. After I learned the techniques I wondered how I ever survived the previous 20 years.

 

Anybody use the small Alaskan mill? Thinking about picking one up and using it with my husky 435 realizing I will probably need a bigger saw in the future.
Looks like it requires a solid bar, any good 16” solid bars? Or am I just wasting my money at this point in time?
Would be nice to get use out of all the poplar, white oak and hickory I have been cutting down. They are all less than 16” at the base.
https://www.granberg.com/product/g777-alaskan-small-log-mill/

edit: after going down the rabbit hole it looks like I will need a much bigger saw. Husky 460 would likely get the job done but a 395xp sure would be sweet!

Double edit: looks like the 460 doesn’t make that great of a saw for milling. Just need to save up for a 395xp.

 

I have a Kobalt 80V Chainsaw. Quiet, easy to use, auto-turn off.

 

Have you guys seen the new Dewalt 20” 60V chainsaw? DCCS677

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GnuERm7shCo

 

Looks interesting, have you held it yet?
My M18 has a totally different feel from my Stihls. I didn’t watch the video but does it list the chain gage size for the saw? If it’s 0.043 then it’s the very narrow chain. Still interesting vs the Stihl 271.

If I was going to do it again, I would have bought the

$249 DeWalt DCCS620P1 DEWALT 20V MAX* XR Chainsaw Kit, 5-Ah Battery, 12" (DCCS620P1)

DeWalt DCCS620P1 and a Milwaukee battery adapter or a Ryobi One+ HP18v chainsaw. I don’t need a big chainsaw anymore and realizing that I usually just grabbed my MS192TC most of the time these other saws would have fit the bill a little more, but that’s just my personal experience.

 

Just make sure you get a Ripping chain. My friend runs an Alaskan with his MS440, loves it.
https://www.oregonproducts.com/en/products/forestry/saw-chain-families/ripcut/c/ripcut-sc-p
https://www.granberg.com/product-category/alaskan-mill/bars-chain/granberg-pre-cut-ripping-chain/

 

The Kobalt and Greenworks pro 80V batteries look very similar. Are they the same (never held one)? Heck are the products the same?

EDIT: Nope different. Web search: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=Kobalt+and+Greenworks+pro+80V+batteries&ia=web

I love my Greenworks Pro 80V equipment. The saw weight is less balanced and definitely back heavy with the huge 5AH battery. But I just pop in a 2AH battery for lighter carry.

Yesterday I sawed the base of a stump that was around 18"! The chain got VERY hot, but still did fine. This is with the 5AH battery, then I popped the battery out, put it my stick blower (I have the backpack blower as well) - I then used the blower as a bellows for my huge wettish burn pile. Made an induction hole, locked in the blower at a medium low blow, set it down and tended the fire while I tilled my garden plots. The heat was INTENSE in the glory hole. Glassified the dirt in any sod clods. Blower ran a LONG time (over and hour), then I swapped in a 2A, and so on. Nothing left of burn pile and hardly much smoke. Winning.

 

Yes I’ve used it. It’s a 0.050” chain.

 

I lost a nut off mine and need to go to the hardware store and get a replacement so I have issues with the chain falling off as the tensioner bolt loosens. I didn't check them before first use and that's probably when I lost the secondary nut. All user error, I've cut down several trees in my back yard along my fence line since my neighbor let his property go and all his trees grow over into my yard and kill my grass with the metric ton of leaves they drop. I've cut up quite a bit of firewood on several occasions and if I'm going on some unserviced roads I pack it along since I can charge it off the bed outlet if I need to, but the 6AH battery lasts a long while, so I doubt I'd even need to.

EDIT: Thinking about getting one of these: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-300-Watt/1003166408

 

https://www.smartfamilymoney.com/use-greenworks-batteries-kobalt-tools/ looks like the only difference is the plastic guide rails.

 

FYI standard bar nuts fit. I have spares in case.

 

I saw that. Not urgent enough to get to that stage, but really good to know. I have 5 batteries now. 2 blowers, chainsaw, and whacker.