Entry level saw recommendations

Yep, I have 20" bar on mine, but with full chisel skip tooth which I love. It's a cutting son of gun with a sharp chain.

 

I ran my 261 roday with the 20" bar and Carlton full chisel full comp chain cutting dead black locust. 10-14" size. I may have to get a 20" loop of the full skip. Did you buy in the box Stihl chain or did your OPE dealer cut you a loop Lastmohecken

 

Yeah, pretty much have to have Sandy Chainsaw spin loops for this, I haven’t found any of these in clamshell packages, hanging on hooks at Lowe’s



That’s 172 drive links of .404, .063


Doug

 

Looks like fun to use, but id hate to sharpen it!

 

That's an OLD Growth Killer for sure!

 

I don’t even want to think about using that thing for felling, it is much more nose heavy than I expected. That is my 60” bar, I was really surprised at the difference between the 44” bar and the 60” bar. The 44” is a bit nose heavy, the 3120XP balances nicely with a 36” bar, but that 60 is a real bugger to lug around. I bought it for milling, I eventually want to try building some Tables, but I honestly haven’t milled anything that needed that bar yet

I really wish that I had ordered a 50” Husqvarna bar when they were available, the 50’s are now NLA. I can still get the 50” from GB, who produces bars 44” and longer for Husqvarna, it would still be orange with the GB logo instead of the Husqvarna name on it, but I would have to order it from GB in Australia.




The neighbors across the street had this Huge Maple taken down, I have a 72” bar and mill that haven’t been mounted or assembled yet to mill the lower part of the trunk, and the upper stems are piled in front of my house waiting to get milled. I’m Glad that I already have the 60” and 72” bars, they’re still available, but so was the 50” 2 weeks before I went to order one, 3 different places showed them in stock, then 2 weeks later, none to be found


Doug

 

Now that is Entry level!

 

I think I got it from Baileysonline. I have bought several chains from there, but my local dealer has them also in the box. And can also cut and make a loop if needed.

 

I fired up the new to me saw today after installing the new chain brake lever and borrowing some 2-1 mix from my neighbor. He runs a company that does masonry etc, so he is particular about his mix. I added a splash of sea foam carb cleaner just in case. Fired up on third pull and I think I can do two pulls, cold next time. One throttled and one clear.
The thing is I don’t really have anything to cut, and my files are over at my sisters house.. but I had to just touch it to some wood, and it was throwing powder, not chips. I’m pretty sure they were selling the saw because it wasn’t cutting ( I.e. they didn’t know how to sharpen the chain).
It sure seems to be running strong. Just the tiniest bogging when I first pull the the trigger, like when it is accelerating. Does that sound like it might be a little rich on the top end?

 

Bogging on acceleration is generally a bit lean on the L needle . Make your idle adjustments before setting the H side . There are tons of you tube videos that explain it way better than I am able to write it .

 

I think the L was too fat. When I feathered the trigger it came alive. My brother in law tuned it with a Tach to the manual spec rpm range. It is cutting real nice, 45cc is a nice power increase from the ryobi. Went through some thick red oak logs very nicely. I mean it wasn’t like butter, but it wasn’t struggling at all.

 

Now that this is running nice, I was thinking about getting a longer bar and a full- skip so I can go after a large locust log.
The current bar is .050 gauge. How do I know if a bar/chain is compatible? The manual says to only go up to 20”, but I think I could go longer with a full skip. Should I consider going narrow kerf? Or is that asking for pinches or less durable bar?

 

As long as pitch matches the clutch spur or rim(sprocket), you can put any length bar you wish, and the bar dictates driver count (length of chain). I'd not want the floppy-er thin NK for longer bars. I doubt it's available but I could be wrong, it's usually used on smaller cc saws.

 

.325 pitch is listed for the chain in the manual, so when I pick the skip-tooth chain it has to be a .325 that matches the bar length. But there is no pitch on the bar itself, right?

 

Yes there is. The sprocket on the nose has tooth spacing that must correspond with your chain. So if you have .325 on the saw, you'll need a 325 chain and a matching 325 bar. All 3 have to match. Only time it doesn't is if you run a hard-nose bar that doesn't have a sprocket and roller nose bars don't but I doubt you're using either.

 

On a saw that size 20" would be max. Cant say ive ever heard of a bar longer than 20" unless a saw is 60cc or .375 guage. Yours more than likely is a .325 chain which is the norm for saws that size.
Post a new thread asking. Im sure someone has a better answer. Just going by what ive seen and used.

 

The other issue you could run into with a bar longer than the saw manufacture recommends is bar lubrication issues.

 

Doh! After all that it wouldn’t start today. It had been so reliable cranking up that I cranked it without choking. Did I flood it or something?
The other possibility is that we did adjust the carb last week after it was good and warmed up. Can carb adjustment affect the starting?

Edit I used manual recommended 50:1 premix when it was running nice last weekend.

 

I run skip tooth chain on my 450 rancher. It helps keep the rpm of the saw up. Plus it's way faster to sharpen!