What's on your bench now?

Beautiful! Nice work there.

 

The 288 is just about ready. All I’m waiting for is the muffler which will arrive later today. Tomorrow I’ll try to get it fired up. Spark is there. I have the trigger safety switch coming too but it’s not necessary to try it out obviously. It’s not much to look at but for a work saw it’s good enough for me. This thing is a compression monster! Without the decomp pushed in it’s an animal. I’m almost regretting that base gasket delete but we’ll see…

 

How is it with the decomp? No shame in using it and its easier on the pull start mechanism.

 

Like a night and day difference. Very manageable.

 

Id use it and be happy with the added performance you should get from the base gasket delete.

 

Looking good! Those are mean old saws run by old retired loggers. At least, that's my experience.

 

Thanks I was watching some 288 videos earlier, getting amped up for the moment I start mine for the first time. They sound mean When I got mine it was pretty rough, so I never got to hear it run before tearing it down.

 

Next up in the 200 series Husqvarna builds. I got this old 61 Practica bottom end off eBay for a song and dance a couple weeks ago. Got the case halves cleaned up and the tapped holes are all chased out. The bar studs were loose, so before I tapped them back into place I put some Motoseal behind the heads. The factory crankshaft looks great so I’ll stick with that. It’s heavier than the one in my mid eighties 61, so I guess that design was changed at some point. I have an OEM 272 cylinder coming in next week, so this will be one of those 61/272 (and whatever else I can cobble together) hybrid builds. The gasket kit is arriving later this week so I should get the bottom end assembled soon. As for the rest of the saw, I have a while to go buying parts here and there as deals crop up.

 

3 echos.

 

While the 61/272 project is waiting parts and an entire donor saw, the 288 got a couple upgrades. The 304 stainless steel custom pipe, a new clutch kit, and an aftermarket high top cover with HD air filter from the Duke’s saw salvage. The pipe sounds good and the saw seems to be pretty snotty. I’ll have to wait a bit to really try it out in some big wood. I put one of my 24” bars on there with an 8 tooth sprocket.

 

Husqvarna porn...

 

Tall about taking the fanboy club to the next level

 

He has all brands and many of them.

 

The donor saw for my 61/272 build showed up today. Not bad for a saw that’s as old as me (1984 model)


Edit: after getting it apart, the cylinder had aluminum transfer on it and the piston was scored. The AV mounts were completely sheared apart too. The top cover was burned/melted from the exhaust, and the steel chain brake lever is slightly bent. Still, this old saw is very much salvageable if I really wanted to use it as a 61.
Nevertheless, the other already-rebuilt bottom end is waiting for a lot of the parts that this saw has.

 

I’m learning all sorts of nuances about the 200 series in this build. Not only were the early 61 cranks different (heavier) but the castings for the cases are different too, or at least machined differently. I went to put the bar oil cap on my older case and realized that it was too large and wouldn’t fit. Good to know… The build is coming along relatively smoothly though. I installed a newer on/off switch, but I did have to drill and tap an M4 x 0.7 hole in the case to ground it out.

Upon further snooping it looks like the thread is the same, but the O.D. of the cap will have to be machined 1/8” smaller. I’ll test this theory later.

 

One step closer. I had bought a 272 intake block and carburetor, and assumed that the screws from the 61 would fit. Not so. Too short and the tapped holes in the cylinder were M4, not M5. I took a trip to the local fastener supplier this morning and bought a couple M5 X 100mm cap screws. I ended up trimming off about 5/16” from the length, turned the ends to 4mm and threaded them about 9/16” down. Looks like it should work. They sell these screws on eBay but I don’t feel like waiting lol. Besides, these cost me $4 rather than $12 online. The air filter and elbow is the stock setup off my 288xp. It should fit under the aftermarket 266 top cover I bought. I did have to grind the plastic tab off the rear of the elbow, but it clears now. The stock 61 elbow setup has a single screw for the filter, creating a large obstruction inside the elbow. I’m happier with this setup.

Also my theory about the oil caps didn’t pan out. These older cases takes an entirely different cap, which I bought an OEM one and will come in on Friday. After getting the saw mostly together I found out late last night it doesn’t have spark. A new ignition system is now on the way too

 

Looking good Eric.

 

This rabbit hole keeps getting deeper and deeper, lol.

 

It's good for me right now though; I needed a good 3D puzzle in my life

 

The money is flowing! Hate it when things snowball like that. It will be worth it in the end.