What's on your bench now?

Broke out the fancy flywheel puller Mike made for me that I haven’t needed in forever.


Tighen it up and a couple hits with a scrench and bam.

 

I don't work on saws much anymore my job is 12 hour's a day 6 days a week but is slowing to 5 day's

I didn't have my tools at my nieces but got the carb swapped out and a new fuel line and filter
Of course as soon as it started the pull rope snapped and I didn't have any with me
I gave this 10/10s back to the kid who found it in the trash
I put a nos fuel line and new bar and chain on it
That fuel line completely collapsed and dissolved.

 

5 months later and I’m finally back on project 395XP. I got the top end back on, as well as a bunch of odds and ends, making good progress until I hit a snag. The plastic intake shield was broken when I took it apart back in November. I’ll have to find one before continuing on.

 

It turns out that the part I need isn’t so easy to find. I have a part number and found a couple places that sell them, but in the meantime I’m trying this Mickey Mouse repair. I was able to use some industrial strength adhesive and patch this one back together. I also added a couple patches of thin plastic shim to shore it up a bit. Lastly I put a dab of epoxy in one of the corners where there was a void. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to work until I get a replacement. This is what desperation looks like

 

Ingenuity wins points on the MAN card... Desperation has driven many good / great things over the years.

 

335XPT I horse traded for with FHC’s own buZZsaw BRAD this afternoon. When I got it, it had a 334T starter cover on it plus this original in a cardboard box, disassembled, so I got the original reassembled and back on the saw. I put fresh fuel and bar oil in it and managed to get it running for a few moments. It feels like it needs a carburetor cleaning and based on what I’ve been told, likely crank seals. I’ll finish going through it later this spring, as I’ve already got my 395XP on the bench waiting to be finished first.

 

Looks better on your bench than under mine.

Did you rewind the popped spring in it? I tried several times and couldn't, hence the 334 cover.

Hopefully you can resurrect it.

I fired up the 250c and bucked that one bigger log to load. Weird feeling when I pulled the rope. Don't think I've ever started one of the convenience versions. Fired up easily and chowed through two cuts.

 

Yes those steel springs are kind of tricky until you do the job a couple times and figure out how to coil them back up. It went back together without too much grief for me.
I’m happy to see the MS250C go to a die hard Stihl guy. Enjoy!

 

I’d say you got the better end of the deal. While the 335/338XPT’s were/are not a 200T, they are right there with it as far as longevity and usability. The MS250 is just a meh home owner saw.

 

I did throw Brad a few gallons of bar & chain oil to sweeten the pot, and he wanted a running saw more than a project sitting under his bench. Win-win. I don’t know much about these top handles but it’s a size range that needed to be filled in my arsenal of tools. I’m appreciating having a small saw when the job calls for it as I’m getting older.

 

I have a MS192T, and it’s the first thing I grab if it’s big enough to handle the job. I’m definitely of the school of grab only the largest saw needed for the job, and I own a few saws…

 

I have that 338 yet should you want a back up the the 335!

 

It’s aliiiiiiiiive! I still need to tune it but I can’t make noise outside right now. Later this week. It runs and oils though; that’s a good start.

 

I'm getting mine ported
I just have a neotec 395 and the holzfforma 395 both gutless the holzfforma g288 is stronger
I won a Mastermind port job in a raffle

 

Are you having the Chinese cylinder ported or using an OEM?

 

OEM none of the porters I use will port chinese

 

Louder for those in the back please…

 

Perfect timing for this topic. I wasn’t going to take pictures tonight of this ongoing project but it’s a good example. I built this 61/272 a year ago. At the time, I couldn’t find an OEM cylinder so I bought what I thought was a Meteor. It was a China cylinder and in the online picture, it had “made in Italy” embossed on it. Upon receiving it, I saw that I got screwed. I decided to run it anyway. Performance wise it seemed fine. The saw pulled like a 70cc should. I put maybe 4 tanks of fuel through the saw, using Echo oil at 40:1. I did end up getting an OEM cylinder last August but sat on it for about 7 months until tonight. After getting the imposter cylinder off, I was mortified by how worn it was after 4 tanks. It’s not worn like a bunch of fines got sucked in. It looks to me like the plating is soft and the hard Caber ring I was running wore the honing marks off of both the intake and exhaust walls. I haven’t run the saw since the end of last year but I’m glad I finally tore it down and put the right cylinder on it. It’ll be interesting to see how it performs.


Sorry about the crap pictures but you get the idea.



It’s funny, I went down to my work area tonight just to make some 62 drive link chains for this saw (I’m running an 8 tooth rim sprocket with a 16” bar, so I needed to add a couple drive links) I knocked that out quickly so then I decided to go all in on the cylinder swap. Luckily I still had a brand new 52mm Caber ring kicking around to start fresh with.

 

I bought many white box ebay china cylinder kits that were stamped meteor
Legend had it and I don't know if it's true they came from the same forgings as meteor but are plated completely different
I know porters they hate meteor because they are so tough to grind on.
I probably have at least 6 266,268,272 saws in parts I can make complete just no time
Working 12 hours a day 6 days a week
Maybe when I retire at 59 and a half

 

Here’s a screenshot of what the advertisement looked like when I ordered it. When I got it, I saw that the made in Italy part was ground off (they probably got busted for false advertising)

At my work, one of the engineering departments has some 3D scanning tool that can generate a 3D model of just about anything. I’ll bet the Chinese have the same exact technology so they scanned a real Meteor cylinder, which obviously put the Italy embossing into their counterfeit model. If not for the plating issue, I wouldn’t hesitate to run this cylinder again on a beater saw if I absolutely had to. Like I said, performance wise it seemed fine. The ports looked decent, symmetrical, nothing crooked or skewed.