Dilemna

Me personally, I wouldn't do it.

 

I try to never go in on equipment with anyone! I did it once and it ended poorly as the guy kept loaning it out to his buddy's who didn't take care of it. My dad offered to go halves on my splitter and I told him no as I knew my brother in law would try to borrow it. I told him he was welcome to it anytime he wanted it and it even stays at his house a lot but now I have control of who uses it. Your situation might be totally different but that was just my take on it.

 

Wouldn't you have known this ahead of time if you called him first?

 

There are lots of good reasons to share equipment, resources and time. Joint ownership on the other hand creates a lot of problems even within a marriage sometimes. It's amazing how many deals you see on Craigslist reportedly due to divorce that you know the guy bought new and is going to take a bath on. Depending on how much the referrals are worth to you, I'd have him buy his own bar and chain, then let him borrow the powerhead, gas can and oil whenever he wants. Or, even simpler, let him buy the saw for half price and buy a new one

 

DISCLAIMER - my thoughts are based on the fact that my newest saw is a decade old

 

Tell your friend that you want to buy a saw and do some mods on it. Sort of a hobby type thing.
Single ownership would be easier so you can tweak it and keep an eye on how the mods perform.
Hopefully you can still get referrals.

 

Purely from a business perspective, half of a new 441's cost is a cheap way to getcha some more referrals in my opinion. Word of mouth is the best advertisement as your probably know As a business owner myself, I know I have wasted way more $ than that on things that for one reason or another, did not work out.

Im not sure what you do for work, but I think I remember you waving a saw in some PPE and a suit if I remember correctly...in the office nonetheless! Buy it and give us more pics like that! lmao!

 

If my saw goes out cutting, I go out cutting.
If something goes wrong I know it was me.

Might help if each could have your own bar & chains.
Depending on hours it gets used,
agree to take it to the local saw shop after X hours/cords of use & split the cost.

I been there, done something similar. Didn't like it.

 

I usually give people the "it's not because I don't trust you, it's because I don't trust anybody" type response when they want to borrow power tools....or they get a free operator that comes with the tool.

It's not really that I don't trust people, its that I don't want to put either of the parties in an awkward situation with an expensive tool.

Let's say I loaned out a saw to MM or Dex or Scotty, who obviously understand the proper care and feeding of a chainsaw and would likely treat it much better than I do. And the day I loan it out it happens to grenade the top end through no fault of their own...who's fault is it and who is responsible?

It just gets too weird for me and isn't worth ruining a friendship over. If they need a saw that bad I'll go cut up something for them.

This situation is different, but my opinion is if you need a saw bad enough to own part of it then you need it bad enough to own all of it.

 

I had a truck with a plow. Thought it would last me as long as I was able to drive it. But it got borrowed by family, they had to plow out their friends. Well you get the point. So now I am back to using a snow blower. I just didn't feel it want to drive while it was snowing, nor did I want to keep up with the cost of plowing out my kids friends. Selfish, well a matter of perspective. I have the name of a plowman should I not want to tackle a storm.

 

My point exactly. It is no-one's and everyone's responsibility at the same time, so you have to be OK with either situation. I'm OK with getting a shovel returned in bad shape...and buying a new shovel if I were to break it. Not a $900 saw.