For anyone wanting a light saw, Stihl MS170

Yz gotta admit that’s a nice price for a nice little saw. Congrats to all the buyers.

 

I've had mine for about 6 months and it's a nice little saw.

 

Well Brad , I was going to get a hold of you to see what you have been up to. Guess you answered my question.

Great little saw , you should be happy with it.

 

I like the ms180 better

 

Haha

 

I currently have a Stihl MS 291 that I use for felling and bucking logs. My son and I were talking about the yard/brush cleanup. We have the following:

• Echo PAS-266 Power Head
  • Standard trimmer attachment.
  • Hedge Trimmer attachment.
  • Brushcutter attachment (can't find it right now)
• Stihl MS 291

I want to get two things for this:

• Echo Power Pruner attachment
• Thinking about getting a lightweight Stihl - MS 170.

Looking for other members' thoughts on the MS 170 or if you have an Echo with the Power Pruner that would also be helpful.

Jason from RI

 

MS170 is a great little saw for the $
Just saw a TV ad yesterday , still $159

 

Ms170 or 180. Both good saws. I have a 15+ year old 180 and it's still works. You can often find them on sale for an out the door price equal to their name plate number. They are excellent at bucking up limbs and cutting trees up to 12 inches. I have a 16 bar and it still cuts but a bigger saw with a 20" bar will do it faster.

The price is low enough that if anything major breaks it's cheaper to replace the whole saw. My saw has worn out 4 bars that I recall and a pile of chains. Put a new bar and chain on this winter. It keeps running as long as I take care of it.

That's the 3rd generation running the 180. My dad gave it to me years ago. He is clowning for the picture, not running that way.

 

I have not run an ms170, but several have and a few have just bought one.
There was just a thread on them. They get outstanding reviews.

 

For anyone wanting a light saw

Here the thread is...

 

It's a good little saw. It was my only saw for a few years until a major Manitoba Maple (Box Elder) blowdown had me thinking it wouldn't last with the bar buried much of the time. Watch the spark arrestor screen. Seems they don't run hot enough to burn the carbon off and plug up. An 8mm or 5/16" socket fits. Burn the carbon off the screen with a propane torch.

 

I like the MS180 over the 170. Better chain adjuster and has metal dog on it.

 

^^^^^^ I put the metal dog ( bucking spike ) on my 170. ^^^^^^

 

I thought everyone put metal dogs on all their chainsaws?!

I made a custom set for my Stihl 044. I didn't like the short dogs or the long dogs, so I made a set of medium size dogs.

And I second the spark arrestor screen. Mine clogged up and was restricting the exhaust. A socket and some carb cleaner fixed it up.

 

Do you use Stihl oil?

 

This was the screen in the ms180. I took it out to clean it, somehow it got lost......I did open the vents up on the muffler too.

 

What kind of negative symptoms do you get when the muffler screen is partially blocked?

 

Thanks, everyone. We have a Stihl dealer right in town. I'll be heading there soon as the garden boxes are done. Mulching next, then on to setting up the pallets once we buck and split some of the logs that are in the way. After that, we'll be free to buck, split, and stack the remainder of the logs on the ground. Once we are at that point, we'll start clearing brush. Now I could pick up the saw to help us with the bucking. With only two us working on this at a time, I find that one bucking and the other splitting works well. Then we both stack as the split pile gets to be too big.

Near as I can figure, we are maybe 2-3 weeks out unless the weather, or other things crop up. Let me tell you, it feels good to be able to make consistent progress on these projects.

Jason from RI

 

Quite a bit of it, but it's Canadian orange top made by Castrol. I don't know if anyone else sells it with their label. It doesn't smell unlike Dolmar, Husqvarna or Tanaka which some say are the same. I always run with the spark arrestor screen in, as every piece of waste land is covered with 2 feet of dead Brome Grass in the spring and the fall and it burns about the same as gasoline.

 

Scotty Overkill how do I get this merged with the other MS170 thread? It does not make sense for there to be two threads. I should have done a search first.