Chainsaw Question

[MoparNorm]

I'd recommend getting a new chain when they start spitting teeth! ouch! ow! ah!

[Kevin in Ohio]

Ross,
What Homelite do you have that is gear drive? I wasn't aware they ever made one. I've worked on the old Buz and Zip saws and they are all clutches with sprockets off the crank. After those they started a real High tech modeling system. A 420 saw meant it was 4 HP with a 20 inch bar. What A NICE model # system! I guess it wasn't confusing enough ;) McCulluch(sp) made a lot of gear drives early though.

If you want an old agressive chain without the antikickback guards ask for a Chipper chain. I assume they still make them. I ordered 3 spools about 10 years ago and am still using those. Old school and easy to set the depth. Kevin

[JimmieD]

Actually there were several Homelite gear reduction saws. I just got rid of an XL923 that was gear drive, a real moster. Also got rid of a 1951 Homelite 5-30 that had a Gilmer belt drive gear reduction. The 26L was belt drive gear reduction too. Both my 5-30 and XL923 could swing a 72" bar with ease.

[Jonas Smith]

Great info!

I'm taking my Stihl 041 in to have it professionally tuned up. I have a feeling I'm missing something, as it does'nt really seem to make good power unless I dig the spurs in on it hard. With a 72cc engine it should be ripping through everything right? I'll get a fresh 5 gal cont. of super unleaded and put the good oil in, and get a case of the Stilh bar oil for it. I've been using the Poulan and ACE hardware brand stuff for awhile.
I think I'm also going to purchase a 28" bar and new oregon chain (or 2) for it. I still have a lot of maple left to buck up!

[MoparNorm]

On the Stihl, you have high (H) and low (L) throttle adjustments for the carburetor. They are very sensitive and and can make the engine very responsive. It may be as simple as that. When you go for the tune-up have the tech walk you through the settings, if you still have your owners manual, there is a section about how to adjust those screws and why.
Yes, it should be ripping through everything. If the saw sat through the summer (see thread about fuel life) it may be gummed up in the carb. The carb is pretty easy to disassemble and clean, just do it over a clean, flat, non-porous surface as there are a lot of tiny parts and springs in there!
However, as I stated earlier, if the chain isn't sharpened correctly, it will heat up, bind and drag down the saw, giving you the same symptoms.

[Jonas Smith]

Norm, Ya' hit the nail on the head....

I put a new plug in, cleaned the air filter, and turned the high screw 1/4 turn in and it runs perfectly, even through through the dense maple. I sharpened the chain again and filed down the rakers. She cuts like a new saw! Well, at least I think it does, I've never had a new saw.
Thanks Norm and everyone else, you guys saved me a bunch of money and down time.

[Jonas Smith]

Thats right.
Many of our western friends would be humbled by some of the eastern species.
When I cut oak or hickory you really know very quickly if the saw is razor sharp. Even worse is a Black Locust (especially dead). I remember seeing sparks coming off a newly sharp chain just because the locust was so hard, almost like metal.
The other thing is with splitting.
Try splitting hickory or sweet gum with a maul! In the splitting contests you see on t.v. they always seem to pick straight grained wood wood like western pine or oak.

Well, our trees may be soft..... but our women are hard.

long live the Pacific North West!!!!!

[MoparNorm]

The WEST! Where the men are men and the women are....
uh...men too...ha!ha!

[74w300uteline]

eastern steel pine

we have huge cell towers along highways with a few scraggley fake Christmas tree branches on top.

[The Other Ross]

Ross,
What Homelite do you have that is gear drive? I wasn't aware they ever made one. I've worked on the old Buz and Zip saws and they are all clutches with sprockets off the crank. After those they started a real High tech modeling system. A 420 saw meant it was 4 HP with a 20 inch bar. What A NICE model # system! I guess it wasn't confusing enough ;) McCulluch(sp) made a lot of gear drives early though.

If you want an old agressive chain without the antikickback guards ask for a Chipper chain. I assume they still make them. I ordered 3 spools about 10 years ago and am still using those. Old school and easy to set the depth. Kevin

I'll have to look.It's been at least 25 years since I've used it and it was old then.The numbers are probably wore of the side.

[MoparNorm]

we have huge cell towers along highways with a few scraggley fake Christmas tree branches on top.

They do that out here too, fake Pine, fake Palm, fake Railroad type water towers... fake female body parts and fake men......
It would take a heck of a chain saw to cut down this center palm....

[Gordon Maney]

I re-read and that was confusing on fuel/oil mix and carb mixture. I was saying that the oil to fuel ratio should be properly heavy on the oil side.

The saw's carburetor mixture should be such that it 4 strokes slightly when wide open, no load. There's 3 adjustment screws: idle speed, low-speed needle/jet & hi-speed needle jet. You set the idle speed a bit high, then adjust low-speed needle/jet for stable running. Crack it wide open and it should then have hi-speed needle/jet adjusted so it 4 strokes without a load on chain. Let it return to idle, and then adjust low speed needle so that there's a smooth transition from idle to wide open throttle when you hit the trigger fast. Once you're there, adjust the idle mixture so saw chain just stops.

What do you mean by 4 strokes it?

[Gordon Maney]

Ross,
What Homelite do you have that is gear drive? I wasn't aware they ever made one. I've worked on the old Buz and Zip saws and they are all clutches with sprockets off the crank. After those they started a real High tech modeling system. A 420 saw meant it was 4 HP with a 20 inch bar. What A NICE model # system! I guess it wasn't confusing enough ;) McCulluch(sp) made a lot of gear drives early though.

If you want an old agressive chain without the antikickback guards ask for a Chipper chain. I assume they still make them. I ordered 3 spools about 10 years ago and am still using those. Old school and easy to set the depth. Kevin

I have thought about buying chain in rolls, and never have. I gather there is significant price advantage? Is it difficult making the splices?

[JimmieD]

Explaining what I mean by '4 strokes' is difficult at best. It is a sort of burbling sound that develops from a 2 stroke engine running too rich, making it sound more like a 4 stroke. However with chainsaws you want that, unloaded, to insure there's plenty of rich mixture going to engine when it gets under load. Under load the sound returns to the classic 2 stroke sound.

Fire up your chainsaw and warm it up, rev it wide open and back out the hi-speed screw until the exhaust note changes significantly. That's 4 stroking. Turn the screw back in to where it clears up to 2 stroke, then back it out again to where it JUST begins 4 stroking/4 cycling. You'll hear it if you do that, hard to explain otherwise. I can only say you'll hear the same in a properly tuned 2 stroke boat engine.

[Kevin in Ohio]

Gordon,
We have so many old saws that we basically have to buy it in rolls as there are no premades that fit. Plus I don't like the safety/homeowner grade chain on the bigger saws. At the time I had a friend who had a saw shop and would sell the rolls at cost to me so it WAS a very big savings.

As far as slplices go. Mark your length, grind the TWO rivet heads off on a bench grinder and insert a splice/master link. The rivets are dead soft so you can just peen them over with a ball peen hammer on the top of a vise or big block of steel. Done it for years and never had one break yet. Just do it slow and you'll see it mushroom over and be as good as new. Kevin