Stihl 084AV and mill

[grmn8]

Hi.  As a noob, I am hoping for some advice on some 2nd hand equipment.  I am starting out as a smallholder and looking to put up some outbuildings on a tight budget.  I am planning on harvesting & milling some Douglas fir and am looking to buy a large enough chainsaw and a mill.

 

I am looking at a 2nd hand Stihl 084AV (apparently hasn't worked much in the last 10 years, unknown history before that. Good compression, starts fine.) and a 48" granberg mill.

Also included in the deal are: 48" bar, chain & rip chain, 36" bar & chain, 30" bar & chain. Spare piston rings, clutch springs & recoil spring.

 

2 questions:

-What do you think of the asking price of £950?  Seems high to me but that could just be me working to a tight budget...

 - Are replacement parts an issue for 084s? The seller reckons you can use MS880 parts and I was surprised by this. I haven't been able to find the specs, but my hunch is that piston and bearings wouldn't be compatible if anything else is?

 

I'd be really grateful if you could share your wisdom and possibly prevent this noob on a budget from making an expensive mistake. 

Thanks.

[billpierce]

Hi.  As a noob, I am hoping for some advice on some 2nd hand equipment.  I am starting out as a smallholder and looking to put up some outbuildings on a tight budget.  I am planning on harvesting & milling some Douglas fir and am looking to buy a large enough chainsaw and a mill.
 
I am looking at a 2nd hand Stihl 084AV (apparently hasn't worked much in the last 10 years, unknown history before that. Good compression, starts fine.) and a 48" granberg mill.
Also included in the deal are: 48" bar, chain & rip chain, 36" bar & chain, 30" bar & chain. Spare piston rings, clutch springs & recoil spring.
 
2 questions:
-What do you think of the asking price of £950?  Seems high to me but that could just be me working to a tight budget...
 - Are replacement parts an issue for 084s? The seller reckons you can use MS880 parts and I was surprised by this. I haven't been able to find the specs, but my hunch is that piston and bearings wouldn't be compatible if anything else is?
 
I'd be really grateful if you could share your wisdom and possibly prevent this noob on a budget from making an expensive mistake. 
Thanks.

950 is relatively high for second hand but also expect he will get it.

I have an 084 and a 880. Some parts are compatible but there are definitely parts which aren't like cylinders air filter shrouds etc. Common parts like piston clutch needle bearing etc are compatible.

For reference I found an 880 for £650 with a 36 and 25 inch bar.

Personally if you can I so I get an 880. But if you find a cheap 084 or 076 there are plenty parts out there for them and they will get the job done. On a budget I think Rob d on here (chainsawbars.co.uk) sells budget mills . How wide do you need to mill? 36" should do those things.

If you go 084 I have a couple of cylinders available. Also was thinking of selling 076 if your interested?

Sent from my SM-G390F using Arbtalk mobile app

[Rough Hewn]

You can buy a brand new 880 for about £1000
36" Mills are £100.
36" bar and chain £120

£950 for a machine 10+ years old.
Hmmmm...

[spudulike]

The 084 coils are not available now and you may find that other parts are also EOL although some are shared. There are a couple of top ends, one with an anvil clamp for the muffler and the other is conventional bolt and nut. Spares would worry me. An 088/MS880 may be a better option.

[Dan Forsh]

As others have said, you could probably pick up a used 880 for less money. I have an 084 that I picked up a couple years ago, condition unknown, for £45. with a 36" ES bar and chain. Granted I've never dug into it as my 'playing with chainsaws' time hasn't been much since I bought it, so it might be a cheap fix/runner it might not be. But that said the 084 wasn't a model that was in production for very long and consequently the parts support either new or 2nd hand isn't there, and I don't recall that there is much interchangeable with the 088/880.

 

Performance wise a good running saw would do what you need it to, but for the sake of longevity I'd advise you to go with what is still current and has the parts support; MS880.

Edited September 16, 2017 by Dan Forsh

[agg221]

I would generally concur with the points made above - for a saw which is going to be used, even just for your own milling, parts availability is key. You can probably afford to wait a week for a part to arrive but you don't want to be stuck for months, waiting for a NLA part to turn up on ebay in the US.

 

The MS880 is obviously the model of choice from the current range, however parts availability is still excellent for the 076, 070 and 090, due to very long production runs which ended fairly recently (the 070 is still in production in some countries as the MS720).

 

You don't mention the size of the timber you plan to process. If it's 2' or under then you would be OK with an MS660/066/064. Again, good parts availability and although they are slower, if you put a 3/8" lo-pro bar on from RobD (chainsawbars) they are surprisingly quick. I use one on the mini-mill and a 25" bar buried full depth in oak is quicker than the main mill at 30" on a big saw with .404" chain.

 

Alec

 

 

[Rough Hewn]

I would generally concur with the points made above - for a saw which is going to be used, even just for your own milling, parts availability is key. You can probably afford to wait a week for a part to arrive but you don't want to be stuck for months, waiting for a NLA part to turn up on ebay in the US.
 
The MS880 is obviously the model of choice from the current range, however parts availability is still excellent for the 076, 070 and 090, due to very long production runs which ended fairly recently (the 070 is still in production in some countries as the MS720).
 
You don't mention the size of the timber you plan to process. If it's 2' or under then you would be OK with an MS660/066/064. Again, good parts availability and although they are slower, if you put a 3/8" lo-pro bar on from RobD (chainsawbars) they are surprisingly quick. I use one on the mini-mill and a 25" bar buried full depth in oak is quicker than the main mill at 30" on a big saw with .404" chain.
 
Alec
 
 

Parts availability for the 076 070 and 090 is not excellent unless you live in manilla phillipines. The 076 and 090 has been discontinued, the 051 070 720 are only available in Peru, Bolivia Philippines etc.
An 880 will outcut all the saws above except for an 090 with an 84" bar in 84" wood.
880 12.5 krpm vs 8-10krpm.

Otherwise good info. [emoji106]

[flatyre]

Hi folks some good info on this thread, hope i'm not hijacking it but have been offered a collection of running saws recently, a stihl 021, 028, husky 136, an old 020 top handle, and an 076 with 36"bar and good chain, all for £400, maybe less with a bit of haggling. I'd punt on the 020 and 136 and keep the rest, the 021 is a good little chipper saw, have owned a few 028's and 038's and think they're great back up saws, and the 076 would be good for a bit of small scale hobby milling and cutting up any knotty rings in the firewood pile, for £400 ?

[billpierce]

Yep cheap enough. You'd prob make 200 from the 020 and 136 easy.

Is the 076 36inch bar a duro or sprocket tip?

[agg221]

15 hours ago, Rough Hewn said:

Parts availability for the 076 070 and 090 is not excellent unless you live in manilla phillipines. The 076 and 090 has been discontinued, the 051 070 720 are only available in Peru, Bolivia Philippines etc.
An 880 will outcut all the saws above except for an 090 with an 84" bar in 84" wood.
880 12.5 krpm vs 8-10krpm.

Otherwise good info. 

I run all the above and don't struggle for parts. L&S Engineering have most of them and the saws in the current production range have parts available from Germany. Many of the 090 parts are also still available via this route - the only thing I can't  get is the throttle cable for the old style AV model. The 076 requires slightly more care but as the 075, 076 and TS760 were virtually interchangeable and overall had a production run of nearly 35yrs there are a lot of parts still kicking about at dealers, although you may now have to try two or three to find some specific bits. I have built up a bit of a stock but only because I have found them on ebay at very low prices, e.g. £20 for an OEM pot and piston.

 

I agree that the 880 will out cut all of the above (except the 090 in very big wood) but they do have two big plus points. Firstly, the power is derived from torque rather than revs so they don't bog down easily, which is helpful in difficult wood when the cut is wide relative to the saw's capacity and secondly they are very cheap compared with an 880 - you could buy 3x 076 or 2x 090 for the price of a new 880 and being fairly bomb-proof that should certainly keep the average miller going for a while!

 

Alec