880 or 3120 best for milling

[CallumA]

Probably been asked before! i'm thinking of getting a bigger saw for my chainsaw mill and have 5 husqvarna saws already with 3 (2 x 266 1 x 390) of them with the same bar mount as the 3120, so i guess i'm asking is the Sthil so much better that its worth the extra money for the new bars etc or stick with Husquarna??

 

Callum

Edited April 23, 2018 by CallumA

[woody paul]

Bet with the devils you know.

[Big J]

It was always the case that the MS880 was the favoured saw. You very rarely see 3120XPs chainsaw milling for some reason. However, the newer MS880s seem to be quite delicate, and that was my experience too. I had a 13 month old machine, which had not been worked hard at all, completely self destruct. I sent it back to FR Jones, who sent it to Stihl, who just sent me a brand new saw without attempting to repair the old one. 

 

Hard to recommend either to be honest. Perhaps if you can find an old but well looked after 088? I had two 088s and they were always perfect and they worked really hard. 

 

 

[HuntingHicap]

I have an old 3120xp, I bought it secondhand, it has a manufacture date of 1994 on the saw, it still puts in a hard days work and requires minimal maintenance.

 

I have used a friends 880 and didn't think there was much between them. Both heavy, terrible anti vibes and not something you want to be using unless you really need to.

 

Can't comment on the milling aspect as never done any. But Reg Coates has a 3120xp....nuff said

[Rough Hewn]

Stihl 084 is a cracking milling saw, the 880 is good too.
But if I were in your boat I'd probably get a husky, just so you can swap bars etc.
If you're not milling over 30" a 395 maybe? Or my fave the 661.
[emoji106]

[Forest2Furniture]

I used a 660 for years to mill 30"+ wide boards then moved up to a 880.

As previously said the 880 is a heavy brut and not something you'd

want to use all day, I did for many years before I moved up to a bandsaw

mill which is why I suffer with 'vibrating white finger' in the winter months!

[Steve Bullman]

On 24/04/2018 at 07:24, Big J said:

It was always the case that the MS880 was the favoured saw. You very rarely see 3120XPs chainsaw milling for some reason. However, the newer MS880s seem to be quite delicate, and that was my experience too. I had a 13 month old machine, which had not been worked hard at all, completely self destruct. I sent it back to FR Jones, who sent it to Stihl, who just sent me a brand new saw without attempting to repair the old one. 

 

Hard to recommend either to be honest. Perhaps if you can find an old but well looked after 088? I had two 088s and they were always perfect and they worked really hard. 

 

 

I have a well looked after 088 for sale.  Probably came out for action once per year

[kinderscout]

I have both of these two saws 880 is a feeble to the 3120 but i fine the 880 better to use as the exhaust is in a better position no smoke up your nose.
3120 seems a far more able saw for milling.but the for the exhaust fumes.