Choosing a saw...

[spuddog0507]

7 hours ago, john87 said:

Thank you for taking the time to write all that out.. I am only a beginner at all this stuff and information like that helps an awful lot!!

 

I have to be fair, i am starting to lean towards a 462 or the 500.. As you say, it felt VERY usable for a saw that size, at least in the shop it did!! As soon as i picked the thing up i was impressed..

 

I have been looking at specs for various saws, i one thing i have noticed is that Stihl tend to be very conservative regarding the bar size they say a saw of any particular power will pull, whereas other makers tend to offer longer bars but in combination with a lot less power, so at least it seems they do not feel it necessary to try to "overstate" the capabilities of their saws..

 

I did see a video last night of someone with a 500 that had one with a 32" bar and that flew through the stuff they were cutting, so as you say, the thing would handle a 25" bar stupidly easily..

 

I am going to try to look at a 462 and a 500 side by side and try to find out what differences there are in fuel consumption and stuff. Bit worried that a 500 might be a bit of a lot to go wrong, what with the injection and all, but i had a fuel injected 125 motorbike once, the that was FAR better on fuel than the carburetted 125 i had years ago, but then, as you say, more power = more fuel.. No getting away from that!!

 

john..

I was lucky enough to use one of the very first 462s that was developed for trials through out europe in 2018, The saw was given to a lad who was hand cutting in the lake district and we ended up on a FISA refresher course together, i think all 6 of us there that day and we all said the same thing about it, it was well balanced, light, and very quick on the throttle, it handled well and cut very well, if i was looking for a new saw i think the 462 would be the one for me, after running 460s and 461s for many years with about zero problems i would be tending to stay with the same stable. i am now getting on a bit so the lighter the saw the better and the 462 is the lightest 70cc saw out there, either the 462 or the 500i would be a good buy, someone today has said to me, i am F - - - - - g sick of mending saws so tomorrow he is going shopping 2 new 261s 1 362 1 462 and a 500i, so if i play me cards right i might get his older saws for very little and it will give me something to do at nights,,,,

[Darkslider]

5 hours ago, doobin said:

I run a 36" on my MS462. Knocked the oiler pin in and wound it to the max and it's fine for the felling cuts and ringing up the first few metres of big butts, which is all it gets used for.

Is this oil pump mod something that can be done on most oil pumps or just the ms462? I've got a little Husky T525 top handle that doesn't supply enough oil even with the adjuster wound up, I've cleaned out both the lines and it is oiling but a pathetic amount and the chain overheats easily especially around the narrow tip of the bar which is a solid nose carving type 

[doobin]

18 minutes ago, Darkslider said:

Is this oil pump mod something that can be done on most oil pumps or just the ms462? I've got a little Husky T525 top handle that doesn't supply enough oil even with the adjuster wound up, I've cleaned out both the lines and it is oiling but a pathetic amount and the chain overheats easily especially around the narrow tip of the bar which is a solid nose carving type 

No idea. I just know it’s a thing on the 462. 

[doobin]

1 hour ago, spuddog0507 said:

I was lucky enough to use one of the very first 462s that was developed for trials through out europe in 2018, The saw was given to a lad who was hand cutting in the lake district and we ended up on a FISA refresher course together, i think all 6 of us there that day and we all said the same thing about it, it was well balanced, light, and very quick on the throttle, it handled well and cut very well, if i was looking for a new saw i think the 462 would be the one for me, after running 460s and 461s for many years with about zero problems i would be tending to stay with the same stable. i am now getting on a bit so the lighter the saw the better and the 462 is the lightest 70cc saw out there, either the 462 or the 500i would be a good buy, someone today has said to me, i am F - - - - - g sick of mending saws so tomorrow he is going shopping 2 new 261s 1 362 1 462 and a 500i, so if i play me cards right i might get his older saws for very little and it will give me something to do at nights,,,,

He’ll be lucky to find any of those saws for sale currently. 

[spuddog0507]

34 minutes ago, doobin said:

He’ll be lucky to find any of those saws for sale currently. 

I dont think this guy would waste his time if they where not there to collect, as far as i know all paid for just need collecting,,

[Dan Maynard]

What do you want to do with the 24" bar? I think you'd be better off with a 60cc saw and 20" bar, much more usable and to be honest the lighter the saw the better. I just suspect as a non pro you won't use a 70cc saw all that much, it's pretty physical thing to use for long.

[john87]

45 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

What do you want to do with the 24" bar? I think you'd be better off with a 60cc saw and 20" bar, much more usable and to be honest the lighter the saw the better. I just suspect as a non pro you won't use a 70cc saw all that much, it's pretty physical thing to use for long.

That is the thing.. Hard to know what to do for the best.. The saw i have now is only a 14" one. It has been and still is, brilliant. Problem i have, is, i do not want to spend a lot of money to get a saw that only gives me another 4 or 6 inches of bar. It would be a very expensive 4 inches!!

 

Some time in the future, i have to take down some fairly sizeable trees. Because of where they are, i will have to dismantle the things more or less to the bottom. I do not want to be messing about trying to cut off bits of three foot diameter trunk anymore than i have to, i just want to be able to saw off six inch slices and push them off..

 

Last biggish tree [by my standards] i had to saw up, Happily for me, had fallen over of its own accord, and i just had to cut it up. Most of it was dead easy, i just lifted it with a jack and whizzed along lopping off slices. The last ten foot or so was a different matter, i had to saw it lengthways into quarters to be able to cut it up. This was not much fun!!

 

If i bought a large saw, this sort of thing would be very much easier, AND, if i had to take the saw up a tree for any reason, i could always fit a shorter bar.. [although it still would not be much fun admittedly]

 

I know you say that; "I just suspect as a non pro you won't use a 70cc saw all that much, it's pretty physical thing to use for long" and i agree with what you say. But looking at it from the other direction, i might only have to wrestle with the thing for an hour, whereas a pro like you lot, might have to wrestle with the thing all day every day, another thing entirely!!

 

Here are two photos of the sycamore.. One of it jacked up and me about to slice it up, and one of the last bit that i had to cut into quarters.. [not doing that again!!]

 

john..

 

[spuddog0507]

11 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

You can crosscut up to double the bar length and fell up to 1.5x the bar length.

Fell up to 1.5x bar length ? was this a misprint ? as you should be able to fell a tree 2 and a half times the bar size, i,e saw with 20" bar you should be able to drop a 50" tree,,,,

[john87]

17 minutes ago, spuddog0507 said:

Fell up to 1.5x bar length ? was this a misprint ? as you should be able to fell a tree 2 and a half times the bar size, i,e saw with 20" bar you should be able to drop a 50" tree,,,,

If you are rather more skilled than me i suppose you could!! I know how to do it in theory, but in practice it would be a bit different..

 

john..

[Haironyourchest]

15 minutes ago, spuddog0507 said:

Fell up to 1.5x bar length ? was this a misprint ? as you should be able to fell a tree 2 and a half times the bar size, i,e saw with 20" bar you should be able to drop a 50" tree,,,,

The reality of felling and crosscutting twice the bar length is a bit different. If your chain is filed slightly off par, or bat rails unevenly worn, and you're cutting tends to "curve" then your cuts don't line up and it's a serious pain to separate the rounds. The bigger the diameter the more hassle it becomes. Everything has got to be bang on, which is hard even with a new bar and chain setup. If you can easily rotate the log, or work around a standing stem, its a bit better. But a bar a tad longer than the diameter of the tree is by far the most forgiving.