wyk

Bjarne showing you how they work in Canada(looks like a 592 with a 36in bar): And one of my favourite one of his - worth it for the intro, but go to 22:00 for the interesting bit:

Canada has since really taken up the torch from the US. Though they actually do more overall logging stateside, Canada still has more untouched wilderness. Still, it's all the northwest, or PNW as we say. We're all the same team, and we all use the same equipment.

As someone who has lived and worked in both the UK and the Pacific Northwest in forestry and logging, I think I can add some perspective. I understand there is a certain amount of bravado when it comes to chainsaw work, and the need to prove ourselves. However, there is a reason things are different. Simply stating Americans aren't smart is a rather ignorant way to go about it. Americans appreciate their money, work and time just as much as you do. We'll start with logging, then go to more private use. The trees you would be felling in the UK are very, very small compared to what is logged stateside. You simply do not need the same length bars to do surgery or logging in the UK, regardless of the type of wood. Now, I did work on some large historical estates in the UK that did have large trees, but we'd be in a lot of trouble if we cut them down... More often than not, we were simply cutting up blowdown on these estates. At one point, a coworker said we could go get the 880 with a 36 inch bar and finish a trunk. I put a 32 inch bar on my ported Husky 385 and made light work of it, far faster and much less exhausting than dragging out the 880 would have been. Most loggers stateside use a skip tooth chain that has about 1/3 less teeth in it or so, have high output oilers, have ported and modified chainsaws, and keep their chains sharp. The skip not only reduces friction and resistance, it also allows the chain to clear bigger chips and more of them - so some also lower their rakers there more then we would in the UK. You can easily run a 32" bar on a 70cc powerhead in Douglas Fir this way. Those on the east coast cutting denser hardwoods tend to use less bar. This isn't rocket science, pros use what works. Now if you live in the northwest, you will find that longer bars and chains are rather affordable and common. If you are a homeowner and have a 261, you might run 3/8 on it for softwoods or even some of the softer hardwoods in the area like red alder, alpine or big leaf maple, and run a 20 inch bar on her. You might be using skip chain. The 3/8 will hold it's edge longer than 325, etc. If you have a 60 or 70cc saw, you may use a 24 inch bar with skip chain in soft woods. The local shop may only have skip chain available. That is how it was with my local saw shop. You got skip chain and you liked it - though I did live a bit outside of rural areas at the time. Some only had square chain depending on the day. These chains work fine on a 24-30" bar on a 70cc saw in the woods you see in the north west. If you are a tree surgeon who mostly wants to make things look nice in the town or city, you likely would use a 325 or lo pro chain and stick with shorter bars and smaller powerheads for tighter work. It also keeps the noise down to not run ported or big saws. Again, it isn't rocket science.

The trick with the 355 series is to use small adjustments on the carb. It can be very sensitive to where the low and high are. If yours has tabs, you will need to remove them. You also may need an Echo carb tool(a D or an Oblong usually work fine, I have even used a pacman one to good effect). Still, some of them move easily enough you can use a flathead. But a carb tool is much easier to use as it will stay in place as you make adjustments and test the results.

I would send it on to Spud and have her properly modified/ported. Those 355T series Echo's have a lot to give if you mod them right. My 355 and my 360 both had cats, too, which I had to attack with a die grinder to get out.

Don't worry, I use it to clean stuff with. However, bear in mind this is a great degreaser. I somehow doubt it will make it to the ocean before it hits a load of backed up grease and oils in the sewers, where it turns into soap. Surely some of us have showered? Some of us, anyways... I am only using a tiny amount of it - virtually all industries use this stuff in wholesale quantities for cleaning.

I'm a fan of the sodium hydroxide. It only attacks Aluminium and nothing else. If you leave HCL in the cylinder it will definitely pit the nikasil. This won't touch it no matter how long you leave it. And when you are done with the solution, you pour it down the drain since it's a drain cleaner. Or I guess you would clean your bricks with it And if you get it on your clothes or somewhere else, it cleans it instead of dissolves it. well, unless it's your skin... If you are porting the saw, then it doesn't really matter if you get it in some of the ports. But if you do not intend to port the saw, you want to be careful if it's one of those saws where there's not too much coating going in to the ports.

OK, so I was out of drain cleaner. That's OK - the hardware store has an endless supply: Wasn't 'super strength' spud's nickname in school? Here it is doing it's work(careful not to get this on any aluminium ya don't want to literally vaporize): And here she is having cleaned the cylinder and also ported my exhaust for me: And here's sumfin ya don't see too often. A piston telling you the exhaust is to the side:

Still over here in Wicklow. Porting a few more saws nowadays then I was, so keeping busy enough. Another thing I forgot to mention about these little Echo's is, for some ungodly reason I will never understand, Echo uses a different fastener for nearly everything and everywhere. It's like it was designed by someone that sold fasteners.

So someone decided to straight gas their Echo 361wes. Made a nicely lovely even mess of the piston. Fortunately, since it basically didn't start the second time they tried it, it looks like the cylinder may be recoverable...maybe... The reason I posted this is - if someone comes to you with an Echo 355T or 360T etc, just say no. These are even less fun to play with than MS290's. If this wasn't owned by a friend of mine, and wasn't being ported, I would have turned them away. It takes forever to pull this thing apart and put it back together. Anywho, may have a ported video soon if I don't make it any worse...

Does no one pay attention to videos they see? It has a bad bearing and will need to be split. Are you trying to tell me you can split cases with the jug on them? I'd certainly like to see that. If you got a saw that was very hard to turn over, would you just open up the muffler and have a look and just say you're done? Is that how you diagnose a saw that's hard to turn over? Just open the muffler and be done with it? Richard has rebuilt more saws than you have cut trees. He knows what he's doing, and you would do well to listen to the man.

I'd be more impressed if you listened to what he actually said in the video before typing. The thing is locked up with a bad bearing and will need a rebuild. No amount of not getting dirt into that saw is gonna help it at this point, son. It needs to be split apart.

Richard has been working on small engines for decades. He knows what he's talking about, and we would do well to watch his videos and learn from him.

Whilst I haven't seen it quite as bad as Richard has, I have seen a few saws in front of me on Ultra that had loads of carbon everywhere. I suspect he sees stuff run in much hotter climes than we have here. Still, I was not impressed with what I saw. Not much lube, loads of carbon. Usually I would suggest 40:1, but with how much carbon I see, I just say go with something else. Like, anything else from a different brand.

Wow, that 5200 hasn't eaten itself yet? ETA, I think the Stiga 4500 is likely closer to the Dolmar 420. But until one of us has one before them in bits, we won't know for certain. However, you can still find 420's and 4300's at good prices. I just picked up a 420 locally in nearly new condition for 250 euro. I had assumed Makita would sell their 2t rights off asap.