wyk

No, she's running fine just worried about the needle bearing failures that the 261 seems to suffer from. The consensis seems to be that swapping a rim for a spur is the answer.

Here's the chainsaw in question, btw:

[ame]

Thanks for the input lads, i might be robbing Peter to pay Paul so. I'm fairly anal about greasing up the needle bearings every second Day or so. I use Oregon red liquid grease, it's great stuff.

Yer not having issues with that 261 are ya?

This is the firewood pile we made during that penis escapade:

Wes, that is real saw pron!

 

nice flick

 

 

N

Did someone say saw porn? I recently swapped an 18" picco set on to my ported 241. Not only is it great at cutting wood, it's not half bad for sculpting. I left this little gem out in the woods earlier today.

If you have a husky or a stihl, I would stick with the same make.

Some of the folks responding to this thread were victims of earlier units acting up. They both had teething problems, but most of their issues are well behind them now.

The 550 handles nicely, and weighs a bit less than the 261. The 261cm has loads of power though, especially modified. I would get whichever appeals to you most.

Just for info, I had an MS460 on an 18 and a mate had the exact same saw, a couple hundred between the serial numbers. His weighed 584 grams more than mine. Work that out.

Over a pound difference? I would work it out by checking the bar and the fluids, all else being equal.

That information would be far more helpful if you weighed an empty PHO.

Here is my current gallery. It needs to be updated to include images of a few of the newer saws. A contributor to this effort, Neal Murphy of Georgia informed me an MS261 he repaired recently weighed in at 11lbs 14 ounces US. Unfortunately, he lost the image before he could send it to me.

Unofficial Chainsaw Weight Gallery Photo Gallery by WYK at pbase.com

I weighed the ms261 I repaired:

 

[ATTACH]186671[/ATTACH]

 

Which is with 16" bar and chain and half a tank fuel and oil. It is nigh on a kg lighter than the Makita DCS5121 I recently bought with an 18" bar.

 

Now whilst I spent the last ten years of my working life using a Husqvarna 262 which I suspect is heavier than either I don't want to have an additional half can of beans on each hand to wave about. For the little I do I find the 261 a handy little saw, much as I like the Makita for its robustness. I have never picked up a modern Husvarna in anger.

Nope the 550 is listed at 4.9 kg the 261 at 5.2kg and the 560 at 5.7 kg

The real world weights I have seen(actual weighted powerheads VS factory reported weights) show the MS261 closer to 5.3-5.4 KG's.

300 grams in it, less than a tin of beans!

That's 11 ounces, which puts the weight of the 261 closer to a 560 than a 550. Such a thing is certainly noticeable in the 50cc class.

Having said that, the 550 is not as robust a build(well, after the teething problems of the 261 were weeded out...). But, it must be said, handles far better.

The 261 cm's I have ran were very strong and responsive saws. They also have the largest gain I have ever seen in a saw with a modified muffler so long as the baffle is removed(30% + improvement in cut time).

It most certainly is not universally hated, from what I have seen from the owners. In fact, I have heard of plenty of teething problems with the 550xp as well.

I didn't notice a huge difference in handling between the 420 or my 241cm(in mostly stock form as it is now ported). The 420 with an open muffler does rather well for a 42cc saw. In stock form with a simple muffler mod, the 241 and 420 aren't light years apart, and certainly not as far apart as their difference in costs would suggest. However, the cat needs to be removed from the 420 for it to work well, but this is very easy for even a layman to do as it an internal component of the muffler that simply pops right out.

Having said that, the 550XP is one of the best handling saws out there, with the only possible exception in the 50cc class being the Echo 500P at half a pound lighter. However, the 550 does cost considerably more than a 420.

jis a lil nudge up the page

Cut it from one side only to match the cuts. Gets the job done faster.

As an aside, this is also one of the reasons they have larger dogs stateside. It makes it much easier to buck wood from one side of it when it's much wider than your bar.

I make do with 42cc's much of the time on a 17" er.

[ame]

If needs be, I have other options:

btw, anyone know someone that could drill a hole for a decomp into my 281 jug?

My puter AND mobile left this life unexpectedly. Had to scramble just to replace them.

Mildly ported. Added some intake, got slightly jiggy with the transfetrs, a lot of exhaust(in timing more than width to keep the dynamic compression reasonable and make her easier to pull over), also removed a ring - it had two full sized rings. The fit was tight-ish, but since the bore is VERY hard chrome plated(ask me how I know), I am not afraid of it scoring if things go arseways. I was unimpressed with the feel of the rings, tho. Very hard and un-elastic. So gonna order a new caber one. Hell, might just get a new piston just to be safe.

Decided to do a mild port job on the 281xp. I managed to get some good compression simply removing the base gasket. But there were consequences.

Removing the base gasket got me this:

Which resulted in this:

Damaging this:

That's the bottom of the starter handle in two pieces there. Granted it is a HyWay cheap repro of a Stihl Elasto Start - but this happened whilst getting the compression. So as it stands, all I know is it is somewhere beyond 208psi or so...

and I need to replace the starter handle.

I've ran many saws with the spur sprocket without any issues

In fact my 281xp has a spur sprocket.

Andrew give me a ring tomorrow. I've a new phone and your number didn't come over.

Is the dolmar still the heavier one Wes

This is what I have in that cc bracket for saw weights from my thread on AS:

Echo cs-400 10lbs.04oz

Stihl ms 241 c-m 10lbs.09oz

Echo 500p 10lbs.09oz

Dolmar ps-420 10lbs.11oz

Stihl ms 026 10lbs.15oz

Bear in mind that 500P and 026 are 49cc saws. The 500P is based upon the Shindaiwa 446/452/502 chassis.

Yes that is the 50cc saw that revs the highest

 

I haven't got a Ms 241 too compare it too. All I can say is the 242 is longer and narrower than the dolmar

They weight pretty close.

Love the Husky/Iggesund combo - full Swede! How do you find those bars? I only have experience with Iggesund on harvesters.

They aren't quite as hard as Stihl bars but certainly worth every penny they ask. Light for their lengths as well.

281xp doing what 281's do:

In dirty conditions - 404 semi chisel seems to last forever vs 3/8.

Hi Wes,

 

Oh you tease:- the wearing of hearing protection is obligatory ?

 

 

 

Some tasty saw you have there, well done

 

 

N

She does alright. Could use a sharper chain in this vid, tho. But not bad for being buried in a tree.

[ame]

Ahh yeahh

I pee on mine. I put the P in "XP".