Andrew Cork

Agree with silky fox, looks an interesting challenge! Are there signs of the tree moving? Looks like the upper crown is reverting and sorting itself (Could just be the pic angle tho..) along with a fair bit of adaptive growth on the topside of the butt. Could it be possible that the tree has just just had to struggle in it's early years for light and developed a swept stem but adapted accordingly? Sorry if I'm stating the obvious and you've already considered this, just had a 3 day job cancelled due to them filming great expectations on location so now i'm interfering with other peoples work instead...

cheers spud, hopefully it'll behave itself for a bit now. I'll just have to watch who I let use it!

hi spud, just a quick update... Finally got round to giving everything a good clean and sticking in a new piston. I've had it out on a few jobs this week and it seems to be running in nicely so fingers crossed I'll get a bit more use out of the old thing yet! Thanks for the advice, the cylinder didn't appear to have any scoring but there was a tiny (<1mm) chip on the bottom edge of the exhaust outlet?? No offence was taken and sorry if I sounded a bit arsey, just didn't need to here any more advice on the marvels of hindsight! Thanks again, Andrew.

thanks guys, just for the record he had just moved back from the states where he used a domestic saw for logs etc and the saw was lent with full ppe and a quick re-cap of safe saw use. reckon i'll get the cylinder cleaned up and inspect for damage, if it looks clean It's got to be worth getting hold of a 3rd party piston and see what happens... Failing that I reckon it's heading under the bench to the spares pile.

cheers spud, I'll try and get the camera sorted for some pics this weekend. The only significant work that's been carried out on the saw is a new coil a year or so ago, so no one's had any reason to jam the piston. It's spent quite a bit of time of the shelf the last few years but occasionally it is "just the right tool" so it'd be handy to get it running again. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it was just an old mate that wanted to borrow and old saw to cut a few logs, told me he had 2 stroke that he used for his hedge cutter. Guess I'm just too nice...

i'll sometimes pull the entire length rope backwards and forwards through the anchor point when i'm back on the ground, seems to work for me. If you haven't just chuck it over the highest limb you can and do the same.

... managed to take a look in better light today and the piston is pretty badly damaged upto the ring on the exhaust side and there are some vertical marks. The back is clean, smooth and shiny metal grey. The inside of the cylinder looks undamaged to the untrained eye. I'm trying to find the camera cable to stick some pics on but do the descriptions point to a possible cause? The fuel that I took out smelled pretty stale and very red - i'm thnking he had his mix pretty wrong...

Thanks for the reply Spud. The damage is in the at the bottom edge in the centre of the front of the piston. I couldn't say for sure if i've tried starting with choke and full throttle but I guess I probably did along with any other combination that I could think of. You've got me with the metering needle arm tho - it's been a few years since college!! I'm guessing it's in the carb, is this something I should be able to adjust myself? The saw is all locked away now but i'll check the bearings over tomorrow and try to track down the metering needle. It's a pretty old saw so just trying to see if I can salvage it myself, rather than spend out on workshop labour. That money could go towards a nice shiny new one. The help is much appreciated tho. Thanks, Andrew.

yep, got a bit enthusiastic there!! Everything else looks pretty sound tho, I'm thinking it may have been down to dodgy fuel, it smelled pretty rough - no idea what mix he was using? Guess I should have sent it along with my own fuel to make sure. Anyway, I'll wait and see if there are any other opinons out there. Cheers, Andrew.

thanks for the quick reply, that's technical enough for me - been a busy day... I had a feeling it was something like that, i'll get a new piston ordered, don't think they cost the earth. thanks Andrew.

Hello all, I lent my trusty 260 to a mate to cut some logs and typically it mysteriously seized on him.... After inspection, a part of the piston casting had broken off (low down below the rings and pin). Being a cheap skate I've cleaned it out and reassembled it. Everything seems smooth and goes round, good compression but it will not start. The plug sparks well, diaphragm's good, checked filters and pipes etc but no joy. It does fire with a little damp start in cylinder. It seems that there is no fuel being pulled through, does the piston need to be complete to aid fuel flow in some way? Any ideas anyone? Thanks, Andrew.

Morning Predator, My trusty hound's claws are the same, I probably only trim her rear claws every other time. No idea why this is so, she always charging about, maybe they just wear their rear claws more... The black claws can be a little tricky to trim, try doing it in good light, sometimes you can see the end of the quick that way. Once you've done it once, it's pretty easy to keep them trimmed back to the same point. Failing that, maybe just take him for a few pavement marches once in a while, my sister's dog is usually walked around the streets more than around the woods and her nails rarely need trimming. Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks deer man, that's more like it! I don't need too much convincing to buy a shiny nice saw but I have been struggling to part with almost £500 on a saw that people keep complaining about so it's good to hear something positive. The other option is to spend almost as much on the old model but that just feels like the wrong thing to do. Oh decisions, decisions...

Same here, the trusty 200 is more repairs than original and is well overdue retirement... I was looking forwards to the 201 but the reports haven't been very positive to say the least! Has anyone got anything good to say about this saw?