Robert Raven

Had an enquiry for some green oak cut into 2x4's, 2x6 etc, about 5 cubic feet in all. What would you charge for this sort of order? Thanks

Just been milling all day with Aspen in the 070, no probs with the saw and so much nicer for me. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

It's half milled now, will take some clearer shots. It's really just turkey oak that's not durable, right? By brown oak I meant Q. robur. More pics at lunch time.

See milling.....

Thanks guys, good to know. Think the same goes for my cheap strimmer?

Ive read that some people think that because modern 2 stroke oil is so much better than it used to be, it's ok to run older saws on 50:1, even if they were originally supposed to run with a richer mix. I have a Stihl 070, pushing 40 years old. I normally use 25:1 as per the manual, but I'd love to use 50:1 or even Aspen when milling. Has anyone done this, do you think it would be ok, or is it a recipe for disaster? Thanks.

Hi all, This was a long dead tree totally smothered in ivy, can any of you positively ID the species? I was thinking brown oak- can brown oak be used externally? Thanks, Rob

Just bought an oak veneer panel door to go in my lovely home milled oak door frame, and the small print says I must use a water based finish as anything oil or wax may wreck veneer. The oak floor, skirting etc are all Danish oiled and I was planning the same for the door and frame. Anyone know a water based finish that would look like Danish oil, or do you reckon I should risk it and sparingly use the oil? Cheers all.

Don't know if it's comparable but we rent an open concrete shed, 60' x 24' in a farmyard for £100 a month.

Fancy an 048? Nice saw.

Had similar intermittent symptoms on an ms390, turned out to be a pinprick hole in the fuel line, £3.50 to fix!

Sounds like everyone would ditch pump petrol altogether if Aspen was a few quid less..... Come on Aspen, make it £13-£14 and sell ten times as much!

They look great, what type of joins did you use? Is the timber green or seasoned?

Hi Big J, for pulleys and bearings etc I use Hayley Group Plc, I use the one in Norwich but they're nationwide. Whenever I've called them they've been pretty knowledgable and helpful. When you know your shaft sizes and desired gear ratio, give them a call and they'll sort you some pulleys and belts. Twin A section pulleys will probably be ok for 20hp, I'd use cast iron pulleys with a taper bush fitting, they won't slip on the shaft and if you want to change a pulley it's easy. All the best.

Oh, if I pull the oil tank cover, do I need a new gasket to put it back on?

Hi, thanks for the reply. Muffler cover is fitted. Sounds like I need to give the carb a total makeover, I'll check the model and order the kit. I'll forget the ignition system until I've totally ruled out fuel supply issues. I'll have a look at that oiler as soon as I get a chance, sounds like a good clean, new pipe and maybe a new diaphragm should sort it. Sorry to be a pain but do you have the part number for the oil pump diaphragm? Or know where I can get a parts list? I downloaded the workshop manual but the link to the parts list was broken. I've also arranged to borrow a compression tester from a friend, what compression is ideal/acceptable? Right now it's not too hard to turn over. Thanks so much for the help, Rob

Also, it's not oiling properly, I had to keep pumping manually to keep the chain lubed. What could be the problem if the manual pumping is fine, but the auto pumping is very very slow? I saw under the carb is a very short rubber hose, from the crankcase to the oil tank, does this transmit the pressure variations from the crankcase to the oil pump? I guess if it were gunged up it could reduce the rate of auto oiling? Pretty impressed with the saw when it was running well, it made pretty short work of milling some ash, 17ft long and 20" wide. Thanks, Rob

Hi Megatron, I've had another look today and have made progress, I think it is a combination of small problems which is fair enough given it's grand old age and unknown provenance. I replaced the fuel strainer in the tank, all the fuel tubing and tank vent, and dismantled the carb and gave it a good clean out. The strainer in the carb was pretty scaly. Also I noticed an obvious wear ring on the needle. The pumping diaphragm was pretty wrinkly across it's moving surface, not sure if this affects performance? Where would you order a carb kit from? I reset the carb to factory setting, 3/4 L, 1H. After all this it runs acceptably but still dies away unexpectedly from flat out, after much fiddling I think its th HT lead which has been taped up by a previous owner, so I guess is damaged. It seemed that if I squeezed and wiggled the HT lead during running problems, it would improve. Can I replace the HT lead, or is it permanently attached to the coil?

Hi there, My Stihl 070 (new to me) will start well and rev up, but under load it hesitates and runs intermittently, I have to back off and 'hunt' the throttle to keep it running. Felt like fuel starvation so I cleaned the fuel filter, new petrol, checked fuel line for leaks and replaced it, and reset carb to manual settings. After that it still didn't run great, the governor seems to be fidgeting about so the engine won't settle enough for me to tune the carb. I took off the fan housing and altered the governor spring, but it didn't seem to make much difference. Does this sound like a governor problem, or perhaps the fuel pump diaphragm has got stiff and can't keep up with fuel demand? What's the next line of enquiry? Really frustrating because for the few seconds it runs well, it cuts really well, just wish it would settle at full power. Cheers, Rob

Deer man, as the log was longer than the ladder, I screwed and wedged an 18" 2x2 at each end using a spirit level to keep them dead level, then pulled lines between them, then screwed and wedged a little 'platform', half way along, just touching the strings. Ladder was screwed at the end of the log, clamped in the middle, then wedged along it's length to stop it sagging. Cut to halfway, then slid lader along and screwed down to finish the cut. First time I've done one longer than the ladder, but it worked perfectly, can't see where I paused/resumed.

Thought I'd put up a few pics of what I've been up to with the Alaskan. The Ash blew down in September, the trunk is 17 feet long and was in a deep pit so was pretty tough to extract! Is there a name for that dark marking in the middle? The other pictures are of a long sill in my house, finally got round to finishing it with some oak I milled. Not the best pics as taken with a phone in artificial light but I'm pretty pleased with the result! Especially knowing how much that timber would have cost from the merchant.....

Oh and thanks for the info on the age- I'm pleased to have a vintage saw! Saw a pic if your big old saws on another thread, very nice collection in tip-top order there.

Thanks Megatron, its great to be in touch with someone who knows these saws inside out. I'll get the parts on order. I have both felling spikes, they were removed for shipping, like you said for milling, they're just in the way. A for the oil, it seems ok now. Don't think I ran it for long enough to get it through, tried again and I get a decent trickle once it's up to speed. I'll order those oil seals and save them for a quiet day in the winter. I downloaded the workshop manual, it looks reasonably straightforward. Should get the bar this week and then I can put it to some good use, will let you know how it goes!

Oh and RXE, it is a hard handle one. Guess I'll get the AV gloves out....... How do you check for air leaks?

Hi guys, So, my 070 showed up. I have posted pics of the serial number (MEgatron), the muffler which is missing the louvred steel cover plate, and also the air filter which to me looks a bit threadbare. Does anyone have the part number for the missing plate? I will order a new air filter I think because I can see a lot of daylight through this one. Because I'm not keen on the filter, I haven't run it a lot- just enough to check it fires up ok and blimey, it certainly does! Feels pretty ridiculously powerful, can't wait to get milling with it. I will order the 36" hard nose and filter and have a go. One thing I noticed- the manual oil pump works perfectly. However when running it up, I watched the oil hole and only saw a tiny weep coming out . If the auto oiler is not working properly, where is the best place to start looking? Is there a feed hose that may have cracked or blocked or something? How fast would you expect to see oil emerging from the hole when running it barless? Like I said, I didn't like the look of the filter so I didn't run it long at all, maybe it will take a while to prime the system. Thanks all, Rob