computeruser

Gotcha. A figure of speech, that’s all. Thankfully we aren’t as hung up on making saws illegal here as I understand y’all are - I can go buy all the top-handle saws I want, anytime I want, without having to ask the master’s permission first!

Those little Dolmars are nice saws for sure. I have owned them in the past, but they didn’t have the feel I wanted, so I sold them. Probably the neatest little saw I have owned and one I regret tremendously having sold was a Shindaiwa 360-377 hybrid. I forget which parts went where to make that hybrid, but it was a neat saw that was super light and nimble!

Thanks for the lead! I will reach out to him. To answer the earlier post, the US market does not seem to understand the 40cc pro saw. The OEMs do not seem to know how to market them and most consumers are unwilling to pay near to what a 50cc costs for one. Even when you can get someone to buy one, they invariably go and hang an 18-20” bar on it and then complain that it doesn’t pull it as well as the 50cc saw that only cost a few dollars more. Most buyers seem to be looking at price and maximum bar length as their primary saw choice criteria. There remains a thriving market for used 242xp saws here among people who understand them. But honestly, most people neither understand nor need this sort of saw. I don’t cut as much as I used to, but I kept a 238se and a couple ported 346xpg, all wearing 13” bars. The handling difference between those two chassis is noticeable and I will chose one or the other for a particular task on that basis; I would gladly pay the same for either saw, because they are different tools that excel in their respective niche, but most folks would expect the lower displacement model to be much cheaper, and their buying habits reflect this.

I'm interested in this little CS390esx Echo, but it can't be had in the US. Apparently we aren't allowed to have 40cc saws with magnesium crankcases - Stihl cancelled the 241 for the US market a few years back and Echo won't sell the 390esx here, so all we have is the 543xp but not the 543xpg, which I'd prefer over its cold-handled brother. But I digress. Does anyone have any suggestions on online retailers that would ship the CS390esx to the US? Any help you could offer on this would be appreciated.

Are Husqvarna 357xpg still available new in the UK? Or have they been totally supplanted by 560xpg? I have been searching, in vain, for a 357xpg for years here in the US. They simply do not exist in any quantity whatsoever on the used market, as there were very few sold in the first place and they've been discontinued here for a few years now. Long story short, I want one and am willing to pay to ship. Failing that, I might go in for a 560xpg, since all we can get is the 562xpg over here and I like the more compact profile of the 555 and 560xpg. Any suggestions on dealers that would sell and ship to the US?

Good suggestions above. Speeding up from idle on its own, to me, suggests too much air or too little fuel. Start with the easy stuff - check intake for cracks, replace fuel/impulse lines, replace fuel filter. Any changes? Then pressure/vac test if it is still acting up. As for the adjustments, cut off the tabs on the limiters so you can actually screw them in/out as needed. They are an annoyance that serves no purpose to the end user.

You will (probably) be happier swapping on a stock 79cc P/C compared to the bigbore 84cc one. The quality control on the OEM one is better and more consistent; it also works better with the crankcase volume, which is optimal with the 79cc. Squish is inconsistent and often excessive with the aftermarket kits, to such a degree that you may need to do porting work and cylinder machining to make it work right. On paper, 84cc > 79cc, so you would expect more out of it, but that has not been my experience from the BB Dolmars I have run and from the experience of others who have done this swap. For my money, I'd go OEM over bigbore every single time. The incremental increase in price to go OEM is not substantial, but you will end up with a high-performing, reliable, and high-quality setup as a result.

HP measures power, which is what gets work done. CC measures, quite literally, cylinder displacement, which in and of itself does not translate into getting work done. Increased displacement may correlate with increased torque, or a lower operating RPM. When talking about saws and other two-stroke engines, you get into an additional consideration: porting. Much as you can get different power profiles out of 4-stroke engines of the same displacement by changing the camshaft lobe profile (lift, separation, duration, overlap, etc.), the differences in porting (timing, volume, duration, etc.) as well as the velocity of the fuel/air mix coming through, will influence how much power you will get out of a saw of X displacement. The best (to my mind) example of the dynamics of CC versus HP is the Husqvarna 357xp versus 359. Same chassis, and you can swap pistons/cylinders between them. The 357xp is lower displacement, but produces higher power in stock form. It uses stuffers on the crankshaft to reduce the effective volume of the crankcase, unlike the stufferless 359. The stock porting of the 357's cylinder is more "enthusiastic." And the result is a more powerful saw in stock form The elephant in the room: the primary reason that the porting is not optimized for power from the factory is our friends, the eco-police. Emissions requirements result in reduced power/performance from what is conceivably possible. For a time in the US, a "net emissions" model was being used - saw makers could continue to sell higher performance, higher-polluting models in their professional saw lines if they sold lots of lower-performance, lower-polluting (e.g. choked-down exhaust, non-adjustable carbs, etc.) "homeowner" saws. Luckily, technology has come along way and they can now get high performance and lower emissions, albeit at the expense of higher price points. for its pro saws.

Cutting speed too slow? I suppose, though I've never really been impressed with the cutting speed of the 3120 and 084/088, though they do have the ability to pull long bars. Yes, 395 is large husqvarna bar mount, A healthy 066 or 395 should be well matched to a 28-32" bar with full-comp chain and an 8t rim for all-around use. By healthy I mean tuned correctly, muffler opened up so the thing can breathe, and run by an operator who knows how to keep the saw in its powerband. For the guy who doesn't know how to keep it in its powerband, a 7t rim might be a better choice. A 36" bar would work if you need that length for felling big trees, but unless you're felling monster trees day in and out, there is seldom any real need for such a bar length.

I just finished going over the whole thread and it was great. Keep up the good work and the good photos! The work you are doing is interesting, important, and meaningful, which is more than can be said for a lot of other sorts of work! If I suddenly became wealthy enough to not need to go to my day job in order to make the house note, student loans, etc., I'd gladly do what you're doing for the rest of my days. I do a bit of this sort of stuff on a volunteer basis on the weekends, but I'd be thrilled to be able to make it my vocation.

Interesting. Some of the municipal admin folks I deal with were put off by the "Game" part of the program title and seemed more interested in a govt program, but that might just be their ignorance showing or their preference for govt things over private ones. As it stands I'm fine cutting without any certification and have a solid track record for safety, but would like to get some at some point just to say I have it. Yes, I'm still in Lansing. Not cutting for money any more, but doing lots of volunteer work for forest habitat, invasive species, and trail building and maintenance as a passtime. We ought to meet up sometime. -Brandon

20" bar with .325" chain is about max. Even then it won't be particularly lively. Open up the muffler and retune for a bot more power, it's a cheap way to get a bit more out of the saw, as it is pretty choked down from the factory.

Thanks for the responses. I did some reading and got some PMs with additional info and think I've got a god sense of the curriculum now. It seems good and useful, though the number of hours/days that each takes seems a bit excessive, especially for an operator with prior experience. Reddog, I do know of GOL. It seems interesting, though I do like the idea of a unified, recognized standard rather than a proprietary training program. I'm not sure GOL would be recognized in the same way USDA FS sawyer certification might be, at least for insurance purposes, but maybe im overthinking it? Anyway, I also think we may have met once at Carvinmark's place, when he hosted a GTG. Does that ring a bell?

The 346xp as the edge on simplicity - pull and trim the carb limiter tabs so you have full adjustment range back, pop off the muffler and open up the exhaust outlet with a die grinder, put everything back together and you've got a great runner of a saw. No computers, probably no catalytic converter muffler (though you can easily ditch that for an earlier non-cat muffler), and a real carb with adjustments. Hard to beat that!

As I recall it is the same carb. These are fun saws. I regret selling mine.

Congrats on buying a great old saw there! Do be aware that you can swap the 051 piston/cylinder out for an 075/076 (111cc) cylinder without too much work, should you have reason to need a new p/c set. I think the only real difference was that the 051 used studs and nuts and the 075/076 used bolts to attach the cylinder to the crankcase. The thread pitch was the same, so it's an easy swap. You may also wish to de-govern the carb. The stock carb is setup with a governor that limits your RPM more than is really necessary. You can safely disable this feature and pull a couple thousand more RPM out of the saw while still running with an appropriate air-fuel ratio. What pitch chain is on there now? What sort of bar - hardnose, roller nose, sprocket? If the bar is still in usable shape, I'd probably run whatever chain works with that bar rather than go shopping for a new bar, too. These saws use the large-mount Stihl pattern, not the "regular" one that fits the 026-066 family of saws. You can still get them from Stihl (at least in the US), though they are priced a bit higher than comparable-sized "regular" mount bars. The old 051/075/076 saws are fun saws with a lot of torque. When I had some a number of years back, I ran 3/8" pitch with an 8-tooth drive rim and that combination pulled with authority on a 41" bar (075 powerhead) with the rakers lowered a fair bit. You could run .404" pitch and pull it fine, if that is your preference, preferably with a 7-tooth rim. I ran GB (the good older Aussie bars, not the newer crap ones) and Cannon on my large-frame Stihls.

Hello. New to the site and to the idea of receiving training/certification in saw (and apparently chipper and hedge trimmer, too?) operation. I've read over a bunch of threads here, as well as links to some of the providers of the training, trying to get a better sense of what the classes/certifications teach the saw operator, what the course material looks like, and stuff like that. As you may or may not know, the idea of being trained in saw operation in any formal setting is practically unheard of over here, except for certain specific sorts of cutters - some commercial loggers, folks cutting firewood on certain federal lands, or people volunteering with groups working on US Forest Service land (clearing trails, removing invasive tree species, etc., for example - and most folks, even professionals, are self-taught or learn from coworkers, friends, and the like. After hearing about the training/certification requirements you guys have from UK based folks who frequent another arborist website, I got curious about learning a bit more about how your training works, whether it is beneficial from the point of view of the saw operator, and what it teaches. With that in mind, a couple questions: 1. What do these classes look like? I am envisioning a guy shows up with a saw and some protective gear, presumably he then sits in a classroom for a while during the theory portion of the class, and later he goes out and cuts things under supervision? 2. Is there any source for free versions of the printed material that these courses supply, or would anyone be willing to share some of that with me (I know, an outlandish request with only 2 posts on the site...but hey, had to ask)? I'm interested in seeing exactly what is being taught and under which course heading/at which level of operator proficiency, so I can compare it to what is being presented in the U.S. Forest Service certification program and in a couple of the seminal texts on tree work here in the US. 3. Apart from meeting a licensing or insurance requirement, are these classes something that people feel is useful, or just a bureaucratic hoop to jump through before getting right back to doing what they were doing before? 4. What is the pass/fail rate for participants? Is this something that anybody with a pulse will pass for having bothered to show up and pay the fee, or is there actually some meaningful level of competence that is required for a passing mark? Thanks for any input you may be willing to offer in response to these questions, and the others I will surely come up with later!

Somewhat late to this discussion (though new to the site, so that hopefully excuses reviving the thread), but this issue and an interest in certification/training procedures is why I joined the site. But I digress. From the perspective of a U.S. saw user, the predominance of short bars seen on your side of the pond is an unfamiliar concept over here on mine. Except in small climbing saws (MS200t, for example) and tiny homeowner saws (MS170, Echo 310), you simply cannot purchase a bar shorter than 16" They aren't stocked in shops, they don't appear in catalogs, and you never see them in use in real life. By way of example, Stihl 026/260 were routinely sold as 18-20" saws, even in hardwood country, which may be fine if you're only cutting with the last 4-5" of the bar while nipping off small limbs, but it does not make for a very lively saw when the bar is buried. In softwood country, such as in the Pacific northwest, you'll see 50cc saws with 24" bars running skip chain. When I special ordered a 13" bar for an old Husqvarna 238se that I use for thinning out smaller trees and for firewood <10", the guys at the shop stood around staring at it when I came to pick it up, giving it funny looks as if it were from another planet. The fact that the saw handles like a dream for limbing with this bar as compared to the 16-18" bars that they were usually equipped with, impresses everybody who runs it. Yet short bars remain a special-order item. On a tangentially related note, does Stihl sell their ES solid bar w/ replaceable tip in 15", or is that length only found in a laminated bar?