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I run Stihl full chisel and Oregon 75LPX full chisel on my 046 and both are good. The 75LPX holds it's edge for most of the day on clean wood. If I hit a stone/metal, then both of them would most likely need sharpening and I would in any case sharpen at the end of the day, The Oregon does stretch quite a lot more than the Stihl, especially when new. I got a good deal on a roll of Oregon at the APF show. If there is a significant price difference between Stihl and Oregon (i.e. Stihl is usually more expensive), then I would buy Oregon. If they were offered at the same price, I would buy Stihl (less adjusting and holds it's edge a bit longer).

Hi aquatoo, I took Spuds advice (thanks Spud) and bought a TT20K a couple of weeks ago. It arrived in 48 hours and is a nice bit of kit which works well.

Hi Swinny, I am not sure what your air filter is made of. The one in my old 026 is made of plastic and it became pretty clogged up. I dropped it into an ultrasonic cleaner with just water and a few drops of washing up liquid and was petty impressed with how clean it came out (before and after pics) so this may be an option for you and yes, the saw ran quite a lot better after that !

I switched to HP Super (green oil) a few years ago and my Stihl saws have been running fine on the recommended 50:1 mix. I will be doing compression checks soon so that will be interesting . Attached are the front and back photos of a 5 litre container of HP Super and as Pinkfoot says, not a lot of detail just 50:1 and ISO-LEGD. No mention of JASO-FD or JASO-FB. When I bought this I was told it was semi-synthetic and at the time, the HP Ultra was a lot more expensive so I decided to go for this in order to give more protection than the original Stihl red 2 stroke oil.

I have a year 2000 046 (the earlier version of the 461) and it is still going strong, a fab saw. It is a good mix of weight and power, light enough to use all day long and yet fast at cutting. A friend has either the 460 or 461 (can't remember which) and that is very similar and he is very happy with his. It is a lot more powerful than a 260 and of course a bit lighter than a 660. A 20 inch bar is easy for the 461. If I hear that a 462 is coming out with lots of electronics, I might even buy a 461 to last me the next x years The max bar length for the 046 is 25/30 inches so a 20 inch bar is well in range. I find a 20 inch bar the optimum size for logging up. The 18 inch bar is just a bit too short and the 25 inch bar starts to get in the way a bit. The Husky recommendations will be coming along soon

I spotted these beauties in Switzerland when on holiday there.

MS461 gets my vote, my 13 year old 046 is still going strong

TPO ? Want to build a house ? No probs

I used a Metabo 5 ton horizontal one to feed my woodburning stove for a few years and it was generally OK but anything that was really tough it was out with the chainsaw. The 5 ton one packed up a few months ago and no spares.... so I took the advice from bikewoo (thanks bikewoo ) and bought the 7 ton vertical handy pro. I find the vertical log splitter quite a bit easier to use since when the log splits, the bits stay on the splitting table. I also have a 4 way splitter for it and the extra 40% force is useful, especially with the 4 way splitter. So far, it has split everything that I have put through it. One down side is that it is less transportable (trailer needed) whereas the 5 ton horizontal ones would go in the back of the car. I bought mine from Riko which wasn't quite the cheapest place, but they have spares and I can take it to them if needs be. When looking at the different log splitters I suggest checking out the spares + support since if there are no spares available, then it could be tricky to keep it going if something breaks/wears out.

Hi Slim and Stubby, yes you have to watch the oil carefully, since the high flow rate oil pump empties the oil tank faster than the standard pump, it was pretty borderline. I ended up filling the petrol + oil tanks before the petrol ran out in order to avoid the chance of the oil running out and to give the saw a breather given that it was working quite hard. The other side effect is that the minimum flow rate I assume will be higher as well, so if you were normally using the shortest bars for the saw, then you could end up wasting some oil. Not an issue if you normally use the longer bars and worst case you could reinstall the original standard flow oil pump since it is not a very big job to change oil pumps. One day I hope to splash out on a bigger saw, I am watching the news on the MS661 with interest...

I needed to cut up a 5ft diameter oak and only had an 046. I bought a 36 inch bar for it (max recommended length in the user manual is 30 inch). The 36 inch bar fitted *but* the oil pump, even when set to max flow rate, could not properly lubricate this length of bar, what a difference 6 inches makes ! I didn't want to be beaten by this and so I did some research and discovered that Stihl do a high flow rate oil pump for this saw for the Australian market, since the wood is often hard and dry over there. I asked my local Stihl dealer to order the oil pump for me and they said, speak to Stihl.... I then did some more research and came across L & S Engineers on the web. They were incredibly helpful and somehow managed to order the high flow rate pump for me. I fitted it and the 36 inch bar is well lubed and I managed to cut up the big oak. Yes, it was fairly slow, but it did the job and I didn't have to buy a bigger saw for this one job. The chain was Rapid Super full chisel (non skip) and running an oversized bar with that sure did improve my sharpening technique and I ended up buying a bench grinder. Skip chain has been mentioned which would clearly help reduce the load on the saw and also semi-chisel chain should also require less power than full chisel chain. So my experiences in summary was, for a one off job it is possible to run a longer bar (check that it will actually fit the saw) but it will be slow, take it easy and check that either the oil pump has enough flow rate or see if a higher flow rate pump can be fitted. Comparing the flow rate range from your saw with the flow rate range from the smallest saw in the range which is specified to take the bar length you are interested in will give some insight into this flow rate issue. I guess worst case you could manually add extra oil for a one off job.

and the longer bars need increased oil flowrate, so the oil pump could also be a limiting factor. If the saw has a variable flow rate pump, then set it to max for the longer bars. It is also possible with some saws to fit a higher flow rate oil pump.

Just been to Aldi and they have withdrawn the compressors for safety reasons, something to do with a fuse... Hopefully they will be back in again soon. The accessories are still for sale.

I left a few log nets in direct sunlight one summer and at the end of the summer they just fell apart. I would guess that they were not UV stabilised. It would probably be worth asking your supplier if your log nets are UV stabilised or not. I would imagine that since most log nets are just use once and are often used up fairly quickly, then to keep costs down, UV stabilisers are probably not used in many cases. I have also had cheap tarpaulins fall apart after a few months in the sun, so I only buy UV stabilised ones now from Tarpaflex and they have been fine. I would imagine that even sun from the side over a summer could be enough to weaken a log net too much. I might do a test one day of putting some log nets inside a fully vented UV stabilised big log bag to see if the log bag could provide enough of a sun screen and yet allowed the air through, just an idea.

Hi Col, I have just measured both and here are my numbers: 30 inch: 83.2cm 36 inch: 98cm These were measured with the nose sprocket at top dead centre i.e. max length. These bars are quite old, so it would be interesting to see if anyone else with newer bars has different numbers since I don't know if there have been any slight design changes over the years.

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I have a year 2000 Stihl 220 electric chainsaw and the chain brake has stopped working, the recent kickback thread has convinced me to fix this before using it again (thanks for that). I have pulled off the plastic covers and now it looks like I need to remove a spur drive attached to the motor. This has a slot head screw and it is tight, does anyone know if I need to turn this clockwise or anti-clockwise to unscrew it ? Is there any special tool/technique needed to remove this slot head screw ? I assume that once I remove this screw + spur gear then, the cover will come off and I will be able to see what has broken on the brake. The brake handle feels fine, it snaps into both positions, so I am guessing the brake band has broken. I am hoping to order the failed part ASAP in hope (fingers crossed) that it arrives in time for Xmas. Thanks for any advice on this folks.

PIR security light Baby listener Wheel clamp Take a wheel off and finally Invisibility cloak !

Really sorry to hear that, I hope that you get it back. One thought regarding insurance is that Adrian Flux do agreed valuation policies. The way it works is that you list all of the modifications, take photos and send off then they agree a fixed price should your vehicle be stolen, so in theory, you are not having to argue the toss regarding the value when the vehicle is no longer there. I know that this is of no use to you for your tipper, but perhaps worth considering the next time you insure. Has anybody made a claim with one of these agreed valuation policies and if so, did it work as smoothly as expected ?

Many thanks spud I will order one today. I have been doing some milling recently and that creates quite a lot of fine dust.

Hi Spud, I have just seen an HD2 filter part number 0000 140 4402, would you recommend one of those instead of the original green plastic + gauze filter (+ pre filter) for my 046 (year 2000) ? I am after the best air filter that I can get to keep the saw going for another 13 years Many thanks for your advice on this

I bought an extra filter (from Stihl) a few years ago that goes over the standard gauze filter and this seems to help filter out the finer particles and the saw still pulls well

RDB logs: I have just tested the 3kw generator on the 3kw log splitter at 7 degrees C and the log splitter as expected was even harder to start at lower temperature, but it did start after a few presses of the go button and it did split some large rings of straight grained oak. Gensetsteve clearly has loads more experience than me regarding what a generator is able to power, so as he says, you need a bigger generator than the motor for long life and reliable operation. I have run a 2.2kw log splitter splitting easy logs off a good quality 3kw generator for I guess approx 20 hours in total but for sure, that is no long term test. It sounds like the best bet is to get a petrol powered log splitter if you wish to use the log splitter away from a power source since the generators seem to get pretty expensive for the higher powered ones (and they get heavier...) I guess also if you have to buy a much bigger generator than the actual hp required to drive the splitter, then it will be more expensive to run than having a smaller engine power the splitter directly. When I was looking for a generator for the 2.2kw log splitter, I found a local one and tested the generator with the log splitter before making a bid. I see that Riko are doing a petrol powered version of the same 7 ton vertical log splitter "from £600" on their web site, 600 pounds won't buy much in the way of a good quality generator (if bought new). I would be interested to hear what you finally decide on and how it all works out.

Hi RDB the motor is 3kw. The startup is the hardest bit, took 3 presses of the go button and then ran fine. I have only split a few logs like this but since the motor runs all the time I think it will be ok (splitting seems to put less load on the generator than starting). I will try again now that the wether is colder since it might be harder to start. I think if you have a 3kw motor hen you need a good 3kw generator and probably a bit bigger generator to be on the safe side. I tried a cheapie 2.2kw generator with my old 2.2kw horizontal log splitter and that couldn't start the log splitter (the 3kw generator would start the 2.2kw log splitter). I will do a few more tests and let you know the results.