Steven P

I got a Stihl MS181 for firewood and light garden use - a great little saw but I think it cost me just a bit over £200 - if thats your top end budget then the MS170 plus safety kit - remember chippings wil find your eyes and a saw blade will make easy work of your legs.

10kg for £6.... I can get half a sack of smokeless coal for that, will last me 3 or 4 days, 10kg of logs lasts me 1 day. being green is great... but being skinted and green, not so great. Hotter and better than oak? As far as I remember it, 1kg of wood (and I guess you could count bracken as wood for the argument) has the same energy as 1kg of wood regardless of the plant at the same moisture content. So it sounds great, if you have to clear bracken from the land anyway and can dry, process and burn it great, but as a commercial product it has to compete and I am not sure it can

Reading this reminded me about all I read when I got my stove - I'm no expert, I got a stove fitted and don't ecpect to replace it for about 10 years. I might put in a small wood burner in the bedroom, the thought of a canal boat wood burner sounds good (existing bedroom fireplace is only 12" accross, 8" frontto back!) So what have I learnt - well MY 5kw stove takes logs from my elbow to my wrist in length - cannot always take a tape measure out when collecting wood but I do hope to have my arms for a while longer. I never really noticed large differences in fireboxes when looking - though I do now I am temped by a small stove upstairs. I've no idea if this is smaller or larger than what they used to be.Certainly smaller than is it was jusr an open fire place. Air supply - As far as I remember the 5kw - go over this size and the stove needs more air than the average leaky house can supply without adding extra vents. So the stove burns ineficiently and can produce Carbon Monoxide in the room (hence the requirement that a CO detector is also to be fitted). Typically this is to add a vent brick to the specified size in the room. This has never sounded quite right to me - I want to heat my room so I knock a hole in the outside wall? If you can I would put a direct pipe to outside. My fireplace has an 8" pipe under it leading to the underfloor space - which is unusual, similar idea to the photo above Then damp - loved the description of house draft oproofing and dampness - sounds about right. I assumed when I got this house that it was designed somewhere or other, or used lots of experience in the design - 5 buildiers didn't just get a load of bricks and just make it. So all the vents are meant to be there i reckon. Windows and floors can be sealed better - they were never meant to leak air. The open fires were a part of this design - we have no extracoter fans, in the summer the windows open for ventelation, in the winter tha fire is on drawing air from the house to send up the chimney.. drawing moist air from the house to send it up the chimney to be replaced by drier outside air. So the fire keeps the house dry in the winter - in fact in the summer I will often put in a small fire to change the air about.

That's a pity Steve, I am based just outside Glasgow, bit of a trip to come and see them (petrol money would probably be the difference between them and a new saw) else I would have asked what you had and wanted for them. Thanks so far, some good advice. Am I getting this right so far? - The cheaper saws are pretty much comparable £ for £ - mostly from the same manufacturer in China anyway, and limited spares availability - You get what you pay for but for smaller logs most will do the job - Titan from Screwfix is cheap but they do a decent returns policy if they go wring. Similarly if I can find a cheap one in Aldi they will do the job too - Get the wrong chain / bar an they vibrate more than you would expect - Goes without saying to keep the chain sharp Then I saw the comment about a table saw.... that was my first thought before I got the chainsaw but it wouldn't do the bigger stuff I was getting at the time... but it might do well for the smaller logs that I would use the electric saw for. I'll look at them later, but first thought that the chainsaw would be more versatile but maybe harder work just for logs.

Thanks so far. I have been tempted by a battery saw but comparing other battery power tools with their mains powered equivalent I think I will stick to mains power for now. So Titan are still the saw to look for? There appears a few on the internet at the moment

I saw this earlier: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/chainsaws/24720-stihl-261-max-chain-speed.html might give you an idea

Good afternoon, I get firewood for my stove which needs to be chopped and split (cheaper / free), and my little Stihl MS181 has done well for the last few years for what I need. I have a backlog of logs to chop this year, so I am thinking I can lay into these in the evenings if I take them into the garage with the lights on and with an electric chainsaw. - I can saw in the evenings when the kids are in bed so a quieter saw is better (winter daylight is limited, I want The Boys to play out for as long as its light, The Smaller Boy runs off in tears when I get the chainsaw out when he is out - limiting what I can do) - There is a ready power supply in he garage - No concerns about fumes - The logs are smaller diameter, 6" - 10", not tree trunks - later in the year the logs can be stacked inside to dry (got to burn the dry ones there first) So what should I be looking for? - I am guessing the more power the better? 2kw? - Chain speed - for a similar powered saw will the chain speed vary much since the saws I've seen so far all quote power over everything else - Second hand is cheaper - so what should I be looking to pay? Or would new be better for the increase in price - any recommendations, I see another post on here saying "Titan" could be a brand to look out for? Are Sihl electric saws really worth the premium? - Not too fussed about battery powered since I will be within reach of a socket - Chains and bars - would these be easy to swap to better quality if it came with a generic cheap one? (thinking to put on the same as my Stihl so I can use the same chains - then only really need 1 spare for both saws) Thanks in advance for any advice, and sorry for being a heretic and thinking about electric motors rather than 2 stroke engines. I don't want to go to a shop to ask for the advice because I have no will power to say no when they show me shiny new toys.