Muddy42

T, No disrespect and I wish you all the luck with this. You may be lucky and have older permissions to shoot deer at zero charge, but I think landowners and agents have woken up to the popularity of stalking and the ability to charge stalkers a rent to enjoy their hobby. Rates vary depending on species, terrain and whether the landowner really wants the job done in terms of the harder task of shooting sufficient breeding female deer in the depths of winter.

Anyone who says they havn't tried to start a machine when it is in the off position is either lying or so new they only have the new kit that automatically returns to run.

I don't have any experience with ponderosa or radiata, which I have not seen planted commercially on scale, more species trees. Logepole pile used to get planted in commercial blocks as windbreaks. The timber was never amazing - slow growing so small by time of harvest and not very straight. Scots pine and particularly the heartwood is great stuff and very durable. And yes I agree much better than spruce and very similar to larch in the same condition. Of course small sappy pieces of either species with the bark left on will be rubbish.

I just put the gap in the Stihl OEM circlips to the top (on the same saw this thread refers to). I always though that was the right way to do it. But surely the main thing is that the clips are in properly and not stressed or bent.

Fair point but I got sucked in after someone gave me a free non-working Husky 135. I probably did 10 different repairs at a few quid for parts plus postage each time. You end up thinking I have spent X already so I might as well fix Y. I know nothing about the age and how much use this saw has had, but probably a few years to wear out a clutch spring. With these cheap homeowner saws there is a point at which you should just move on and get a new one, its only £160 ish for the cheapest stihl/husqvaras now.

Yes my guess is that I messed up the clip on installation 2.5 years ago.

like this? This is what the non broken one looked like.

Yes you are on the right track. I ground an old screwdriver to a point and then bent it at an angle. You can use this as a lever after drilling a few tiny holes in the middle of the seal. I made some bits of small bits of wood to use as a fulcrum. Watch out you don't scratch / mark the crank or the surrounding casing. And when putting the new seal in, you need to lubricate it well and make sure you get the lips of the seal over the shoulder. Replacing seals is not easy. If its your first time, Id probably suggest buying two sets of seals because you will mess it up!

I also burn wood in bulk in a biomass log boiler but also in open fires and stoves. All wood gets treated the same - forwarded to behind the house, seasoned for 1.5 - 2 years and each summer I mechanically process logs for the following winter which get stored indoors for a few more months. By the time its burned you can barely tell what species it is and over the years, I've given up trying to compare, conifers/hardwoods they all burns fine!

As above, if its just after use, check the idle screw if the chain is running the whole time. Chain tension is a separate issue, which I think of as a delicate and constant battle between tight and hot or too loose and the risk of throwing a chain. Don't spend too much money fixing an old Husky 135, I've been there and its not worth it.

Right so several weeks later and I can give a successful update. So I took off the cylinder again, thinking I was going to need to crack open the case and investigate the bottom end. I don't know how we missed this but when disassembling the piston (for the first time) there was a broken circlip. This was the source of the metal that caused the scoring in the cylinder. The big end and bearings felt OK. We swabbed out the bottom of the crankcase to check for debris. I fitted cheap Chinese cylinder simply to vac and pressure test. It passed, so I've now fitted a second meteor p&c (and new stihl piston circlips) and sent two tanks of 25:1 through it in the logpile. Two years ago and prior to a lot of use, I fitted the first meteor p&c, using the original stihl circlips. Maybe these were worn or I didn't fit these correctly, I genuinely cant remember? The flywheel issue was fixed also with a torque wrench - maybe I didn't have it tight enough? Sorry for all the many misdiagnosis - this thread isn't going to be that helpful for others! Its useful to have friends with more experience than me at fixing saws. Still learning me.

I prefer sprocket nose bars, but hard nosed work fine too, 42" is a doddle. Personally Id try and do the job for the minimal additional cost, so Id use the .404 42" bar. Sharp chain go slow and it'll be fine. I use chain sharpened at a normal cross cut angle, again to keep things simple. I've never felt a 120cc chainsaw to be underpowered and I mill mostly oak. Depending on the width of your chainsaw mill and whether you have felling spikes, you may need to take a few inches off the butt to get an easy cut. You don't mention if you have a chainsaw mill already but if not I have a cheap eco mill that is fine for occasional jobs. I would definitely rig up some type of aux oiler, there are cheap ones available that just dribble onto the bar nose, again fine for occasional jobs. I use lots of oil, any oil will do for the aux oiler.

One thing the army does extremely well is train up their leavers in preparation for the 'real world.' Maybe this is how the qualifications were obtained? In my experience, ex forces people have incredible abilities for hard work, strength, organization and ability to put up with crap weather, but the army is so weird - all the odd terminology and Victorian boarding school institutionalization, makes it hard for these transferable skills to come across on CVs or job interviews.

I would have thought you’ll have two types of customer. Firstly customers that in turn have a way to reclaim VAT through a business, they shouldn't care. Then those private customers who suffer full VAT out of already taxed income/savings. I think you would be naive to think the extra 20% cost wont make a difference to some of these people.

Very true!

My 460 has just exploded so I am looking for a similar sized saw to fix up. I’ll buy yours in a flash!

Ive not heard of that being a common complaint, so Id say your just unlucky. If its out of warranty, its still a valuable and sought after saw, so still probably worth fixing. Don't use the saw before then incase the bearing disintegrates and does further damage.

agreed and helpful and knowledgable over the phone, if you need to call. Ive had an unbelievable bad run of breakages, repairs and saw destruction recently - L&S should offer me a loyalty discount !

just catching up on this thread - the damage is remarkably similar to what happened to my 460 (posted here recently). I too struggled to find the problem - it had fuel, strong spark, no problem with the flywheel and timing, the piston didn't look scored and the rings were free. I too made the mistake of confusing friction (caused by gouging in the cylinder) with compression. The only way to find out was to disassemble the cylinder. I'm waiting to crack the case with a friend. The crankshaft feels OK and the circlips were intact, but we'll see.

Yes more so if you are cutting wet or green wood or staining wood like oak, but less so with dry seasoned wood. Also I sometimes sharpen and then go back with a critical eye and adjust.

Thanks. Lets see. We’re going to crack the case next week so no decisions made yet. Ive never done this before (but my friend has repaired a few and has the tools needed) so it’ll be fun to see. Yes I presume cracks would be a no go. I guess thats the risk you take with old saws, but hey my MS261 has needed expensive parts too so you cant win.

@spudulike @pleasant we've removed the cylinder and its not pretty. There are pieces of metal everywhere and deep scoring on a hidden inner side of the cylinder. I think a bearing has exploded somewhere (and probably what was making the ticking sound for a while) but we won't know for sure until we crack the case to assess the damage. Hopefully the crank is OK, but as a minimum I'd be looking at new bearings, gaskets, seals and another meteor piston and cylinder - about £150 in parts alone, so probably still worth it.

Pink nail polish also works well!

These doubles can also be useful as a handy reference to know where you started sharpening or filing rakers, if your chain is very clean.

As above, life was stressful before I had a big 9 inch angle grinder.