Search the Community

My cheap Chinese chainsaw experience I have noticed that even though everyone, has seen or heard of the cheap Ebay/Amozon chainsaws, there are suprisingly few reviews of the things on here. So I figured I would give my take on china's finest. I will start by explaining, how i got into a situation in which I needed to buy something with such...... questionable reliability. It all started when some dumb f*ck delivery driver, "left my package with a neighbor" that package being a nice reconditioned Jonsereds 80. To make a long story short he just left it on my driveway, and inevitably got nicked. Needing a chainsaw desperately to finish felling, some 32" ash on a neighbors property, I go on to eBay and order the "beast", and well this is my experience with the saw. It started well out of the box, and felled and bucked 2 32" ash trees with (about 2 cords of firewood). But after that initial victory it started to run into issues, First the chain ,that came with the saw, snapped in two and few of into the brush. Then a couple days later the pull starter assembly broke. I contacted the company that sold me the saw (SGS engineering), who sent me out a new pull starter and chain. I fitted the pull starter and threw the chain in the bin, so I could fit a better/safer Oregon chain. After about a month of using it most weekends and cutting, a further 3 cords of firewood (hardwood between 10" and 25"). After which point I replaced the stock bar and gave it a new Oregon chain. A week after this point the Anti vibration/felling handle got bent, but it was easy to bend back into shape and has cause no further problems. So scores on the doors Customer service: 10/10 great customer service, sent spare parts with little hassle Quality: 7/10 Ok, but probably not great for anything more than homeowner use. Safety: 4/10 Not that good, previously mentioned flying chain and the chain break is off low quality. So overall I would probably not recommend to anyone cutting more than a cord or 2 of wood a year, and I would definitely recommend replacing the chain if you go with this saw. Full specs and pic of saw on Ebay page 58cc 20" Petrol Chainsaw: 2x Saw Chains & Carry Case. Easy Start, NGK Spark Plug | eBay

Greetings I need to change the cylinder and piston on my Stihl FS400 strimmer. (There was no specific forum for strimmers, so I thought this was the best place out of the other options). Genuine part £160+vat, non-genuine part on e-bay or elsewhere around the £40 mark. Any ideas about what to look out for, tips, strong opinions, etc very welcome. All I've been told so far is that the same casting moulds that make the parts for Stihl will be used for other brands unless they are Chinese, and in which case, they make their own moulds which are more likely to be dodgy. Any thoughts? Thanks Charlie