I've probably bought at least 30 chainsaws over the years. Many were at auctions or garage sales and needed work. Some of those I was able to get running, others became boat anchors or got sold at our own sales. Others I bought new. Those generally worked well, but only once!!!!
It seems that chainsaws are made to be used once, and thrown in the trash. It dont matter if they were bought new, or use ones that were just rebuilt, they all have one thing in common, THEY ONLY WORK ONCE!
I've added gas stabilizer, used costly premium gas without alcohol, tried draining the gas, even blowing out the carb. None of this matters, if the saw is not used for a few weeks or months, it will never run again, (at least not without rebuilding the carb, and probably more repairs).
And none of this takes into account the amount of times a person has to pull the string to get that bastard started. It often rivals the amount of strokes your arm would make to use a hand saw. And by the time you do get them started, you're probably too exhausted to cut the damn tree.
After spending over $200 to get my Stihl professionally rebuilt, which occurred after I had already spent 3 full days working on it, and at least $50 for parts, I had a well running saw. It started quickly, and I trimmed several branches and cut down a small dead tree in an hour.
But it never fails, a few months later we had a bad storm, and there were 7 large trees knocked down. I grabbed the Stihl, and spent 2 hours pulling the string. Thats when I went to the local tool rental place and asked to rent a chainsaw, only to find out they stopped renting chainsaws, because people always brought them back broken. (I asked if that was because of the people, or just an inheritant tendency of all chainsaws to break down after every use).
- TIME TO CHANGE -
About 8 years ago, I either sold the last of the gas powered chainsaws for parts on Craigslist, or threw them in the trash. I went and bought an electric chainsaw. I was very pleased. It started immediately, was quiet, and worked perfectly after it was not used for months.
Aside from needing long cords and not having the longest bars, this seemed to be a dream come true. But there had to be a a flaw I had not yet found. I found it after about a combined use of 8 or 9 hours. THe flaw is that the chains get loose, and soon they come off the bar. Once they are off the bar, they can not be put back without a difficult struggle, which can take hours. After they are put back on the bar, they are never tight, and will come off soon again. This is because these small electric saws dont have a tightness adjuster like the larger gas powered saws have.
My last electric saw became useless after probably 10 hours total usage, simply because the chain could no longer be tightened and kept popping off, which cost me at least 2 hours of frustration each and every time, to get it back on, only to find it off the bar again, after a few minutes of use. I finally tossed it in the trash. Now, I am facing the same thing with another saw........
I think my days of chainsaw use and ownership are over!
We just had a storm, I am coping with 6 trees down, and doing all the cutting with a sawsall on the smaller branches, and just pushing the trunks into a pile, with my farm tractor, to be burned.
If anyone has any other suggestions for cutting up trees, WITHOUT a Chainsaw, please post them!