What makes a fantastic chainsaw? - Help, I'm an aspiring lumberjack and need advice.

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Jun 5, 2020
Assuming:

1. to be used on wood, not zombies
2. gasoline powered
3. medium size blade

Lesser considerations:
4. price
5. reliability+ease of maintenance
6. weight



Thanks for your insight.
 
Pair it up with a boom stick. Automatically makes everything better. Oh, you meant actual advice?

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First, it's called a bar. Calling it a blade tells someone who knows anything about chainsaws all they need to know about you. It depends on what you're using it for. If you're felling firewood then I wouldn't go below a 16" bar. Shorter bars are easier to control when you're new. I hope you're not planning to go after a 36" pine or something. If you need to delimb the odd tree and shrubs around your yard then just buy a well performing electric saw in your pricerange. They've come a long way.



We've had success using a smaller gas Echo for regular volunteer trail work for years, so that'd be a prosumer grade saw I'd buy if I were in the market and you just have to have gas.
 
I like Echo saws.
They have the best warranty in the business (5 years for non commercial use).
This is a bigger saw than the one I have but if I was in the market for a new saw I would probably go for this one:
One handy feature is a compression release. That makes it easier to pull the rope to get it started.

If you like to tinker I have actually heard good things about the cheap Chinese saws on Amazon.
Parts availability down the road may be an issue.
If you can figure out that saw they copied you can use the brand name parts.
I suspect many people just run them till somthing breaks and throw them away.
I can't find it now but on one of the chainsaw forums a guy was bragging about this saw.
He said the plastic parts feel cheap and probably wont last long but the metal parts were good.
Said it ran good and cut fine.

What ever saw you get you may want to use more oil in the gasoline than the manual recommends.
A few years ago the EPA tightened up emissions on gas chainsaws.
They went from using a 40 to 1 gas to oil ratio to 100 to 1 in some cases.
That will make the saw smoke less and it probably will outlast the warranty.
I put more oil in becase I would rather have it smoke and last longer.
 
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Try to get new. Used chainsaws are often ragged out and will break down quicker. Get one with a 16 inch bar. The bigger you get the more difficult it will be to maintain control over. And the greater chance of turning a limb into hamburger meat.
 
Regardless of what you wind up with: follow the maintenance guides and at minimum run it for a half hour every 90 days. It doesn't matter what the specs are or where the miniaturized engine is used, this single piece of advice will do more to ensure longevity than anything else. Excessive idle time ruins them and if you do not know how to tear it down and rebuild it, trying to use it is likely to make the problem infinitely worse.

If it is not metal, go ahead and assume it's fucked. Whether it is dry rot or decomposition into mystery schmoo, what used to be components has likely turned into poison over time. Take it down to bits, replace functional things like seals. Yes, all of them. For metal parts the biggest time saver is ultrasonic cleaning. Do not simply fill an ultrasonic cleaner with gasoline or an otherwise flammable solvent! Ultrasonic vaporization is a real thing and even a small cleaner has enough energy stored in that gas to do some really bad shit. Gasoline and parts go into a sealed mason jar, that jar goes into the basket that goes into the water-filled machine. Then it is time to get the picks and magnifiers and make sure you're down to finish like paint or bare metal. Chinesium picks, some knipex dikes and pliers, and a mill file lets you work quickly and cheaply on the fly. Regardless of how much you spend or what wonder material they are, eventually the picks will get knackered. If it moves, it gets grease/oil. If it doesn't and it's bare (and is not a seal) it gets paint or some protectant. Note this is strictly mechanical, if you're talking about more than the spark plug wires (replace) electrical is beyond the purview of this sperg. You're going to want to use Ether (or whatever cucked starter fluid your country allows) on your first startup, and let it run at least a couple gallons of gasoline through it well before you shut it down the first time. My personal rule of thumb is at least 3 gallons, through at least 3 complete start/stop and thermal cycles. Short of this, or doing it wrong, is likely to result in gear that will never quite be the same. If your gear is NFG because of abuse and the actual structural bits of metal are knackered or warped it's likely to be irreparable or far more involved to make it right.
 
If you are planning on having sawdust for blood and dry wood in a shed for your stove:


You will also need gloves/faceshield/glasses/boots/spare chain/file/premium gas and oil/bar oil. A couple of felling wedges and a hammer are handy. Truck/quad/wood trailer splitting axe/hydraulic splitter... If you are dropping trees it is nice to cut from one side, so 16" to 18" bar.
 
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