Where’s the best place or way to increase performance with a chainsaw.

[John_Mc]

I don稚 think battery saws will ever replace real saws. Sure they have a place, but it痴 not cutting firewood. I致e yet to find a battery saw that posted a power rating but I壇 guess it痴 comparable to a 30 cc gas saw. The run time on the Stihl saw is rated at 45 minuets with the recommended battery. I知 sure that cutting 4 limbs or something. How long is it good for with the bar buried and the chain taking a good bite. The Stihl battery saw weighs 11 pounds with the recommended battery and no bar. My saw is 14 pounds no bar. I知 guessing I win power to weight by a landslide.

Everything I've seen on the Makita 18V chainsaw, when running their 12 amp hour battery, indicates that it compares favorably to a 40 cc gas saw.

I've only cut two cookies with one, and that was in 6" Red Oak. I was impressed with the power for a battery powered saw. The videos I've seen also seemed to indicate a decent battery life.

 

[TractorGuy]

Not reading through all of this thread to see how many times this was mentioned but the best way to improve performance is with a sharp chain.

Sharpening a chain ain't rocket science. I use a dremel with the correct diameter stone for the chain. I mark the start link with a sharpie and go around one side then the other. I just do it by eye and try to hold the stone so it fits in the existing curvature and touch each cutter enough to make it sharp. THEN I go around the chain a third time to grind down the depth gauge tabs. Here is where I cheat and end up with a very aggressive cutting chain. I just eyeball the cut and make sure I have it ground down well below the cutting edge. I think a sharpening gauge would set that to .030" to .040". I imagine my results is more like .050" or better. Hang o to your saw when you start cutting cause it's gonna grab and cut.

 

[CobyRupert]

I have found that handing my Stihl to my son is one of the best way to increase performance......

:laughing:
Yes!
That's what I thought when I saw the title of this thread.

"Hand it to somebody in better shape!"

(or knows what they're doing.) :laughing:

 

[newbury]

Re: Where痴 the best place or way to increase performance with a chainsaw.

<snip>
I think we are more likely to see chainsaws going mostly electric before we see too many 4-strokes.

A GREAT deal depends on what you mean by "mostly".
Do you mean most of the saws sold to the public? Like the sub 40 cc Big Box saws for about $100?
Including "chainsaws on a stick" I've got about a dozen chainsaws, from 120CC down to 35CC. About 3 of them are on long term loan to my children. Three of my saws are electric 40V.
My most recent, a Lynxx 14" is just slightly less powerful than my Stihl 021.
Yesterday I cut a few trees down with it.

This morning I started bucking them up before the rain came. Probably worked about 20 minutes with it, battery only went down 1 LED. It's a great substitute for my Stihl 021.

I grew up with chainsaws and am familiar with 2 stroke, making sure you have good gas, etc. 2 stroke saws are my main saws. But for the average Harry Homeowner who buys the sub 40CC chainsaw at the local hardware store to use maybe a few times a year the battery operated is IDEAL, especially if the battery also fits his leaf blower, lawn trimmer, etc. Grab the saw, grab the charged battery and it WORKS. Rarely a starting problem.

And I bet numbers of small saws sold are a lot greater than the number of large saws sold.

 

[dfkrug]

Re: Where痴 the best place or way to increase performance with a chainsaw.

But for the average Harry Homeowner who buys the sub 40CC chainsaw at the local hardware store to use maybe a few times a year the battery operated is IDEAL, especially if the battery also fits his leaf blower, lawn trimmer, etc. Grab the saw, grab the charged battery and it WORKS. Rarely a starting problem.

And I bet numbers of small saws sold are a lot greater than the number of large saws sold.

Yeah, for every MS881 or 3120 sold, there must be 1000 or more big-box Poulans or their ilk sold to our mutual friend Harry.
And Harry is cluesless (or lazy) when it comes to the periodic maintenance and troubleshooting required with any 2-stroke device. Battery-electric will soon dominate here, IMO. Not for loggers, landscapers, firewood cutters, and other more intense users.

As for the OP's Q: my little 125cc 2-stroke gokart puts out nearly 40hp. How is it done? Huge expansion chamber and Huge carb. And the expansion chamber changes size with RPM. 38cc Mikuni slide carb. Not really practical for chainsaws, but don't say that to the chainsaw racers.

I just felled two dead 50' oak trees this AM with my 40V Greenworks polesaw. That is not usually how I do it but I was in the area trimming and it was the only saw I had with me.

 

[John_Mc]

Not reading through all of this thread to see how many times this was mentioned but the best way to improve performance is with a sharp chain.

Yeah, that point has pretty much been beat to death in this thread.

 

[4570Man]

I decided to buy an Oregon chain sharpener and I’m not satisfied with the results. I even paid good money for a CBN wheel that’s supposed to eliminate the problems I’m having. Sometimes it does a pretty good job other teeth it leaves a pretty bad burr. Any ideas. My Timberline is slower but works a lot better than this.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I decided to buy an Oregon chain sharpener and I’m not satisfied with the results. I even paid good money for a CBN wheel that’s supposed to eliminate the problems I’m having. Sometimes it does a pretty good job other teeth it leaves a pretty bad burr. Any ideas. My Timberline is slower but works a lot better than this.

If a CBN wheel leaves a burr, it is possibly that the sawtooth was overheated during cutting, turning blue, and losing it's temper. Soft annealed metal doesn't grind as well as good hard alloy steel. Any wheel that "loads up", meaning it gets it's pores clogged, will not grind well, leaving burrs, and possibly turning the tooth bluer than when you started. I ruined plenty of chains cutting old, dead post oaks that the heart wood got up to 62 Rockwell...

 

[4570Man]

The chain wasn’t blued before sharpening. A few teeth are different lengths before I started as a result of a less accurate sharpener and those are hard not to blue, but I’m not holding that against the machine.

 

[4570Man]

I’ve played with it some more and I’ve got the the results quite a bit better. The first thing is if you have a CBN wheel disregard the videos of guys tapping the chain multiple times. Sharpen in a light and continuous motion. If the chain has damage or has had the angles messed up from previous sharpening plan on making 2 passes. You can’t take off very much metal without bluing the cutter. Taking off as little as material as possible is the idea so it’s not a problem in itself but sometimes quite a bit of steel has to come off. Just because I said I could sharpen chains before doesn’t mean I liked doing it and it got done as often as it could have. I haven’t cut with one or these chains yet but I think this tool will be a benefit. I justified this purchase with the idea that I could sharpen a few chains for pay but rather that happens or not it’s less than the value of 2 truck loads of firewood or about equal to the gas bill I’m saving every month so it’s not very much money in the scheme of things.