500i squashed. With a vengeance.

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born to hunt

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Bummer over the weekend. My two week old saw got squashed by a big oak tree because I’m a moron. 30” oak twisted the wrong way and crushed the saw.

I replaced squashed fuel talk and throttle parts. I can’t believe the saw still runs, but I’m grateful! The problem I have is the mount that the anti-vibe spring bolts to snapped off. Can this be welded or repaired in any way? I’m not a welder.
 

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Vintage Engine Repairs said:
That sucks sorry to hear it! Modern saws are very lightly built, this video compares old and new 660’s for reference, but the 462 and 500i are both very weak structrually compared to their predecessors:

Click to expand...

Well… when we ask for light saws, we get what we ask for.
This was definitely all my fault, so I can’t blame Stihl. I have half if the piece that cracked off. Maybe I can find someone who can tig weld it.
 
I've had a couple of 661s with this bit broken off, i have repaired them with a bit of 5mm ally plate, shaped and bolted through the existing casing, bit time consuming but works and not had any comebacks. Hope you sort something out 🤞
 
born to hunt said:
Bummer over the weekend. My two week old saw got squashed by a big oak tree because I’m a moron. 30” oak twisted the wrong way and crushed the saw.

I replaced squashed fuel talk and throttle parts. I can’t believe the saw still runs, but I’m grateful! The problem I have is the mount that the anti-vibe spring bolts to snapped off. Can this be welded or repaired in any way? I’m not a welder.
Click to expand...
Hate to say this but that’s gonna be a tough weld job. Your likely looking at replacing the flywheel side case half.
 
Vintage Engine Repairs said:
That sucks sorry to hear it! Modern saws are very lightly built, this video compares old and new 660’s for reference, but the 462 and 500i are both very weak structrually compared to their predecessors:

Click to expand...

Simple, buy Echo, less cost and carbs for the most part and they break as well. Just not as frequently.
 
That is a TIG job and has to be completely taken apart and carefully cleaned, fitted up and welded with no guarantee because it's so thin. I'm gonna weld up an old Dolmar with a cracked oil tank, Just bout the mag filler rod, 120 bucks for ONE POUND of filler rod, reverse polarity TIG, 100% argon with the part submerged in a blanket of ARGON before with 2% Lathanated Tungsten welding. It's a complex and costly job, but in my case the saw was gifted to me, so why not. Your saw, I'd junk it, call your insurance agent and file a claim and maybe get part of it back and go buy another. New saws aren't designed to last anyway. We like in a landfill world, so landfill it and move on.

This spring I ran over my Stihl professional top handle arborist saw with the chip truck and smashed it, quick 700 bucks. Went in the garbage can and bought a new Echo top handle for less that half the cost of the Stihl and I live happy ever after.

Oh well, poop happens.
 
Sidecarflip said:
That is a TIG job and has to be completely taken apart and carefully cleaned, fitted up and welded with no guarantee because it's so thin. I'm gonna weld up an old Dolmar with a cracked oil tank, Just bout the mag filler rod, 120 bucks for ONE POUND of filler rod, reverse polarity TIG, 100% argon with the part submerged in a blanket of ARGON before with 2% Lathanated Tungsten welding. It's a complex and costly job, but in my case the saw was gifted to me, so why not. Your saw, I'd junk it, call your insurance agent and file a claim and maybe get part of it back and go buy another. New saws aren't designed to last anyway. We like in a landfill world, so landfill it and move on.

This spring I ran over my Stihl professional top handle arborist saw with the chip truck and smashed it, quick 700 bucks. Went in the garbage can and bought a new Echo top handle for less that half the cost of the Stihl and I live happy ever after.

Oh well, poop happens.
Click to expand...
That sounds really exciting, but you lost me at Lathanated Tungsten.

It might be better to lift the saw to the space station and weld it in an oxygen vacuum…but I’d use kryptonite as the gas shield.

Either way, it sounds like you know your stuff…and both ways sound really expensive.

My other thought was to get a new saw casing and have someone rebuild it, if there are even parts available
 
I’d keep the saw for parts and look for a blown up one to get a usable bottom end . Running it without that anti vibe properly mounted will just damage other usable parts. I tried finding a welder to fix up a broken case on a 462 and gave up after both guys said they’d probably end up burning it.
 
born to hunt said:
That sounds really exciting, but you lost me at Lathanated Tungsten.

It might be better to lift the saw to the space station and weld it in an oxygen vacuum…but I’d use kryptonite as the gas shield.

Either way, it sounds like you know your stuff…and both ways sound really expensive.

My other thought was to get a new saw casing and have someone rebuild it, if there are even parts available
Click to expand...
Parts are available just not Chinese parts, buy Stihl OEM.

You have to 'submerge' the entire part in Argon before welding in a metal tank and Lathanated Tungsten is the electrode by the way if it's Magnesium. If it's die cast aluminum, you can use straight Tungsten and 100% argon shielding gas. I always use a water cooled torch with superflex hoses. None of that stuff is cheap today from the TIG machine to the water cooled torch to the water cooler itself but we do certified welting here as well as custom machining and CNC plasma cutting and everything today is expensive and getting worse, why small outfits like mine are folding up, cannot afford to stay in business and customer like to take their good old time paying too. Hell, I took 4 increases in steel, aluminum and stainless cost this year not to mention consumables cost. Even my utilities went up and our insurance for the shop and farm jumped 30% as well. Getting harder to eat and keep the shop running and pay my 2 employees. Thank the load, most everything is paid off and what isn't I pay no interest or finance charges on either. In fact, if cannot get deferred interest or finance charges waived, I don't buy it. I keep the older stuff that is paid for unless I can sell the old stuff and at least break even. Just bought a new TIG welder and 2 plasma cutters, one for the CNC plasma table and one for the shop to hand cut stuff. Sold my old Lincoln Square Wave TIG weld pak machine and my HT 89 amp plasma cutter to a guy up town (that has money and wanted them and I gouged him too. I went away and bought 2 new machines a a new refillable 120 Cu.ft. bottle of 100% argon and put 2 grand in my pocket. The Lincoln was old technology and the HT was as well plus the HT consumables have gotten priced out of sight, so they are gone and forgotten about. My new machines are all IGBT inverter machines, no heavy transformers and all 100% digital readout with memory inside and the cost was a lot less too and IGBT machines are much more efficient on energy consumption as well. Things like food and hard goods are only going to get worse.
 
Belated but not forgotten.. If you need echo parts or saws, I work for an Echo dealer (sells Kubota's as well) and we can ship you parts no problem), saws maybe, I don't know what agreement the owner has with Echo about sales territory.
 

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