Drop starting saws

[joesawer]

Drop start only.
For me the bigger the saw the easier drop starting is. let the saw do the work. Even with long bars I will rest the end on something and rotate the powerhead down as I drop start it.
I don't start the saw with the rear handle under my thigh. Never have and never will. My saws spit back every once in a while and I am not going to give myself a charlie horse or risk the jewels on purpose.
I would like to watch some one start a saw with their foot in the handle on a 60+ degree slope of rolling soft dg covered with a foot of duff, or standing on the hooks, or in a bucket.

 

[Sprig]

Missed with da rubber chicken????
How the heck do ya miss with a rubber chicken!?

Oh never mind, I forgot the older models don't have the built-in homey device.............:help: (my poor keyboard has suffered greatly due to spillage, thats it I'm gettin' whine insurance )

 

[Mr.]

I do it like "b" for the first start and like "a" for warm starts.

**edit**
I do drop start my weed wacker though.

A) unless it has already pissed me off, Then anything goes.

Fred

 

[SawTroll]

Drop start only.
For me the bigger the saw the easier drop starting is. let the saw do the work. Even with long bars I will rest the end on something and rotate the powerhead down as I drop start it. ....

Yes, the 372xpg is my easiest cold starter - admittedly I use the decomp on that one + the MS361.

 

[windthrown]

So, I will start a thread with a poll on:

Who uses the weenie decomps when they start their saws thread.

Should be as amusing as this thread. opcorn: opcorn: opcorn:

 

[ford832]

I always drop start I suppose but I don't drop the saw or push it away I just hold the top handle firmly with my left hand and pull with my right.It always seemed easy enough to me.Besides,with my old arthritic bones being what they are I expect if I bent over to start it I'd either be a)locked in that position or b) fall over on it

 

[Gologit]

The little saws, 361 etc, get drop started every time.The bigger stuff depends on terrain and circumstance. Usually drop start them or if bucking I'll lay the bar on the log. No hard and fast rules...just whatever works for any given situation.

 

[SawTroll]

I always drop start I suppose but I don't drop the saw or push it away I just hold the top handle firmly with my left hand and pull with my right.It always seemed easy enough to me.Besides,with my old arthritic bones being what they are ....

I use the left on the rope, and the right on the handlebar, because of arthritis in the right hand, even though I am really right handed.

 

[livewire]

Alright, I'll throw in my 2 cents.


I've always dropstarted my saws.

I tried the "on the ground" method a couple times but it's too un-natural for me.

Sorta like trying to throw a football with my weak arm.....not a pretty sight!

 

[ford832]

I use the left on the rope, and the right on the handlebar, because of arthritis in the right hand, even though I am really right handed.

I'm equally bad in each hand so I go with my right.On the upside,now my weakling office working wife opens pickle jars for me

 

[windthrown]

Voter tally in...

Well, after about 200 votes we have roughly 64% of AS sawyers always, mostly, or usually drop starting their chain saws. Actually, I am surprised by the overwhelming results favoring drop starting. I thought that I would be in a rogue minority of drop-starters here. But not so.

 

[blis]

Well, after about 200 votes we have roughly 64% of AS sawyers always, mostly, or usually drop starting their chain saws. Actually, I am surprised by the overwhelming results favoring drop starting. I thought that I would be in a rogue minority of drop-starters here. But not so.

And that poll proves the fact that drop-starting is the best and only way :greenchainsaw:

 

[blis]

Well, after about 200 votes we have roughly 64% of AS sawyers always, mostly, or usually drop starting their chain saws. Actually, I am surprised by the overwhelming results favoring drop starting. I thought that I would be in a rogue minority of drop-starters here. But not so.

And that poll proves the fact that drop-starting is the best and only way :greenchainsaw:

 

[windthrown]

Perhaps so. Except no saw sold today has that method listed in the user guide. Actually, no stuff seems to show how to properly drop start a saw.

 

[ropensaddle]

Perhaps so. Except no saw sold today has that method listed in the user guide. Actually, no stuff seems to show how to properly drop start a saw.

I know why,I experienced a green horn hired by the company I worked for he was not told he could run a saw and was on his first week! He watched everyone else drop starting and assumed it was proper, so he picked up the 272xp and it lucky was cold I saw him and ran over and stopped him because he let it fling right into his leg, he was a scrawny feller had no strength and was really suited for pizza delivery. He never got to run a saw that was not started the proper way which I showed him he quit about a week later when we got into a bunch of chipping some men are not cut out for tree work.
These people screw up and cause a new rule to follow.

 

[Nailgunner]

Cold-starts and big saws: On the floor, foot etc. Hot starting, especially small saws, I'll drop start. To be honest they don't need much dropping, if they're in good nick it's more a matter of a sharp tug on the string and off they go.

 

[stihl sawing]

Always drop start mine. Every now and then i will start it on the ground. usually my boot is too big to stick in the handle. Now the really big saws i can see how they need to be started on the ground.

 

[Hugenpoet]

What's a chain brake???

Gary

+1 I also drop start because my booted foot won't fit in the handle and I'm too old to bend that far over.

 

[scotclayshooter]

I use the left on the rope, and the right on the handlebar, because of arthritis in the right hand, even though I am really right handed.

No arthritis here but i do it the same way and im right handed also!
I drop start my strimmers

 

[windthrown]

Wow, someone drop-started my old drop-starting saw thread?

I taught a few people how to use chainsaws when I was in California last month. We had a good lesson on drop-starting saws, and the only way I teach people to start saws. Mainy its a balance thing. When you lift the live saw up off the ground, you are off-balance and there is a tendancy to be forward heavy with the saw, and that is far more dangerous in my view. My view is that you are way more safer drop starting a saw standing up with a firm grip on the saw. Maybe its an Aikido thing or something (I spent a few years doing that in my youth).