Homeowner needs help on choosing a stihl(250-290)

[jonnysteals]

Cold starting the MS250 is easier than you may think, mainly because these saws do not often "pop" to tell you when to ease off the choke. And if you don't hear it, so you don't switch to half choke, you can flood them very easily.

Try this:

• Set for full choke.
• Pull the starter cord twice.
• Set for half choke even if you didn't hear it pop.
• Pull the starter cord until it starts.
• Switch the choke off.
• Have fun.

These are great little saws for what they cost. I'd recommend the 16" bar on them, but it sounds like most of your stuff is well under 16", so an 18" should be fine and it will give you a little extra reach for limbing.

Enjoy your saw.

Well I wanted to trim one tree; basically an excuse to use the saw and it was much easier. All i did today was no choke and it started on the second pull. I was really happy with this because it idle perfect and didn;t try and stall.

I think my old saw has a plastic case it came with. I am going to see if it fits and then steal the case for the stihl.

 

[terryknight]

here is what i was talking about - the milk crate with all my parts

 

[Ohoen]

I love my 025 with an 18" bar. Not so much bending down to limb. As someone who only occasionally did any cutting until this past year, my advice to you is not to worry too much about power, muffler mods, etc. Learn to sharpen chain well. This is so basic that all these vets don't always think to mention it, but it took me a while to get the hang of it.

I also have an ms361, wanna know how a 361 with a dull chain compares to an 025 with a sharp one? Yeah, it doesn't.

Just wanted to point out that all this talk about which saw is best for this and that is great and all (I've been reading tons of AS the past couple months...) but what you really need is

1. Just about any saw in good running condition

2. Safety gear

3. A couple of good chains and the ability to keep them sharp

I've got about 10 cords under my belt now, so you'll want reread anything I post and commit it to memory...

 

[dsell]

I love my 025 with an 18" bar. Not so much bending down to limb. As someone who only occasionally did any cutting until this past year, my advice to you is not to worry too much about power, muffler mods, etc. Learn to sharpen chain well. This is so basic that all these vets don't always think to mention it, but it took me a while to get the hang of it.

I also have an ms361, wanna know how a 361 with a dull chain compares to an 025 with a sharp one? Yeah, it doesn't.

Just wanted to point out that all this talk about which saw is best for this and that is great and all (I've been reading tons of AS the past couple months...) but what you really need is

1. Just about any saw in good running condition

2. Safety gear

3. A couple of good chains and the ability to keep them sharp

I've got about 10 cords under my belt now, so you'll want reread anything I post and commit it to memory...

Robert Conrad and the Duracell commercial comes to mind. :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[7sleeper]

Excellent comment Ohoen! Very well destilled. That reminds me when I was once cutting a large walnut tree with my Dolmar 5001 and a fellow from the tree service company mentioned I could borrow his Stihl 660 for it! Wow I thought the most addored saw at it's time.... What a [email protected]! Really dull chain and carb in really bad setting. My Dolmar was equally fast in that big wood.

7

 

[jonnysteals]

Excellent comment Ohoen! Very well destilled. That reminds me when I was once cutting a large walnut tree with my Dolmar 5001 and a fellow from the tree service company mentioned I could borrow his Stihl 660 for it! Wow I thought the most addored saw at it's time.... What a [email protected]! Really dull chain and carb in really bad setting. My Dolmar was equally fast in that big wood.

7

You guys are mind readers. I was going to update this thread. My brothers wife races horses(barrel racing) and had a big tree fall in their pen. The horse cut itself pretty bad and he got a heft vet bill. He asked me to come over with my tractor to help him move the tree. I decided to bring my saw because well I wanted to play with it and it was a big tree.

He fired up his 290 and his chain was toast, comparing it to dull would be an understatement. There was a big tree trunk that was well over 20 inches across and his saw wasn't doing anything. He was making alot of noise but no real cutting was happening. I fired up my 250 and cut that thing in 1/4 of the time it took him to burn that wood. I now see the value of sharp chain. What I found funny was my dealer threw in all that stuff for 10 bucks and his dealer did not give him anything. He went back to get a new chain and they told him he has to bring the saw in because they couldn't look up what model he bought. I thought he was going to smash his 290 into a million pieces but then he found out his father-in-law borrowed it to cut something and killed the blade.


As to modding the saw; I did order a spare muffler but thats all I did. It seems to me you need a tack to truly adjust the carbs and since I don't have one I am just going to leave it alone for now. I don't want to risk ruining my brand new saw because I don't have the proper equipment to tune it. SO far I am very happy with my saw and me and him plan to do a side by side cutting to see any real time difference. I am still running the stock green chain(have the yellow) but I think hes going to buy the yellow chain as a replacement.

 

[Taxmantoo]

Fumes hover a certain distance from the floor in a garage. In the NEC there is requirements for the height off the floor for electrical receptacles in explosive locations. With the gasoline present in garages, a few people with no sense end up ruining it for all.

I'm reasonably sure the model building code has had a prohibition on solid fuel appliances in vehicle garage space for quite a while.
Which seems funny to me, as I don't think there's a prohibition on something like a gas water heater, which would set off fumes from a leaky gas tank just as easily.

As to modding the saw; I did order a spare muffler but thats all I did. It seems to me you need a tach to truly adjust the carbs and since I don't have one I am just going to leave it alone for now.

You have a stock saw right now. Once it's broken in, you can tune it to the factory specified rpms with a tachometer and it'll be just fine.
If you modify anything on it, it'll have to be tuned by ear, by somebody who knows what a well tuned saw sounds like. Then if you want you can put a tach on it and find out what rpm to tune the modified saw to.

Example: Let's say factory spec for free rev speed is 12,000 rpm.
Tune a brand new tight engine to 12,000 and it'll be running lean, you had to lean it out too far to get the revs up.
Tune a properly broken in engine to 12k and it'll be just right.

Now you modify it so that it can spin 13k with a properly adjusted carb.
Tune it to 12k and it'll be excessively rich (which is not as bad for the saw as too lean).

 

[jonnysteals]

I'm reasonably sure the model building code has had a prohibition on solid fuel appliances in vehicle garage space for quite a while.
Which seems funny to me, as I don't think there's a prohibition on something like a gas water heater, which would set off fumes from a leaky gas tank just as easily.



You have a stock saw right now. Once it's broken in, you can tune it to the factory specified rpms with a tachometer and it'll be just fine.
If you modify anything on it, it'll have to be tuned by ear, by somebody who knows what a well tuned saw sounds like. Then if you want you can put a tach on it and find out what rpm to tune the modified saw to.

Example: Let's say factory spec for free rev speed is 12,000 rpm.
Tune a brand new tight engine to 12,000 and it'll be running lean, you had to lean it out too far to get the revs up.
Tune a properly broken in engine to 12k and it'll be just right.

Now you modify it so that it can spin 13k with a properly adjusted carb.
Tune it to 12k and it'll be excessively rich (which is not as bad for the saw as too lean).

Whats broken in. I only ran 1 full tank of fuel threw the saw. I plan on running a few tanks threw the saw this fall.

 

[H 2 H]

Whats broken in. I only ran 1 full tank of fuel threw the saw. I plan on running a few tanks threw the saw this fall.

About 10 tanks of fuel ran thru it

Tomorrow I'll start that MM on a 250 muffler; I've been cutting down Alders the last 3 day's

 

[jonnysteals]

About 10 tanks of fuel ran thru it

Tomorrow I'll start that MM on a 250 muffler; I've been cutting down Alders the last 3 day's

Please post some pics for me. I need all the help I can get