Mac 250: How much power does this saw have?

[Tommy in Wilton]

1965 McCulloch 250, 80 cc's, engine re-worked by Mastermind.

-How much power does this actually have?

My saw has a bad recoil starter. I bought another one on eBay, but I find that I can start it if I remove the cover of the starter and simply wrap the cord around the pulley. On the third pull, it started tonight.

My Ultimate Home Appliance [UHA] decided yesterday that she wanted a Spanish bayonet plant removed from the back yard. I used a chainsaw attachment for my 4 stroke Troy-Built weed whip to take it down. Much against my will. If I want anything for the next week, it had to go. BYE! Anyway, the stump was still there. She decided tonight to put on boots and try to dig up the stump with a maddox. She actually did a good job, but these are stubborn plants, and she only removed a little bit.

Guilt. BAD emotion...it will get you in trouble EVERY time!

She knows how much I've spent on that saw lately, and simply said nothing. Just LOOKED at me.

Dammit!

"OK, I think I can get it to start" I said to her. I have to wind the rope around the crankshaft pulley each time, but guess what- It started. And it ran good too!

OK. So I carry the 24 pound saw with its 24 inch blade down to a plant which is fairly soft. If you grab a Spanish bayonet by the stalk and bend it over, it usually breaks. This stalk was about 18 inches wide at the base, and the plant was probably about 20 feet tall. I put "sawzilla" to it...and it went to work.

-I figured that a saw that had spent 47 years in Vermont taking down 100 foot tall oak trees would cut through this weed in seconds....but it didn't. In fact, it's clutch kept slipping. I had to take it totally easy if I wanted it to cut through the soft plant. It took me a few minutes to cut through soft wood with a brand new chain and me pumping the oiler like my heartbeat. And It wasn't just the clutch slipping; The soft wood caused it to bog down! What the hell~

What gives? The videos on eBay of Mac 250's going through oak logs in 10-15 seconds make me wonder about the power of this saw. I can tell it is running a little rich, it just barely goes to a "two stroke" sound under load. Are Spanish bayonet plants that tough? Is the saw running weak?

Thoughts-

Thanx!

 

[Nardoo]

Tommy, I have a Mac 250 Super that would cut through any old cactus in a few seconds and Randy (as far as I know) has never been near it. Something don't smell right.

Al.

 

[WidowMaker1]

might be like when cutting threw burrawang plants (there stump) the stump is soft-ish compared to timber but with timber the kerf dont close up like a soft plant ...when cutting the burrawangs the kerf closes up tightly with the pressure of the weight of the top part of the plant, causing the chain and bar to get sandwiched so to speak ....

 

[cpr]

I think it has way more to do with what you're cutting. Sake of argument, a butter knife will cut a nicely prepared chicken because it's hard enough for the teeth to grab it and cut. Try it with the same knife and a raw piece of chicken and you get nowhere.

250s make enough power to run 24" bars (not like a Super, but...). File that chain up and try the saw in something else. If the clutch is still slipping, replace it.

 

[blsnelling]

Have you tried calling Randy before posting this publicly?

 

[Mastermind]

1965 McCulloch 250, 80 cc's, engine re-worked by Mastermind.

-How much power does this actually have?

My saw has a bad recoil starter. I bought another one on eBay, but I find that I can start it if I remove the cover of the starter and simply wrap the cord around the pulley. On the third pull, it started tonight.

My Ultimate Home Appliance [UHA] decided yesterday that she wanted a Spanish bayonet plant removed from the back yard. I used a chainsaw attachment for my 4 stroke Troy-Built weed whip to take it down. Much against my will. If I want anything for the next week, it had to go. BYE! Anyway, the stump was still there. She decided tonight to put on boots and try to dig up the stump with a maddox. She actually did a good job, but these are stubborn plants, and she only removed a little bit.

Guilt. BAD emotion...it will get you in trouble EVERY time!

She knows how much I've spent on that saw lately, and simply said nothing. Just LOOKED at me.

Dammit!

"OK, I think I can get it to start" I said to her. I have to wind the rope around the crankshaft pulley each time, but guess what- It started. And it ran good too!

OK. So I carry the 24 pound saw with its 24 inch blade down to a plant which is fairly soft. If you grab a Spanish bayonet by the stalk and bend it over, it usually breaks. This stalk was about 18 inches wide at the base, and the plant was probably about 20 feet tall. I put "sawzilla" to it...and it went to work.

-I figured that a saw that had spent 47 years in Vermont taking down 100 foot tall oak trees would cut through this weed in seconds....but it didn't. In fact, it's clutch kept slipping. I had to take it totally easy if I wanted it to cut through the soft plant. It took me a few minutes to cut through soft wood with a brand new chain and me pumping the oiler like my heartbeat. And It wasn't just the clutch slipping; The soft wood caused it to bog down! What the hell~

What gives? The videos on eBay of Mac 250's going through oak logs in 10-15 seconds make me wonder about the power of this saw. I can tell it is running a little rich, it just barely goes to a "two stroke" sound under load. Are Spanish bayonet plants that tough? Is the saw running weak?

Thoughts-

Thanx!

Any issues with the saw just call. Did you use the oiler?

 

[Mastermind]

Any issues with the saw just call. Did you use the oiler?

Also it says engine reworked. That's not true at all. We did repair this saw to get it running again. Replaced the carb, linkages, cleaned and adjusted the points, unstopped the oil passages and cleaned the check valves....... Nothing was done to the engine at all.

I don't think Tommy has realized that this saw must have the oil pump pumped manually. I totally stand behind our work and will be glad to fix any issues with this saw even if they are unrelated to our previous repair. These old saws take a few false starts sometimes to get them useable again. If the OP needs help with it all he needs to do is ask.......I'm not going anywhere.

 

[Saw Dr.]

I never got the idea that he was saying anything about Randy or his work. I did however get the idea that Randy had somehow been talked into porting a MAC 250, which made me chuckle a little. Probably just a slipping clutch. Not worth getting worried about.

Via Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[turtle561]

the stems of the bayonet are full of stringy fibers for stiffness ,maybe they're getting jammed in the chain under the cover like PPE gear works.
i like a good machete to hack the spears off and a back hoe (not the UHA type) to get the roots out. lol

 

[rwoods]

the stems of the bayonet are full of stringy fibers for stiffness ,maybe they're getting jammed in the chain under the cover like PPE gear works.
i like a good machete to hack the spears off and a back hoe (not the UHA type) to get the roots out. lol

That, or clutch, or both. Ron

 

[Nickolas]

I have a MAC 250 with a 28" roller nose bar that has around 125 psi compression and it cuts great. I put a full chisel 404 skip tooth chain on it and I am very pleased with the way it cuts. I haven't had an issue with anything I have tried to cut yet. The hardest wood I cut is oak and cherry and it goes through that with ease. There are more powerful saws of course and lighter ones but I don't think the 250 is all that heavy or lacking power. Once you use it and get use to it then it's not bad. I can lug it around just as easy as one of newer saws and would prefer it any day over new. I can't stand new saws or anything new for that matter. Gotta keep the arms tone as I get older don't wanna get flabby...

Nick

 

[bryanr2]

opcorn:

Seems like an attempt to soil a builder's spotless reputation. Otherwise, this would have been discussed directly with the builder instead of posting on a open forum. It's not always about what was said- but how it was said.

 

[Tommy in Wilton]

This is not an issue with Randy's [Mastermind] work at all. I'm very happy with the work he did rebuilding this saw, and wouldn't hesitate to send him another tool in the future. If it sounded like I was blaming him, then be advised that is NOT what I was trying to imply.


Indeed, the saw starts so easily that I keep the plug wire pulled; I'm literally worried that it will spontaneously start!


[That is NOT impossible with magneto-fired engines]


What surprised me was how much trouble it had. I was cutting through a stump about 1 foot high, and had the blade horizontal. There wasn't a lot of weight resting upon it. I guess I figured that this thing was a monster and would go through that wet stump in seconds, but it behaved much like a saw with about 1/3 its displacement. Perhaps the long bar and chain bogs it down? I pumped and pumped that oiler while it was running. Afterwards, I examined the [new] chain and it was plenty oily. I have to say the clutch slipped a lot more than the other chainsaws [cheap $125 saws from Home Depot] ever did.


Q: How do these compare power-wise with modern saws of about 26-36 cc's or so?

 

[Tommy in Wilton]

opcorn:

Seems like an attempt to soil a builder's spotless reputation. Otherwise, this would have been discussed directly with the builder instead of posting on a open forum. It's not always about what was said- but how it was said.

NOT!

No problem with him at all Bryan. I just wanted to give background on the saw. Randy rebuilt it so you know it is running correctly. That is what I was trying to say. It runs great. Just....not as powerfully as I expected!

 

[RandyMac]

operator error

 

[bryanr2]

NOT!

No problem with him at all Bryan. I just wanted to give background on the saw. Randy rebuilt it so you know it is running correctly. That is what I was trying to say. It runs great. Just....not as powerfully as I expected!

Well thats good. Randy is at the top of his game. And he stands behind his work.

 

[Tommy in Wilton]

Also it says engine reworked. That's not true at all. We did repair this saw to get it running again. Replaced the carb, linkages, cleaned and adjusted the points, unstopped the oil passages and cleaned the check valves....... Nothing was done to the engine at all.

I don't think Tommy has realized that this saw must have the oil pump pumped manually. I totally stand behind our work and will be glad to fix any issues with this saw even if they are unrelated to our previous repair. These old saws take a few false starts sometimes to get them useable again. If the OP needs help with it all he needs to do is ask.......I'm not going anywhere.

And I'll say it again....I have NO PROBLEM with the work you did on this saw Randy!


The problem with internet forums is that they are two-dimensional, and it is easy to read something that someone has posted and get the WRONG impression. And of course, then people fly off the handle. All I wanted to say was that the saw was not out of tune- You rebuilt it, so that should tell people via your reputation that this was the case. Let's think about other possible problems instead of tuning....

Now. As to the oiler, I pumped that thing like mad the whole time the saw was running. After cutting the stump, I found a lot of fibrous crap and wood chips up around the sprocket and cleaned all of that out. The chain was dripping with oil. The bar is NOS, brand new, along with the chain. I put oil in the groove of the chain before I put the chain on. Yes, the chain was on in the correct direction! (Heh!).

-I suspect that within my mind I've built this thing into the 426 Hemi of the chainsaw world, when the reality is that I'm sitting on a decent 383 four barrel with a bad clutch and ratty paint.

What surprised me was how easy the thing was to handle. In the garage, I can barely pick the thing up, but when it comes time to put steel to wood, it is actually not all that unwieldy. At the same time, I don't think I'm going to climb 20 feet up a ladder and use one arm to hold it and cut the coconuts off of my coconut trees.

In any case, Randy, if you felt insulted, trust me: That wasn't what I intended!

T

 

[Whiskers]

It was mentioned earlier, but my money is on a pinched bar. Once you knocked the thing down did you cut it up? Did the saw cut any better after the initial felling? Never used one, but this seems like the situation the bow bar was invented for.

 

[RandyMac]

250s won't break the sound barrier, but they don't suffer from a lack of power. Try cutting some clean wood.

Little Ray bucked a bunch of 40" Spruce with this 250. Spruce isn't very hard, but it has a tough fiber, worse than Doug Fir.

36" bar, 3/8" skip chisel, 7 pin rim.

 

[Tommy in Wilton]

It was mentioned earlier, but my money is on a pinched bar. Once you knocked the thing down did you cut it up? Did the saw cut any better after the initial felling? Never used one, but this seems like the situation the bow bar was invented for.

I brought the top of it down with a small attachment that fits on my weed whip. A Spanish bayonet plant has a wide base but narrow trunks, and tends to grow as a shrub. People from the northern US who aren't used to seeing this plant [which will actually grow in Michigan] think it is a palm tree or a cactus or some sort of combination. It has fibrous stalks like a palm, but genuine wood like a real tree. The stalks were about 8 inches across, and the 10 inch bar on the weed whip took care of them in seconds. I figured that we would just leave the stump to rot, it is in a wooded section of the yard, not visible at all.

~ oh no! ~

After the Ultimate Home Appliance expressed her massive displeasure at this tiny hidden spec of an imperfection in our yard [does this sound familiar to anyone?], I was immediately tasked with cutting up the 18 inch wide stump with the 24 inch bar on the Mac 250 and figured it would go right through it. The clutch kept slipping, I'm sure that is part of the issue, but also it seemed to bog at times, making me wonder if the saw wasn't as powerful as I thought.


What kind of horsepower does something like this develop? 5 hp? Any ideas?