Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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Bucked up some Cherry, Maple, and Ash for a truck load of firewood for a friend. He said he needed some logs to burn. Fine by me, did not have to split any of it with an axe. Just bucked it, loaded it, and delivered for a small fee. [emoji106]


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My splitter is at another location, but I split some Ash by hand and Noodled some Elm with an 046-D and loaded up the trailer and delivered 1/2 cord, then I cut the grass, then started to assemble an Asian 660 (like I need another saw). Anyway, someone ported this jug for me, and I like how it looks, so we will (eventually) see how it runs.

Tomorrow I'm working with my brother all day, so maybe the saw building will resume on Sat.
 
Found a good deal on a 24” bar so I ordered it. Have 3-4 trees that are well over 20” that I want to take down so this will make the felling cuts significantly easier. Now just need to find a couple of reasonably priced chains.
Check out @redbull660 over at chainsaw parts.....very good price on chains....
 
That mall looks similar to my introduction to chainsaws. 1953 working for a farmer. He decided to fall a big dead tamarach for fenceposts. Put me on the outboard helper handle - 4' bar. Undercut nice, started back cut and the bottom of the tree and stump just shattered. I was 100 ft away and gaining speed when it hit the ground. Came back and that old mall was laying there going 'put, put',put' but the bar had an almost perfect 90 degree bend. All I remember about the model was a 2cyl and that may not even be right.

That old saw is so heavy, you need two men just to carry it around all day. I guess back when guys really did hard work all day like cutting up timber with nothing but muscle, a gasoline powered saw must have seemed like a delightful invention. I often wonder what the old timers from the 50's & before would think of my Husqy 3120 with a 50" bar. So light! So incredibly fast cutting!

For you guys that aren't familiar with an old boat anchor like a Mall chainsaw, here are a few key differences between the old saws and anything modern.
  • The carburetor had a float, needle, & seat. Needless to say, it didn't run upside down.
  • The old 2-cycle engines were pretty much built the same as a 4 cycle engine, except without valves & oil reservoir. They had heavy crankshafts with heavy flywheels, and they didn't really run very fast RPM's.
  • Because the engine turned slower (and had a LOT less power per pound of saw), they were engineered to have lots of torque. My Mall has a gear reduction drive on the chain! This meant that the chain turned very slow compared to a modern machine.
  • In order to cut any wood at all, they relied on huge chain and deep depth gauge settings. My Mall is running 3/4" pitch chain with fully rounded cutters.
  • Because the saw couldn't be tipped over with the float carburetor, it has a freely rotating bar mount. Cutting a tree down meant that you would rotate the bar to the angle you wanted, then locked the nose into position with the lock-handle near the throttle trigger, then start cutting. When you hold the saw, it's kind of like using a really big safety lever on the handle of a modern saw.
  • With that slow moving chain and the high torque drive, there was no such thing as bore-cuts, nor any cutting with the top of the bar. Kickbacks weren't just an occupational risk, they were a certainty if you tried to cut with any part of the top of the bar. Naturally, the saw pulled into the bucking spikes in a big way.
This is a good demo video of a different model than mine:


This one shows the bar rotation. I'm pretty sure that this is my model, too.

Mine has the 2-man handle & a 36" bar, though.
 
Now that is a collection!! My rememberer is vague at this late date but I think it was a 2cyl opposed.
@turnkey4099 The guy that owns those Mall saws travels to different places and actually runs them. He has one saw that he uses an outboard motor to start. He has a motor on a wooden box and uses a belt between that motor and the saw to get the saw started. The chain does run rather slow on them compared to a modern chain saw.
 
I ordinarily post my woodcutting pictures in the McCulloch thread but since my MAC didn't leave the truck today, I will post today's pictures here. All cut to log length for pickup and delivery to the woodlot tomorrow; I didn't think to take a picture of the log pile as my mind was some place else. Couple more stems to cut tomorrow if I get other chores done in time. I am thinking of changing to a steel wedge. Ron



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Hit Post instead of Upload so I messed up my story line. Anyway, the above picture is tree #3.

Tree #1 was a dead red oak that broke off at the stump when the CAT was pushing on it.

Tree #2 Stump has been hauled away. The stub in the middle is a fork I cut. The trunk extended to the far right and the stem extended past the CAT. CAT operator is fishing out the upper logs - the rest are already on the pile.
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Tree #3 going over.
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Tree #3 Bucked into 5 10' logs 32" on big end of 1st log down to 20" on small end of 5th log. Would have made some good lumber.
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Trees 4 and 5 for tomorrow.
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Tree # 4 going down.
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Oh, the steel wedge I want is yellow, air conditioned and says CAT on the side. Great for freeing pinched saws.

Ron
 

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