Started the week off right with running some of my saws up North (Prescott, Arizona)

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XPLRN

Dad ^^^^ wouldn't understand the CAD!!! :-)
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The first two days of this week(Monday/Tuesday) I got to take some of my saws up North to my brother-in-law's property outside of Prescott. It was very nice to be in the cooler temperature up at 6500+ feet elevation and away from the Phoenix Valley area!! There is a lot of nice standing Ponderosa Pine on the property that hasn't been afflicted with the bark beetle infestation. This is the view from the cabin patio;

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Unfortunately there is also a bunch of dead Ponderosa Pine(from the bark beetle infestation) that have blown down and are returning to Nature by rotting away. Those downed trees are an eye-sore but not near as visually obvious as the still standing dead Ponderosa Pines with the rotten tops have been blown down. In fact one of the still standing dead trees(12-14" on the stump) was sooo rotten in the ground that I was able to get it rocking and able to push it over by hand instead of cutting it off at the base. The property hasn't had any real care/cleanup for decades and has become quite a mess that needed some attention.



This picture is from when I was up there in April to do some cutting;

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These pictures are from November of 2010 showing the dead/downed trees;

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I ended up taking four saws so I could get a feel for how well they ran and cut. I should have taken some of the other saws but was limited on room.

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The small saw I took was the Stihl 011 AVT which is my dad's last chainsaw that I inherited and got back up and running this past year. It's the saw that got me here/AS and spawned my CAD issue(I think I have over 30 saws but the majority of them are projects or parts saws). Here is the thread that started it all!! http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/173405.htm . I took it so my brother-in-law would have something to cut with as he's got a bad back and can't handle a bigger saw without messing his back up. The saw did great for the first tank of gas. I re-fueled it and touched up the chain and then started it up again. It wouldn't idle down and my brother-in-law told me it has started doing that about 3/4's thru the time he'd ran it. I tinkered with it and couldn't get it to idle down so I told him to save his back and not run the saw any more. I'm hoping it's something simple but didn't want to risk it being a crank seal and running lean......any more than it might have already. I'm always a bit leery about having other people, that aren't saw literate, running my saws. At least ones I care about..........this being my dad's last saw I do care about it!!! Oh well, another saw to check out when I've got the time.

I've really enjoyed the Husquvarna 350 since I got it last year from a good friend of mine. The details of that saw and what I've done to it are listed in this thread; http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/174034.htm . For a 'homeowner' vs. 'professional' saw I was pretty impressed with how light and balanced it was to use. It had not ran good in April when I had brought it up to cut. Thanks to some help from AS folks it was figured out that the carb needed a kit and that made the world of difference. It started well this time and ran pretty strong considering that it's still got the dished piston in it. I think un-restricting the muffler helped it breath/run stronger!! The bummer part of it was that with a lot of the wood on the ground the chains I had for it kept getting dulled up to the point where they were needing a decent machine grind vs. the light file touch up. I ended up with three dull chains and didn't have the time to run into town and have the local saw shop sharpen them up. Sooo decided to move on to using the Jonsered.

My Jonsered Super 670 West Coast had never been ran in wood since I got it and took it's "demo saw" status away. It's detailed in this earlier thread; http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/177268.htm. After I kitted the carb, modded the muffler and got it running it's always sounded really strong with great compression. A lot of folks said that I should remove the carbide tipped chain and go with a regular chain. I am really glad that I decided to keep the carbide tipped chain on it as It didn't have near the problem with getting dulled up when cutting the wood on the ground. I know it didn't cut as fast as a sharp regular chain would have but I'd gotten my fill of chain dulling with the Husquvarna 350. The saw always started good and ran really well............it proved out to be the saw I used the most this trip primarily because of the carbide tipped chain.


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You can put more in the thread. Just not a single post. Looks like a lot of work/fun depending on how much you enjoy it.:cool2:
 
Started the week running some of my saws up North (Prescott, Arizona) Part 2

Thanks, mdavlee, for your suggestion!! It was late last night when I was putting the thread(s) together and I forgot about just doing a 2nd post to add the additional pictures.


Anyways I finally got around to wanting to run the "big dog" saw of the lot I'd brought....my Dayton/Poulan 5200. This saw was one that I was really looking forward to running in some wood to see how it would pull a chain!! I'd just got it recently and love the way it sounds at idle!! ; http://www.arboristsite.com/stickies/98495-1320.htm#post3823880 .

I had a premonition that the carb would not function well at elevation just as the Husquvarna 350 had done back in April. The Dayton had started and ran well down in the Valley at my place but as just mentioned I've had problems before with saws at elevation. Sooo true to my premonition the darn saw would not start and showed a wet plug. Sooo I'd happened to bring a carb kit along and decided to tear into the carb as I really wanted to run the saw and see how it pulled the freshly sharpened chain. The diaphragms were notably stiffened up so I replaced both of them and put it back together. Still didn't want to start so I ended up pulling it apart again and checking out the diaphragm installations to see if I'd messed up somehow. STILL wouldn't start......I put in a new plug, poured mix into the carb and it still wouldn't show any signs of life. By this time I'd had my fair share of frustration and decided to give it up and went back to cutting with the Jonsered. At least it would start on the 2nd pull every time!!


On the way up, Monday, we stopping at the local chainsaw shop in Prescott and had the chain that came on the Dayton/Poulan 5200 saw sharpened up. The shop had moved since we were up there in April and in their new facility they had a really neat vintage chainsaw display!! Here are some pictures of that;

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I was pretty surprised to see and recognize a saw that just two weeks previous I wouldn't have known anything about. I had enjoyed reading Brad Snelling's thread ( http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/207861.htm ) about his Stihl 041G find and lo and behold what do I see but that exact same model on the bottom shelf of the vintage saw display!!

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The hillside has a good angle to it sooo when I'd roll a cut piece down hill it was fun to see if it would stop at the driveway. OR bounce over the driveway road and roll on down further.........a couple of them made it down to the main road. Luckily there is minimal traffic out there!!

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This is my brother-in-law, happy that the property is getting cleared/cleaned up.......not so happy about going to get the pieces that rolled down onto the road. :)

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Ended up coming away with a sore back and a new appreciation for my chainsaws and the work they did in transforming the look of that hillside!!
 
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That's real pretty up there!

ya, higher the elevation, you would need to lean out the screws carefully to get a saw to start and run properly or so the theory would go (I have never cut at those heights). I have no idea on a settings recommendation though for you. They both start a nice full one turn out down at real low altitudes, so a bit less than that?
 
You can put more in the thread. Just not a single post. Looks like a lot of work/fun depending on how much you enjoy it.:cool2:

It was a lot of work that was fun.......always enjoy the visual change of taking down the dead standing trees. The already downed trees on the on the ground are just hard on chains and the back.

Thanks, mdavlee, MasterMind, Zogger, rmh3481 and Greg 409 for your posts.....it's nice to see my get-away from the Valley being appreciated by others!! Going up over 5 thousand feet in elevation and doing manual labor is always a butt kicker.......the joys of being outa shape and aging!!
 
Sweet post and pics...... where you from in AZ im down south just south east of tucson.... we do a lot of cutting for firewood down here mainly oak and juniper....... you ever get down this w
ay hit me up and maybe we can get out and cut some wood......

Dom
 
Half ways...........

Sweet post and pics...... where you from in AZ im down south just south east of tucson.... we do a lot of cutting for firewood down here mainly oak and juniper....... you ever get down this w
ay hit me up and maybe we can get out and cut some wood......

Dom

Hello Dom!

I'm located just West of the Estrella Mountains, SouthWest of Phoenix. Sooo regarding the title I'm basically 1/2 ways between where this thread took place and where you live. I'll certainly keep that offer in mind, unfortunately it's hard for me to even get away to do this clearing work up North.

Best Regards, XPLRN
 
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