Makita EA6100

[calamari]

As I said in my other thread I bought a new Makita/Dolmar EA 6100 saw. Why I ended up with the 6100 instead of the 6400 that I really wanted is another story but what I got seems to be a good saw. It started on the second pull out of the box and has a lot of grunt with the 20" bar. The only problem I've had during the short time I've run it is that apparently the clutch got hot enough to engage the chain brake and stop my cutting for awhile. I hope this isn't an indicator of a problem prone machine but I'll keep an open mind.
My questions are when was the saw introduced and is there a cross reference for parts that fit this saw in common with other Dolmar models or other brands? There are a ton of outlets for 6400 parts but very few for 6100. I was wondering if it was a recently introduced model and so it will take some time for parts to be more readily available.

 

[wde_1978]

The 6100 doesn't share parts with other saw models, she's a only child without siblings.

IPL here:
http://download.dolmar.com/dipls/31088.pdf

The saw model is fairly new, but has already been around for a while.
OEM parts are readily available at any Dolmar/Makita dealer.
These saws are generally trouble free and very reliable.


A hot clutch does not and should not "engage the chain brake"!

Make sure You are using the saw properly.
Also take off the clutch cover, bar and chain and check for chip plugging.
Check the oil pump output, no or too little oil will stop the chain from moving very quickly, especially on a new tight bar.

If You notice something wrong stop using the saw in order to prevent collateral damage!

P.S.:
The 64xx/73xx/79xx's are in production since about 2000., with very few changes throughout the years.
That been said there is a decent OEM and AM parts availability for them, as well as lots of used parts.

 

[calamari]

wde_1978 Thanks for your reply. Actually I should have been more specific about what parts on the saw I was interested in. Primarily it's the consumable parts like the primer bulb for example. That bulb is in common with a number of different brands of gas engines so I was able to get a comfortable supply of them. Another example is the clutch needle bearing which has the same part number as the DCS6400 saw from what I was able to find although when you look at the pictures of parts based on saw model number they seem a little different. More research required on that one.
Trying to find a clutch drum or rim sprocket has been more difficult. The rim sprocket seems to be a 7 tooth small spline item but actually getting a tie to the part number and/or saw model has been less than clear. I'll continue looking.
As far as running the saw correctly, I believe I was. My first job out of high school was running saws on a TSI crew for the Forest Service and I've used chainsaws from that time till now. I'm 73. I was bucking up a 24" Madrone, a semi hardwood, and wasn't using it hard at the time. It was my last cut of the day (isn't it always?) and I was just cleaning up the stump with a bias cut. The saw was working but wasn't in a bind and didn't seem overly hot but it hadn't been shutoff for for awhile so was at its peak temp. After the brake acted like it was engaged, cycling it to no avail and finding the saw's engine continued to run, I shut it off and came home. I became sure that it had to be the brake and when I tried to start and run the saw now that it had cooled off, it worked as designed. I took the bar off and the cover over the brake and found no accumulation of saw dust or chips. It was very clean. The oiler was working too as evidenced by the reservoir going empty as the gas ran out and it sprayed oil on the wood before I made my first cut. I had also run a half tank of oil rich gas through the saw before I cut anything cycling it from idle to 3/4 throttle and short bursts to full throttle. I let the saw warm up before I cut on the Madrone. I don't know what more I could have done to treat the saw better. Any insights are gratefully accepted.

 

[ncfarmboy]

Rim sprocket is reg. Oregon Std.(small) 3/8" x 7T don't have to buy from Makita.
Shep

 

[Chashowlett]

I have one pm me

 

[calamari]

Thanks to all. After I get the 28" bar on it and it all worked out I'll be back with updates. I put the longer bar and chain on but it seems a little off. Slightly looser fit on the pins than the 20" bar it came with and when I turned the oil adjustment screw up one click it had oil running from the top and down the side of the bar where it leaves the saw body. At the 20" setting there was oil all around the perimeter of the longer bar but I thought maybe it needed more just because more is always better...usually. It's an Oregon bar and chain that Oregon said was the correct item to fit the saw. The oil fill hole in the bar where oil is pumped into the bar is small. The grease hole on the nose sprocket is only on one side that I can see. I have to do more research and may need to put bushings on the pins to tighten that part up and maybe open the oil holes.

 

[calamari]

 

[wde_1978]

Thanks to all. After I get the 28" bar on it and it all worked out I'll be back with updates. I put the longer bar and chain on but it seems a little off. Slightly looser fit on the pins than the 20" bar it came with and when I turned the oil adjustment screw up one click it had oil running from the top and down the side of the bar where it leaves the saw body. At the 20" setting there was oil all around the perimeter of the longer bar but I thought maybe it needed more just because more is always better...usually. It's an Oregon bar and chain that Oregon said was the correct item to fit the saw. The oil fill hole in the bar where oil is pumped into the bar is small. The grease hole on the nose sprocket is only on one side that I can see. I have to do more research and may need to put bushings on the pins to tighten that part up and maybe open the oil holes.

The 6100 uses small Husky mount/Oregon K095 bars.

By Your description it sounds as if You got a wrong bar mount, oiler hole not aligning?!
Lay Your 28" over Your 20" bar and compare the tails.

I generally don't grease the bar tip sprocket, I just assume the bar oil will seep to the bearing whenever the chain isn't moving - worked fine for me so far.

I noticed myself that some individual parts can be found to interchange between completely different saw models, but they tend to be small parts.

 

[calamari]

wde_1978 Thanks for the reply.
The bar is a K095 so I think it's right. I only gave it a quick once over before I started it with the longer bar and I only ran it fast enough to get the chain to move at a relatively slow speed so I could be sure it was oiling correctly. A good guy from Oregon products said it would have been best to have soaked the new chain overnight in bar oil as most guys just put the chain on and wing it up. That results from their chain failure studies in more wear in the first 5 minutes than in all the rest of the chain's life. Hopefully since I didn't just wing it up and by running it easily I won't have hurt it much. I have never broken a chain so maybe I'm just a lucky person.
The difference between the various bars I've got as far as greasing the sprocket just seems odd but nothing seems more out of whack than only greasing one side of the sprocket. I looked again and there is no grease hole on one side of the 28" bar.
I've got a 20" bar from the Homelite that I used to cut a bunch of dead, very dry oak for a friend. It burned all the paint off the Oregon bar and turned it blue. It tore small shreds out of the rails too but the nose sprocket is smooth as silk and has no play I can feel. I saved it to use where I'm in rocks or someplace else that's hard on bars and chains. The chain has lost its temper and goes dull very fast but it's better than ruining a good bar and chain.

 

[wde_1978]

There is no need for a sprocket greasing hole on both sides of the bar, once the sprocket turns over a couple times the grease will have spread around.
Also if You grease the sprocket You are best of turning the sprocket while pressing grease through the hole, that way the entire bearing gets some grease immediately.

I don't soak my chains in oil, the 72DL ones I increase RPM just as much is needed to engage the clutch, point the bar tip at a clean surface and hold it till oil starts spraying off it.
On the 115DL setup I soak the chain a little with oil out of the bottle after I mount it to the PH and turn it by hand a couple times, then I also start the saw and high idle her to a point where she engages the clutch.

Before I shut down any of my saws for storage I high idle the saw till I see plenty of oil flinging off the bar tip, that way the chain is well oiled and there is sufficient oil in the bar groove to seep through to the bar sprocket.
Seems to work perfectly fine for my factory original Dolmar branded Oregon bar that is in usage since 2006. and still going strong, smooth and straight.

 

[wde_1978]

I've got a 20" bar from the Homelite that I used to cut a bunch of dead, very dry oak for a friend. It burned all the paint off the Oregon bar and turned it blue. It tore small shreds out of the rails too but the nose sprocket is smooth as silk and has no play I can feel.

This and the comment earlier regarding Your saws clutch running hot makes me think You might be forcing Your saws through the cuts.

A sharp chain with properly set rakers will actually feed itself, one can basically just hold the throttle and watch the chain eat through a log without having to exert any forceful pushing.

The bar will get hot if:
- there isn't enough oil to lube the bar & chain
- one exerts a lot of pressure and forces a cut

I am guilty of occasionally forcing my saws through a cut, usually if I'm close to finishing a job but my chain is dull.
But it is so much more rewarding, faster and less straining on both man and machine to let the chain do all the work.

A quality brand chain factory new out of the box will give You a good reference to what I'm talking about.
A decently sharpened well used chain will even put a brand new loop to shame - fastest cutting and best self feeding loops I ever used are well worn ones filed back just past the witness mark (Dolmar099/Oregon73).

 

[calamari]

"This and the comment earlier regarding Your saws clutch running hot makes me think You might be forcing Your saws through the cuts."

It's possible I did but then I don't have dogs on the Homelite which makes it harder to "force" the cut. 3.3 hp makes it harder too.
I imagine you have hard woods in Croatia so can appreciate that when the Live Oak that we have here in California dies and has a couple years to dry it becomes so hard that just using the weight of the saw to cut it can result in excessive aging of the operator between finished cuts when you're using a relatively small saw. Heat builds up in bar when cutting very hard, very dry wood not matter what method is used and when you don't have a manual oiler to help carry it away.
The Oregon rep said that what you describe and what I also did is really only throwing the machining oil that was on the chain from the plant and doesn't lubricate the chain. The only alternative he offered to soaking it was to run it at slow speed for several minutes and squirting oil on the chain from an old fashioned oil can. Like you, I'm satisfied with the dollar cost per hour of use ratio using the method we use.
As far as the nose sprocket, unless there's slots or other types of openings to get the grease to the other side of the 2 1/2" diameter roller I see no way that grease can lube the back side. Centrifugal force sends the grease from the hole to the rim and onto the chain and onto the wood. Grease is not a medium susceptible to much capillary action to carry it up over and back down again to the "back" side of the sprocket. The hole is very small but I'll see if I can find the method used or if there isn't any lube getting there. I imagine it runs on a bushing and not any roller.

 

[Franny K]

Grease is not a medium susceptible to much capillary action to carry it up over and back down again to the "back" side of the sprocket. The hole is very small but I'll see if I can find the method used or if there isn't any lube getting there. I imagine it runs on a bushing and not any roller.

Generally the rivets go into an inner race and the nose sprocket is the outer race and the rollers are kind of shaped like hockey pucks. Packed full minus one or packed almost full is what it looks like to me. The amount of holes leading to those rollers varies from none to multiple openings on both sides. There are dedicated mini grease guns or a plug in attachment for a normal grease gun. I have not found a need to use grease for my purposes. Some say if you use grease you should use it often as it might plug off the oil. Perhaps if sand is in the surroundings multiple greasings would be in order.

 

[calamari]

"There are dedicated mini grease guns ..."
I've got one of those that I somehow inherited or got in a box of "stuff" from a friend. Finding it in all my storage places is another story. I'm pretty sure it's in my fishing shack/duck club/golf pro shop house. Worth finding.
If it's has you describe in that there are inner and outer races separated with relatively large diameter rollers then it makes sense to only need one grease hole. I assumed that the nose sprocket teeth you see sticking out of the nose are on a sprocket that goes all the way to the bearing point and isn't really a three piece system. Now you've made me want to cut up the burned bar just to see what's inside. I'll try try resist that urge since it does have a limited utility.
The Oregon guy said that the hole has been made so small in the new bar to keep other "stuff" from getting into the works using that as the access.
I looked at the two used bars I've got for the Homelite and found that the burned up bar is as I described with no play in the nose sprocket. Its two grease holes are almost 1/4" square openings. The other 20 year old bar w/o any missing paint has two very small circular openings about 1/16" in diameter and its sprocket is a little loose in all planes. I have greased that sprocket in the past but not regularly and I don't know how much slop is designed in and what is unacceptable.

 

[calamari]

I don't have to cut my bar apart because somebody else cut theirs up. With that design only one hole works fine. I'm still mystified by why the Makita bar has no grease holes unless it's got a sealed bearing of some sort which may be the best design for a dirty environment.

 

[wde_1978]

"This and the comment earlier regarding Your saws clutch running hot makes me think You might be forcing Your saws through the cuts."

It's possible I did but then I don't have dogs on the Homelite which makes it harder to "force" the cut. 3.3 hp makes it harder too.
I imagine you have hard woods in Croatia so can appreciate that when the Live Oak that we have here in California dies and has a couple years to dry it becomes so hard that just using the weight of the saw to cut it can result in excessive aging of the operator between finished cuts when you're using a relatively small saw. Heat builds up in bar when cutting very hard, very dry wood not matter what method is used and when you don't have a manual oiler to help carry it away.

We have hardwoods, lots of oak and locust.
Years long seasoned bark less locust is the hardest I have ever cut in volume and that was way back when I only had my dad's small 40cc/2.1HP Sachs-Dolmar 105.
This little saw doesn't have spikes either, but I still managed to fry bars every 2-3 loops and wear through the chains tie straps with half the teeth life still left in them - YES, I was forcing cuts, didn't know any better in my youth.

The most hardest wood I occasionally encounter (I generally don't cut these down but rather leave them standing and spread) is dry Cornelian Cherry.

The most B&C heat is generated by the friction of the chains tie straps against the bars rails, the more one pushes the more heat will be generated.

The Oregon rep said that what you describe and what I also did is really only throwing the machining oil that was on the chain from the plant and doesn't lubricate the chain. The only alternative he offered to soaking it was to run it at slow speed for several minutes and squirting oil on the chain from an old fashioned oil can. Like you, I'm satisfied with the dollar cost per hour of use ratio using the method we use.

I don't see any logic in that, as if the oil that caught on to the oil soaked chain will not be thrown off of the loop once the chain starts racing around the bar.
And who in their right mind will high idle a saw for a couple minutes just to soak a new loop.
Any oil squirted on top of the chains teeth and links will also be thrown off the moment the chain starts racing around the bar tip - simple law of centrifugal force.
There is a reason why the oil is being pumped into the drive links, they will carry the oil along and the centrifugal force will drive the oil into the chains links and rivets at the bars tip.

As far as the nose sprocket, unless there's slots or other types of openings to get the grease to the other side of the 2 1/2" diameter roller I see no way that grease can lube the back side. Centrifugal force sends the grease from the hole to the rim and onto the chain and onto the wood. Grease is not a medium susceptible to much capillary action to carry it up over and back down again to the "back" side of the sprocket. The hole is very small but I'll see if I can find the method used or if there isn't any lube getting there. I imagine it runs on a bushing and not any roller.

From what I could gather, if You start greasing the bar sprocket You'll have to keep doing it because the grease forms a barrier preventing bar oil from seeping into the sprockets bearing.
Regular grease consists of oil, soap and water emulsified together - only the oil is the lubricating media, the soap is the culprit creating an oil resistant barrier, evaporating water is the reason why the grease breaks down to oil and soap (don't quote me on this though, been a long time since I was in school!).

I never did, don't do and never will grease a bar tip sprocket, as far as I am concerned the B&C oil is the lubricating media for the entire B&C setup.
Again, my soon to be 12 years of usage old Dolmar/Oregon bar doesn't seem to hold a grudge against me for never having applied any grease to the sprocket.
Most of the original paint is also still on the bar.

The bar tip sprocket features a real bearing, lest an actual needle cage.


No disrespect intended with any of my posts!
Generally each to his own, do whatever You feel is necessary and make it work to Your benefit!

Post up a picture of Your Dolmar PS-6100, I always love to see Dolmar saws.

These are half of my girls, they are all work saws - no shelf queens here.


Happy holidays!

 

[calamari]

Post up a picture of Your Dolmar PS-6100, I always love to see Dolmar saws.

I did. It's in this thread a few spots back.

I've only been to Europe once (Switzerland and Italy) and I was struck by how much it looked like our Oak woodlands until I looked closer at the trees. Based on all the Chestnuts, those Romans really did conquer the world.

 

[wde_1978]

I did. It's in this thread a few spots back.

I've only been to Europe once (Switzerland and Italy) and I was struck by how much it looked like our Oak woodlands until I looked closer at the trees. Based on all the Chestnuts, those Romans really did conquer the world.

Ups, my bad!
Missed it somehow.

 

[calamari]

Does anyone know why the tail of the bar has a cut machined in it? I have bars that are solid and I've seen bars that the slot for the studs just goes all the way out through the back of the bar but this seems odd. It's not a crack, it's a machine cut.

 

[Deleted member 149229]

Does anyone know why the tail of the bar has a cut machined in it? I have bars that are solid and I've seen bars that the slot for the studs just goes all the way out through the back of the bar but this seems odd. It's not a crack, it's a machine cut.
View attachment 627092

Might be me but that cut doesn’t appear to be parallel to the bar stud keyway.