Farmtec too good to be true?

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Farmtec plastic side cover and top cover for ms 180 for a few dollars?!?!

Is this too good to be true? Anyway, I have ordered them and crossing my fingers! I can’t justify 60 dollars for the two from stihl!!
To answer your question, yes most of top plastics will work just fine. Look or feel like oem, not exactly. Color on Husqvarna items is off and feels stiffer or brittle to me. Would rather find a good used part. You will find mixed reviews, just like Hyway pistons and cylinders, some have had good luck and I will pass on them, too many failures for me.
 
To answer your question, yes most of top plastics will work just fine. Look or feel like oem, not exactly. Color on Husqvarna items is off and feels stiffer or brittle to me. Would rather find a good used part. You will find mixed reviews, just like Hyway pistons and cylinders, some have had good luck and I will pass on them, too many failures for me.
Awesome
Thanks! So if it was just the plastics for a saw you paid 25 USD for you’d still risk it if you couldn’t find used parts or be reluctant because it’s more likely a waste of time?
 
I have several Hutzl saws and kits and like them fine. I will not consider going to a dealer pretty much for anything. It is a hour and a half to go to a dealer. When I have gone I have to wait an hour and a half then it takes at least a half an hour to determine what I want. To get the item I have to repeat the entire process over again. To have the item mailed to me takes at least a month before they get around to mailing said item after charging me $25 to $50. In all my years working with chain saws I have only worn out two saws. One was crushed by a log, one was stolen, one was lost in snow bank, one was dropped from large tree, one was pinched from rotted tree are examples of the need to replace saws. They do not wear out, but for other reasons. With Farmtech you can be guaranteed you have a non modern, but workable saw that will do your job inexpensively. As far as plastic parts I have put them in boiling water with the aid of a heat gun been able to reshape them to continue to preform. Thanks
 
No one 'wants' to buy a used OEM saw or whatever filled with China parts. But most will tolerate some things to an extent. To get your ms180 rebuild buying OEM parts here in oz would not he worth it. But to build a saw that owes you a few bucks, learn something, pass some time doing something useful, cheap AM parts are a great option to have. Some will say the 'best' option is always OEM but it just depends on what your doing. Would I put AM parts on a late model 661 used to earn a living...hell no! Would I use some cheap plastix on a junker ms180...hell Yes!
 
No one 'wants' to buy a used OEM saw or whatever filled with China parts. But most will tolerate some things to an extent. To get your ms180 rebuild buying OEM parts here in oz would not he worth it. But to build a saw that owes you a few bucks, learn something, pass some time doing something useful, cheap AM parts are a great option to have. Some will say the 'best' option is always OEM but it just depends on what your doing. Would I put AM parts on a late model 661 used to earn a living...hell no! Would I use some cheap plastix on a junker ms180...hell Yes!
Everyone has a different situation too. I don't take repair work. I don't have deadlines, so I can sit on a project and wait for parts to pop up. If I had a repair business I'd probably be broke because I could never fix something for as cheap as the other guys. I'm ok with it though saws are just my fun hobby.
 
Tom, you will probably have the genuine Stihl parts in your hand that day, or at most within a week- the Farmertec parts you might see in a month.
If your $25 180 was missing the original parts, or they are broken, the Farmertec stuff will get it complete again- will be nowhere near as good as OEM (just like supercheap compression gauges versus more expensive gauges), but will still work.
If you just want plastics to complete a saw back to whole, for your own use, go for it. After all, they are cheap to replace if they do not last long.
The 180 is hardly a collectors item, you want to keep costs low and plastics are not a high stress mechanical part- you are trying to build a functioning own use saw, not some work of are rare breed every nut and bolt collector piece.
 
Anyone see the thread with the guy offering to build these POSs for people now?
Yes, I read it yesterday I think it was. I have built a couple of these kits and while they will never be OEM quality, they are getting better and better. The 365/372 and the 660 kits are a great value. I bought the 365/372 kit, the bigbore 52mm cylinder kit and a couple other small parts for $215. That saw runs great. It will pull a buried 24" bar with authority. I had to buy an OEM Oring that was missing from the kit and I put an oem decomp in it because the Chinese one popped out on every pull. Other than that, it is totally Chinese. It starts on 3-5 pulls from cold every time. For some one that only needs a bigger saw on occasion, These kits are hard to beat for the price.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
 
Yes, I read it yesterday I think it was. I have built a couple of these kits and while they will never be OEM quality, they are getting better and better. The 365/372 and the 660 kits are a great value. I bought the 365/372 kit, the bigbore 52mm cylinder kit and a couple other small parts for $215. That saw runs great. It will pull a buried 24" bar with authority. I had to buy an OEM Oring that was missing from the kit and I put an oem decomp in it because the Chinese one popped out on every pull. Other than that, it is totally Chinese. It starts on 3-5 pulls from cold every time. For some one that only needs a bigger saw on occasion, These kits are hard to beat for the price.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
Not contradicting, it might be great, but I picked up the 2171 in my avatar for about the same. Re-built two 372XTs last summer for less, along with a 562 this year. I just can't wrap my head around the excitement.
 
Not contradicting, it might be great, but I picked up the 2171 in my avatar for about the same. Re-built two 372XTs last summer for less, along with a 562 this year. I just can't wrap my head around the excitement.
If I could find any saws like that to rebuild, that's what I would have done also. I have looked online for non running saws to rebuild and they are too high. There are none to be had locally. All you ever find are Craftsman/poulan 40cc. There are no Husqvarna dealers here anymore and all the Stihl dealers here sell are homeowner stuff no bigger than 60cc, most don't take trade ins so outta luck finding anything there. I even put a couple want ads in local paper and Craigslist wanting to buy non running saws and all the responses I got were Craftsman poulan small Macs and homelites and one Stihl 024 they wanted $150 for.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
 
If I could find any saws like that to rebuild, that's what I would have done also. I have looked online for non running saws to rebuild and they are too high. There are none to be had locally. All you ever find are Craftsman/poulan 40cc. There are no Husqvarna dealers here anymore and all the Stihl dealers here sell are homeowner stuff no bigger than 60cc, most don't take trade ins so outta luck finding anything there. I even put a couple want ads in local paper and Craigslist wanting to buy non running saws and all the responses I got were Craftsman poulan small Macs and homelites and one Stihl 024 they wanted $150 for.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
I completely understand. Sometimes projects show up on these forums and garage sales have yielded some scores as well. Putting the word out at work is starting to pay off too.
 
Back
Top