Thinning brush

Like most places, it's been a long hot summer here, and my firepit looked pretty ragged and forlorn when I mowed around it Saturday. I figured the best way to get it looking more respectable was a good old fashioned bigazz fire in it. Since I've been putting off clearing a bunch of brush between the house and the firepit due to heat as well, I combined the two.

Started by clearing a couple box elder stumps that have been sprouting for a couple years:



The little Montgomery Wards MiniMac (MonkeyMac?) was part of a 4 saws for $40 deal, and if it wouldn't have ran, I'd probably never have messed with it. I bought the lot to get a Pioneer 1073, but the guy said this one ran, so I put fresh gas in it, and away it went. The more I run it, the more I actually like it. It's perfect for jobs like this. It seems to be getting stronger the more it runs, perhaps it was a garage queen that only saw a tank or two of gas in it's life?



Behind that was a bunch of elm shoots, a bit of nasty azz prickly ash, and more box elder. All good for the fire pit, and not welcome in the yard. Off to the left, you can see I'm not done yet, probably another day or two before work of this:



Here's the firepit hard at work. A little dry box elder on top to hold things down and keep the fire going good. I'm still pushing the edges in as I'm posting:



Got a wheelbarrow load of dead, dry elm that can go straight to the woodshed as well:



First guy to laugh at the MonkeyMac gets two of his non running cousins sent to him!

Steve NW WI said:

First guy to laugh at the MonkeyMac gets two of his non running cousins sent to him!

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Looks like "busy work". At least the weather is decent. What's wrong with the Mac? If it does what you need it to do, I'd call it a keeper. Sometimes those "little" saws are real handy. I wish I could have found a 10" b/c for my little Crafty 2.0.

Ain't a thing wrong with em - when they run. When they don't, they're a PITA to tear down, and worse to put back together.

Firepit looks more respectable now, gonna need to be shoveled out when I'm done though:

Steve NW WI said:

Ain't a thing wrong with em - when they run. When they don't, they're a PITA to tear down, and worse to put back together.

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I dunno. The ONLY Mac I ever owned was back in the mid-60's. I seem to recall I didn't keep it for very long.

Steve NW WI said:

Firepit looks more respectable now, gonna need to be shoveled out when I'm done though:

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Looks like you about got it. At least your grass is green. We're still waiting. What little bit of rain we've had has only made the weeds greener.

I dare you.

Ha Ha ha ha hAH.....

Monkey Mac, I can dig it. The first pic made me think your fire pit is on the edge of the brush....

(I hear them magnesium saws are great fire starters....)

Send me a broken cousin over here, Steve!

ShaneLogs said:

Send me a broken cousin over here, Steve!

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You asked for it. Prepare for a lesson in patience and temper management. We will expect to see a repair thread with pics of course.

PM me your address, and I'll wander on down to the shed and see if I can find one that looks like it might run without too terribly much grief, and I'll include a box of parts loosely resembling a saw as well.

The boys in the McCulloch chainsaws thread in the Chainsaw Stickies will offer advice, encouragement, and spare pieces if needed, in return for the humor you provide them.

Tell ya what, you get that little critter running well, and not only will I stop giving you grief about constantly asking for pics, but I might be able to find a "real" project saw for ya to wrench on.

From the distant pic, that Monkey Wards looks like a rebadged PM320 (or similar). Dad's PM320 (which I now have) made a lot of dirt bike/truck/screwin' around money for me doing clearing jobs when I was a teenager. Good running little saw. The handlebar and chainbrake flag are too bulky and get in the way when in deep brush (but that's a minor complaint). Now the saw needs fuel lines and a carb kit. Can't blame it for needing them after 31 or so years. It'll be a while before I get to it, as I really HATE working on those saws.....

Aaron, here's some better pics. Montgomery Wards TMY24068.





It appears to be genetically identical to the box o parts I have that used to be an Eager Beaver 2.1. I was gonna send this along to Shane, but I'll keep it for spares for mine, I've got a matched set for him instead:



Pair of Eager Beavers for Shane if he wants em, one is slightly older without the safety latch for the throttle, but otherwise mostly identical. Both have compression, and that's as deep into em as I checked.

Yep. That looks like a Wards rebadged EB 2.1, which is basically a PM320 with revised cosmetics. My PM320 has the powersharp (which is blocked off on your Wards saw). Actually works farely well for touching up the chain during clearing work. When that chain is wore out, I'll pull the PS stone, block off the hole in the case, and just run standard 3/8" LP. Probably will never use the saw enough to get that far however. I used up about 75% of that chain's life back in the late 1980's, but that last 25% will probably do for the next couple decades.

The bottom two saws are the little mini-mac 110/130 type saws (or whatever the later EB designations were). Strong running little stinkers when they're running. No fun to work on though. I have about 1.7 of those (in total), between a beaten, mostly complete 110 with a broken CB flag, and a 130 that's stripped down and hiding in a box somewhere. The 130 was given to me stripped down, with a VARNISHED (not just 'varnished') carburetor and fuel tank. The saw had almost no run time (engine was perfect). The BIL of the guy that gave it to me had put it up with gas in it...........and let it set for a good 10 years that way. I destroyed the fuel tank and parts of the carb (plastic) trying to dissolve the varnish. Boxed it back up and put it somewhere. Haven't seen the box that it's in for at least the last 10 years or so. The yeller plastic case is in a corner of the shop...

Thanks for the report Steve. I happily do little projects like that just about everyday and enjoy reading about them too. I pray a thanksgiving prayer everyday I live away from people and can shoot or burn... whatever.

savageactor7 said:

Thanks for the report Steve. I happily do little projects like that just about everyday and enjoy reading about them too. I pray a thanksgiving prayer everyday I live away from people and can shoot or burn... whatever.

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Working nights, it's easy to just lounge around the house all day and not get anything done before work. Even if it's just "busy work", at least it's getting done. Today was lawn mower wrenching. I've got a couple neighbors across the street, but they're half likely to show up if I start shooting. Poor bastids don't have enough room for a good hundred yard range over there.

BTW, Shane has accepted the MiniMac challenge, and I'll be getting those two EBs on the way to him later this week.

Steve NW WI said:

Working nights, it's easy to just lounge around the house all day and not get anything done before work. Even if it's just "busy work", at least it's getting done. Today was lawn mower wrenching. I've got a couple neighbors across the street, but they're half likely to show up if I start shooting. Poor bastids don't have enough room for a good hundred yard range over there.

BTW, Shane has accepted the MiniMac challenge, and I'll be getting those two EBs on the way to him later this week.

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Sounds good Steve, I look forward to wrenching on them and getting those little hot rods running

ShaneLogs said:

Sounds good Steve, I look forward to wrenching on them and getting those little hot rods running

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they aren't too bad, just tedious. I have done a couple. Nice runners when fixed and start super easy. The cheap poulans (old or newer) are just SO much easier to work on, I don't go out of my way to score the little macs, but they show up now and then.