Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Squareground3691]

I have a question for the experienced sharpeners here. I've been hand filing my chains and using a progressive depth gauge to set the "rakers". I tried the theory of leaving the cutters different lengths. While they cut well and throw good chips they seem to vibrate more than I'd like. Should I file them all to the same length? Would it run smoother then?

It shouldn’t be that rough, if ur filling each raker accordingly to each tooth, unless there’s more of an issue with the cutters .

 

[sean donato]

Mine used to give me all kinds of grief. I bought the saw new but always hated it.

Followed Tree Monkey’s tutorial and put a steel boot clamp on it and now it runs perfectly.

I did his mods to the carb when I had it apart last. It's a good runner after being ported, just cold blooded. From what I recall it was the same way for my father in law before he passed it off on me. I've contemplated getting a different carb for it, but it runs great after it's been tweaked.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

I have a question for the experienced sharpeners here. I've been hand filing my chains and using a progressive depth gauge to set the "rakers". I tried the theory of leaving the cutters different lengths. While they cut well and throw good chips they seem to vibrate more than I'd like. Should I file them all to the same length? Would it run smoother then?

Hard for me to voice a good opinion and give sound advice without actually seeing or looking at your chain. However, you want all the cutters as uniform as possible for the chain to cut smoothly. If your getting a lot of chatter while your sawing and its cutting straight? Then it's most likely a raker issue. If your cut wanders to one side or another and the saw chatters? I hate to say it Pard, but your chains all screwed up! If that's the case and there is a decent amount of life left in the chain? It probably just needs some finer tuning to bring it back. Hope this helps.

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

 

[Kodiak Kid]

A lotta of GoPro fisheye effect on that one. Most of the lean/limb weight was a heavy to the side, but I didn't want to go that direction. I was a bit surprised it needed wedges too, but the limb weight wasn't enough to get it over ...I set my first one just to try and get it moving that direction, so it didn't break off towards the lean. I also left a lot of holding wood on my on-side(with an ultra-thin offside,) so that hinge may have been resisting it going over as well.

I can definitely tell in the vid. That wedge lift helped get it to commit. Simply from all the Gopro footage I've taken of myself tipping trees. Gopro footage can make trees size and lean seem deceiving though. No doubt about it. With that being said. Regardless of what type of cammera was used. It's pretty cut and dry if you know what to look for and understand how and why a tree falls with relief cuts. The video showed how much wood you had left and how much wedge lift "after" your final throttle push in your back cut. That it took fir commitment. Basic Felling 101.

 

[Sierra_rider]

The saga of the 543 clone continues...the flywheel seemed to have welded itself on, my tapping the end of the crankshaft while holding it up by the flywheel trick, wasn't working. I even made this flywheel puller...you can see how well that worked... should've used a bigger piece of steel and not tack welded it....

 

[Sierra_rider]

I can definitely tell in the vid. That wedge lift helped get it to commit. Simply from all the Gopro footage I've taken of myself tipping trees. Gopro footage can make trees size and lean seem deceiving though. No doubt about it.

I'm more versed in cutting tall conifers, so broad trees don't come quite as naturally for me. There seems to be some conflict between some members of the online community between west vs east coast cutting techniques...the way I see it is they are completely different situations and no technique is the best for all region.

Helmet cam footage is never the best. On the moto bike, it really flattens out the terrain and makes everything look easy. Plenty of uber-technical, hike-a-bike trails turn into groomed riding park trails once on the lense.

It's the same story with tree work. They don't really show the whole situation... I'll sometimes wear the go pro when climbing. Watching the footage is definitely not the same experience as blowing the top out of a 100'+ tall pine. 3rd person angle is the best, but when I'm working, I'm too busy to worry about getting the best footage. Most of my vids are when I'm cutting my own trees and aren't working against the clock

 

[Kodiak Kid]

I'm more versed in cutting tall conifers, so broad trees don't come quite as naturally for me. There seems to be some conflict between some members of the online community between west vs east coast cutting techniques...the way I see it is they are completely different situations and no technique is the best for all region.

Helmet cam footage is never the best. On the moto bike, it really flattens out the terrain and makes everything look easy. Plenty of uber-technical, hike-a-bike trails turn into groomed riding park trails once on the lense.

It's the same story with tree work. They don't really show the whole situation... I'll sometimes wear the go pro when climbing. Watching the footage is definitely not the same experience as blowing the top out of a 100'+ tall pine. 3rd person angle is the best, but when I'm working, I'm too busy to worry about getting the best footage. Most of my vids are when I'm cutting my own trees and aren't working against the clock

I totally understand. All of it. I also concur on your statement about dealing with different species in different regions. For example. A branched out Oak or a 150-200 foot Suger Pine. Comparing the fundamentals and techniques used fir tipping either and to say one is more difficult than the other is a fools errand! IMOP, anyone who states otherwise is simply unwittingly commenting on their Felling experience. I've worked next to seasoned veteran Cutters that actually have worked several different regions all over the Counrty in their day. From Pennsylvania to Michigan
to Louisiana to California to Washington to Alaska. They will tell you the same thing! I'm not even about to go in to details. I feel that would be opening a big can of worms.

Cut safe, stay sharp and be aware!

 

[Sierra_rider]

Vacuum test on the clone saw... passed with flying colors. I'm now 99% sure it's problems are timing or ignition related. I was playing around with a multimeter when I first got it and thought the flywheel didn't have nearly enough advance... however with these coils, they'll have different level of advance at different revs, so it's hard to time them accurately without them running.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

[QUOTE="chipper1, post:

We consider walnut a soft wood, set.the rakers low and let it eat, compared to many of the hardwoods it's quite soft. A piece of seasoned ash or seasoned black locust is hard. When cutting the ash you still get larger chips, black locust just gives small chips and dulls your chains.


[/QUOTE]
Interesting. Must be a structural wood fiber and composition thing. I set the rakers too low in conifer and it puts an abnormal load on the saw, and our Sitka Spruce (dispite being one of the toughest and strogest species of wood pound for pound in the world) is a soft wood.
Ever work with any Apitong? Hardest wood I've ever come across! Oak ain't got s**t on Apitong as far as density.

 

[MustangMike]

I finished loading that 50 box of 223 ... but used 8 different bullets - 5 -55 gr and 3-53 gr. I have had a lot of them so long I don't remember how they did or did not shoot, or which gun I shot them in!

So, this box will be like a Whitman sampler, and when I reload it, I'll go with what seemed to work best.

I've also got a few loads in other boxes with different bullets and/or powders.

The loads this gun seems to like best so far are the Hornady 52 gr Hp over 26.5 gr of H-335 and 55 gr Remington Hp over 26 gr of H-335.

The bullets loaded in the above box (all over 26 gr of H-335) are:

Hornady: 55gr Spitzer; 55gr SX; 55gr Hp; 55gr VM; 53 gr VM; and 53 gr Hp match.

Also, Sierra 53 gr Hp Match and Nosler combined tech 55 gr BT.

 

[MustangMike]

I first got it and thought the flywheel didn't have nearly enough advance..

I've not had problems with the 660 clone saw coils, but make sure the flywheel did not spin.

They often don't mate to the crank like OEM, and I tighten them as much as possible w/o stripping the nut (I also clean the surfaces with brake cleaner and use a Q-Tip inside the flywheel).

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Is this big enough ash chipper Lol 40”+ View attachment 1061223

Now that's what I'm talking about! Awsome photo! Good on Ya!
I don't know why, but even women like big saws and they just love big wood!
I mean every time I roll up the driveway on the War Wagon "OVERLOADED" with a few 42" and sometimes 48" rounds. My Squaw usually comes out and says something like. "I SAW that you got some firewood. Well honey, your wood might not be hard but it sure is big!"

Hmmm?...

 

[Sierra_rider]

I've not had problems with the 660 clone saw coils, but make sure the flywheel did not spin.

They often don't mate to the crank like OEM, and I tighten them as much as possible w/o stripping the nut (I also clean the surfaces with brake cleaner and use a Q-Tip inside the flywheel).

I think the keyway wasn't cut in the right spot from the factory. I got bored of working on it any further today, but once I can get the flywheel off, I'm going to put it back on without the key and see if I can improve it. Hopefully that solves it...I had to cut a new key way awhile back on an 064 that had the wrong combo of coil and flywheel.

 

[mountainguyed67]

I've spent a lot of time cutting fire-killed oaks...normally oak isn't super tough, but once it's dead standing for 5 years and all sun-bleached...some of it's much harder than even my seasoned firewood oak.

We’ve cut some long dead, very dry oak that just fell, while clearing trails and roads for the Forest Service. We all thought our chains were super dull, putting on a fresh chain didn’t change anything. It was the same.

 

[mountainguyed67]

More pics from our local mountains.

 

[Sawdust Man]

Hey guys I've got a question....
Has anybody tried bending a plastic 1/2 wrap handle on a saw using heat?

I've got a little echo that I like for cutting gobs of tiny cedar limbs, but the front handle is in the wrong place/angle..... in my opinion.

 

[Sawdust Man]

More pics from our local mountains.

View attachment 1061307
View attachment 1061308
View attachment 1061309

That's an impressive amount of snow!

 

[Kodiak Kid]

I've not had problems with the 660 clone saw coils, but make sure the flywheel did not spin.

They often don't mate to the crank like OEM, and I tighten them as much as possible w/o stripping the nut (I also clean the surfaces with brake cleaner and use a Q-Tip inside the flywheel).

I think the keyway wasn't cut in the right spot from the factory. I got bored of working on it any further today, but once I can get the flywheel off, I'm going to put it back on without the key and see if I can improve it. Hopefully that solves it...I had to cut a new key way awhile back on an 064 that had the wrong combo of coil and flywheel.

Do you guys honestly like those clone saws? I ask because I've never run one.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Hey guys I've got a question....
Has anybody tried bending a plastic 1/2 wrap handle on a saw using heat?

I've got a little echo that I like for cutting gobs of tiny cedar limbs, but the front handle is in the wrong place/angle..... in my opinion.

Can't say Ive ever used heat to do it. Although, I have tried to reshaped a few aluminum wraps with a 20,000 plus pound tree.However, it never really worked to well. It's very easy to apply to much pressure!

 

[turnkey4099]

I don't pay much attention to cutter length and I've never noticed my hand sharpened chains vibrating more than they did out of the box. With that being said, I don't spend a lot of time sweatin' the small stuff, and maybe mine vibrate more than I notice.

Same here. I do make adjustments in number of file strokes when I see one side visibly shorter than the other.