Advice: What to build MS361, MS440, MS660

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grizz55chev
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This is good advice as well!! Most of my saws I've rebuilt from non running saws. You can find some good deals out there and once repaired will be worth more than any clone. A genuine Husky or Stihl will always be higher quality and perform better than any China saw. The smaller Hutzl saw kits just don't make fiscal sense when you can find a genuine builder/parts saw to rebuild. It's hard to find cheap 660 parts saws so that's what appealed to me in buying the 660 Hutzl.
Not really about resale, it's all about wether you want to cut wood or look at a pretty shelf queen that might or might not cut wood. :cool:
 
Keaton85

Keaton85

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Ok, revised question....

From the people that are not negative on the Chinese knock offs, out of all of the saws that members here have built, which saw has had the best build quality. The one with the most overall revisions and tweaks that have come out over the years?
 
a. palmer jr.
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Southern Indiana
Ok, revised question....

From the people that are not negative on the Chinese knock offs, out of all of the saws that members here have built, which saw has had the best build quality. The one with the most overall revisions and tweaks that have come out over the years?
I suppose from what I read the 660 is the least troublesome...
 
Westboastfaller

Westboastfaller

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Have you built any of these saws?
If you are asking me if I've bolted on AM top ends to a pro-line saw then the answer is yes. Way to f*en many times. The thing is I pay for that service. I am not the mechanic.
How does it come to be? Getting things constantly replaced and sent to me. I did get pretty good at it. Hate it now and can't even bother to fix a on/off switch.
I think my record was 35 min at about -25 c, at work pulling two BB top "372's ends off and swapping one over in front of a fire on a jacket over the snow.
Work is for running saws and evening is for sleeping.
My first fifteen yrs, I never had any saw trouble to speak of. You got to know your saws and you kept a few parts on hand.
I don't have trouble anymore either.

Run that sh*t and you have nothing but a glass tigar

It was a trap and it will break you one way or another.

I didn't know of much about the origin apart from things came from Bailey's.
 
Westboastfaller

Westboastfaller

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An opposing thumb and the ability to use simple tools......I’m covered.
I finished up a winter season and jumped on as a Welders helper on a oil lease doing fabrication work.
I couldn't figure out how to get one of his clamps open right away and he said "You just got to be smarter that the pipe stand" lol

I agree.., new stuff is good.
It holds a parallel's to model building.
It's the fumes and the flat ground that take me down.


I didn't fully understand what they were. Kits to me were top ends.
 
Stihl 041S
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I finished up a winter season and jumped on as a Welders helper on a oil lease doing fabrication work.
I couldn't figure out how to get one of his clamps open right away and he said "You just got to be smarter that the pipe stand" lol

I agree.., new stuff is good.
It holds a parallel's to model building.
It's the fumes and the flat ground that take me down.


I didn't fully understand what they were. Kits to me were top ends.
Yup. And a couple of Pistons before a Kit was needed.
 
paul99

paul99

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I've only this far built a clone 660 but it's been faultless in the 7 months I've had it. It seems to be the most popular of the kits and I guess that's because it happens to represent the best in terms of value for money. I don't sell firewood (most stockpiled for a rainy day and the rest given away to family and friends) but if I did and given the local cost of firewood I'd have easily cut enough with that clone 660 to pay for itself and a brand new genuine ms660 too if I wanted...

Sadly it seems to be a trend on here lately that threads such as these seeking advice on the kits are getting more negative responses from people with no actual experience of them whilst the majority of kitsaw owners remain quiet. I'm guessing this is down to the majority of kit saw owners, having visited here to overcome any one of the well documented issues whilst building the kits, are quite happy to just go on with successfully cutting wood with their saws rather than feel the need to justify their decision to buy a clone or argue with those who insist a kit saw couldn't possibly be fit for purpose...
 
earlthegoat2

earlthegoat2

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Firewood cutting with a 660 is by no means a true test of durability on a saw such as that and overkill to boot. But that is sort of point right? The China kits put a neat saw that is otherwise unaffordable or monetarily unjustifiable for most into your hands.

The skills gained building it from pieces are worth the cost of the saw alone. China kits make wonderful homeowner duty saws. Pros will put 5-7+ hours a day on a saw so I think there is a reason they are not investing in these kits whether by building them themselves or buying them assembled. Too much risk and not enough return on their dollar.

I’m not bashing the China kits but I am pointing that there seems to be two groups of people against them. Pro saw users and pro saw mechanics.

There is another trend I don’t like seeing either. Just yesterday my coworker brought a 440 in that he had purchased at garage sale for a “great deal”. $380 for a pretty nice looking 440 China kit saw clone. Yeah yeah caveat emptor and all that but I think this is also part of what bsnelling is so against. I hate to say it, but without much experience, one could easily buy a kit saw and not realize it because they can be made to look so close. Luckily this guy was planning to only use it for homeowner type duties of which it is probably perfectly suitable. Aftermarket parts are one thing but an entire aftermarket saw that is an obvious copy and sneaks through the loopholes as a “box of parts” is at the very least unethical business practice. But who cares right. We live in a give it to me as cheap as possible society. Then we gripe when it breaks whenever that may be.
 

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