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hogjaws

ArboristSite Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
Messages
69
Reaction score
8
Location
Jarrettsville Md
Sorry fellas I guess I just barged in and started with the questions
a week or so ago when I registered, which by the way have been answered mighty quickly and are much appreciated. I guess a little intro is in order.
I work for Verizon as an service tech, its a good job, keeps me outdoors
most of the time and on my own which I like very much. I am 45, married
with 2 boys ages 15 and 10. My wife does not work, well outside the home anyway, we always wanted to raise the kids without having to put them in daycare and have been able to do so with a combination of odd jobs and
overtime, lots and lots of overtime with the phone company. Something we are both proud of and believe has helped our boys in many ways.

Anyway I heat almost entirely with wood and have been getting by for years with a Poulan 2800(45 or 47cc saw I forget which) series with a 20" bar. Actually I've gone through 2 of them, always kept them clean and with sharp chains. I have never paid for wood, always cut and split my own. Well this past year I have really come across alot of wood free for the taking and decided to cut and split as much as I could and sell some to pay for the new splitter I recently bought. Well the 2nd Poulan was just about shot and I had to opportunity to buy not 1 but 2 MS260's from a friend who bought them to start a landscaping/lawn/tree service co. that did'nt really pan out for him.
They were barely used and were purchased for $300.00( 1 pro and 1 not).
Well my father-inlaw and brother-inlaws and practically everybody around these parts are certified STIHL people. I always got some ribbing for my cheap saws but its all I could afford and they always seemed to get the job done.

Well I have cut a few cords now with the 260's and am really happy with them and now wish I had been using them all along, what a difference!
Well with the firewood and the new saws I started to look for info on the
subject and whata know I found ArboristSite. What a find. I have always
liked tools/equipment/machines and this has been a blast so far.
Just tonight I went out in the garage just to clean the saws up a bit and
because I am so impatient and hard headed I went ahead did my first muff
mod against the advice from a few of you guys because of the non-adjust
carb on my 260 pro. I figured if it did'nt work I could always pick up a new
muff pretty cheap. Well it took longer to clean up the saw than to mod the muffler and I think its gonna do alright. I drilled 2 5/16th holes 1 above the existing outlet and 1 below. Deburred and cleaned out the can replcd the
screen and put it back together. Not much retuning to do what with no H adjust on this carb but it seems to run great, I have always tuned my own cars, mowers, equip and such mostly by ear and have always been able to do
pretty good. Dont have a tach...YET...but I only noticed a slight increase
in WOT no load rpm. But WOW it sure sounds better and has got qiute a bit more pep shall we say. It will be tested in some red oak Sat.

So now that you guys have got me started theres no turnin back now. I will
mod the other 260 and am currently looking for a used Dremel set. In a former life I was a sheetmetal man on aircraft in the USAF and am no stranger to machining. See I told you, you guys are gonna get me in trouble.
I want to find an old Stihl maybe an 036, rebuild it and do my first woods port job before I try it on the 260's. Hopefully I can contribute something to this site besides just asking questions, I will try and post some pics in the future. I enjoy very much looking at all the pics of yours I see.

And while we're taking about questions, could anyone tell me when my 260pro
was built the serial # is 261141618. Just curious.

And now its time to get some sleep, keeping me up late again with this dag gone saw business.

You all are STIHL a very bad influence!

Have a good one.
 
You can tell the manufacture date by info on the grey EPA sticker. You will see something like this on the sticker....MD:0107....The first two numbers are the year, 2001. The second two numbers are the month, July. The info I can give you is the saw was purchased January 7, 2004.
 
We share similar backgrounds, hogjaws. I cut a lot of wood with Poulans (and Macs) before I found AS and switched to Stihls. The difference is night and day, for sure.

I can't give you any advice about modding the muffler on the 260. Seems to me it would be running lean now, but you really need Andy (Lakeside) to weigh in on that one. Maybe you should send him a PM and ask before you mod the 2nd saw.
 
Thanks for the info JHughey, I can not check the epa sticker if its the one
Iam thinking of on the front under the muff its been worn off. Other than that I dont recall seeing a grey sticker anywhere else.

Log Splitter, I did ask about the carb and Lakeside said I should get a new carb b4 the mod. But as I said Iam a bit hardheaded and impatient and figured the hell I'll try a small adjustmt and see what happens.

Lakeside if your listenin, How can I determine if it is running lean and I
was thinking of going to a richer fuel mixture, maybe 32:1. Would this
be a good idea. I think Iam going to switch to synthetic oil as well.
The saw sure seemed to be runnin great last night after the mod.
By my ear it doesnt sound like its ruunin lean but what do I know.
Not much Yet but Iam learnin.

Later Fellas :chainsawguy:
 
I am not Lakeside

But lean and oil mixture have nothing to do with each other.
Lean is fuel and air mixture,
No reason to add more oil.. All you need is a needle adjustment to change lean to rich. Good luck and welcome to the site.
 
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