Carburetor Adjustment - Cheat Sheet

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JustinM

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Folks, this is probably more useful for Noobs to the saw world, but I made this up for my dad & I thought that some here might find it useful.

My old man, bless his soul, is a very smart man but not always the most technically gifted, but he has guts like a 20 year old and refuses to let me do his cutting. The problem is, he lives a fair bit away from me, so he will often get into his woodpiles before i have a chance to tune up his saws.

My solution was to buy him a tach but even then he needed a little help, so made up this little cheat sheet (i used some of the wording from madsens to begin with). I then printed it & had it laminated (would cost you like $1 at any local office service/quick print shop if you wanted to do the same yourself). Then he sticks it in his little chainsaw tool kit, along with his screwdriver & tach & he's ready to tune up his saws.

Note that this the method to tune the "H" here is using a tach & WOT - I personally prefer tuning in the wood, but I think my dad has a better chance of getting it right this way - and its an easier concept to understand for those new to carb tuning.


Anyway, in case it can be of use to any of you.
Cheers

carbadjustments.jpg
 
My biggest problem with the Shindaiwa's is getting the little screwdriver to stay in the little slot while I make an adjustment. I just switched carbs on my 450 and between my poor eye sight, saw vibration, and little screws I end up looking like the proverbial monkey and the football.

I've seen videos of guys doing this and they make it look simple.

Having the tach sure helps out once I start adjusting.
 
Folks, this is probably more useful for Noobs to the saw world, but I made this up for my dad & I thought that some here might find it useful.

My old man, bless his soul, is a very smart man but not always the most technically gifted, but he has guts like a 20 year old and refuses to let me do his cutting. The problem is, he lives a fair bit away from me, so he will often get into his woodpiles before i have a chance to tune up his saws.

My solution was to buy him a tach but even then he needed a little help, so made up this little cheat sheet (i used some of the wording from madsens to begin with). I then printed it & had it laminated (would cost you like $1 at any local office service/quick print shop if you wanted to do the same yourself). Then he sticks it in his little chainsaw tool kit, along with his screwdriver & tach & he's ready to tune up his saws.

Note that this the method to tune the "H" here is using a tach & WOT - I personally prefer tuning in the wood, but I think my dad has a better chance of getting it right this way - and its an easier concept to understand for those new to carb tuning.


Anyway, in case it can be of use to any of you.
Cheers

carbadjustments.jpg
 
My biggest problem with the Shindaiwa's is getting the little screwdriver to stay in the little slot while I make an adjustment. I just switched carbs on my 450 and between my poor eye sight, saw vibration, and little screws I end up looking like the proverbial monkey and the football.

I've seen videos of guys doing this and they make it look simple.

Having the tach sure helps out once I start adjusting.
Some saws are easy to adjust, some nearly impossible. So far, my stihls are easy, my dolmar 7900 nearly impossible, and the 672 is easy once you remember the angle of each opening.
 
My biggest problem with the Shindaiwa's is getting the little screwdriver to stay in the little slot while I make an adjustment. I just switched carbs on my 450 and between my poor eye sight, saw vibration, and little screws I end up looking like the proverbial monkey and the football.

I've seen videos of guys doing this and they make it look simple.

Having the tach sure helps out once I start adjusting.
If there is enough room, try sticking a piece of fuel line over the screw head as a guide...
 
Folks, this is probably more useful for Noobs to the saw world, but I made this up for my dad & I thought that some here might find it useful.

My old man, bless his soul, is a very smart man but not always the most technically gifted, but he has guts like a 20 year old and refuses to let me do his cutting. The problem is, he lives a fair bit away from me, so he will often get into his woodpiles before i have a chance to tune up his saws.

My solution was to buy him a tach but even then he needed a little help, so made up this little cheat sheet (i used some of the wording from madsens to begin with). I then printed it & had it laminated (would cost you like $1 at any local office service/quick print shop if you wanted to do the same yourself). Then he sticks it in his little chainsaw tool kit, along with his screwdriver & tach & he's ready to tune up his saws.

Note that this the method to tune the "H" here is using a tach & WOT - I personally prefer tuning in the wood, but I think my dad has a better chance of getting it right this way - and its an easier concept to understand for those new to carb tuning.


Anyway, in case it can be of use to any of you.
Cheers

carbadjustments.jpg

How often is he in need of tuning the saws? For most they are just tuned a couple times a year.
 
I can see your videos Brad just fine interesting and well done too bty. but I still cannot see his ? I just thought it may be something to print out and give to anyone who is interested but all I see is the small box w/ the X in it.
 
My son just got a job working at Ace Hardware and I thought it would help him with his job. I had a copy but lost as I can usually tune pretty well myself but articulating it not so much and what that guy made was concise and to the point.
 
I hope you realize those "factory settings" are a setting which allows you to get the saw running so you can tune it. If you know how to tune a saw then you won't worry about factory settings because you're tuning by ear or tach. The initial settings needed to get a saw running for tuning on a majority of saws are about 1 1/4 turns out for both screws with the exception of the high on some of the cheap plastic saws; most of those need about two and a half turns out before they'll start revving up right.
 
Really! The OP was talking about something he printed and laminated for his father. That's what I was curious to see.
my guess would be the adjustments just for his dads particular saw I have them saved on my smart phone so I can always tune any saw, trimmer, quick cut, blower, etc that stihl has.
 
I hope you realize those "factory settings" are a setting which allows you to get the saw running so you can tune it. If you know how to tune a saw then you won't worry about factory settings because you're tuning by ear or tach. The initial settings needed to get a saw running for tuning on a majority of saws are about 1 1/4 turns out for both screws with the exception of the high on some of the cheap plastic saws; most of those need about two and a half turns out before they'll start revving up right.

Stihl are usually 1 turn out. But there are some that need more. 1 turn out is a good starting point.
 
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