I picked up a 2 & 1 Stihl for my Makita 36v ... works great. I've had no issue keeping it sharp and have stopped swapping chains for new ones (haha). For my Husky I picked up a knock off ... I've mostly read that thee files are tough to get out but aside from that are nearly as good as the Stihl.
I woulda bought the knock off for $20 figuring how much could they screw up copying that but for some reason the cheap ones are badly reviewed and everyone rates the Pferd's incredibly well. (Someone said Pferd makes the Stihl one? Not sure.) Was going to warn you on the small log mill - do not clamp too close to the powerhead or the blade will get pushed a little cockeyed and your slabs will be uneven. Getting rails dead level for a first cut is really hard too, so you often end up with twist that needs correcting. You're just using long rails on brackets? There's going to be some sag on those rails unless they're shimmed in the middle. Brand new chain is super grabby and will bog down a small saw easily so you have to let it feed itself as you learned and not push much at all. Even with that saw, not sure the first cut should have been more than ten minutes. I'm just used to uniformly hard wood, though, not softwood with rock hard knots which can slow you down quite a bit when you hit them. Make sure to put wedges in as you go to keep the cut open (just the thickness of the cut, don't drive the wedges in).
Yup, did use wedges ... much of it was me just taking my time figuring it out. Also, still working through the optimal tune of my saw. I'm ok with 4 stroke carbs but learning 2 stroke carbs on the fly. I've read that running slightly rich will give you more torque. Just trying to be careful not to run too lean. I'll pull the plug after another cut and see if I'm in an good place or not. Also, at this elevation im sure I'm running the equivalent of a 45cc.
I was going to congratulate you on how butter smooth it was. As you say, most of what I see is worse. People push too much most of the time, that's what makes cuts so bad, grabbing and diving. The advantage to being patient and underpowered is you can't push too hard and cuts tend to be smoother. A light touch is everything. You're off to a good start - I adjusted my post to say probably no more than 10 minutes for that cut - five to seven is a bit ambitious for that saw at that altitude. Stick with slow and steady. I thought one to one and a quarter turns out was kinda standard for most high speed jets. By yours being 3.5 turns, do you mean 180 degree turns not 360 degree turns? Cause I can't see it running at 3.5 entire turns, would be incredibly rich. Even if that's 1.75 entire turns, that's still kinda rich.
3.5 full turns ... it barely ran when I got it. I did pick up an inductive tach so I was able to set the low idle nicely and it now starts and idles beautifully. And sorry ... it was the low side that was 3.5 turns not the high side. I'm sure it was just bad QC at the factory. Built on a Friday probably.
Right, using brackets with pretty heavy duty rails. Only 1-3/4 x 1-3/4 but pretty heavy gauge. At 11ft I have to lean into them to get much flex.
I've never tried to tune my Ranchers well, if they ran I was fine because they've been the occasional use saw. But one I put a cheap new carb on is way off and you talking about this made me get around to ordering a kit w one of those splined jet adjusters so I can adjust them easily and get them tuned right. Funny how much I've worked on some of my saws (the bottomless pit of the 87cc Stihls) and others I haven't done even the most basic adjustments on lol.
Most if not all of my lawn equipment has been pretty much pay and go with no issues. Then I go and buy a top name husky and it struggled to start. Had to wait for a spline tool before I could use it much. And where I’m at the big A***** takes about a week or longer to deliver. I’ve been working towards that first cut for the better part of 6 weeks
Four sided rails, not open on one side? If 12 gauge, then yeah, those should be rock solid. I found 12 gauge 10' Unistrut (1 5/8 x 1 5/8) to have more flex than I expected (maybe an 1/8" over a 6' span if I lean on it) given how heavy duty it seemed, but it's semi open on one side and full of holes on another side. Ladders don't have much flex but all the light ones I've used are easy to twist. I have 10' Unistrut joined with threaded rod every foot and a half like a ladder that I just rigged up. I prefer to run on the rails every cut, not just the first cut, and with a rigid ladder-like long level setup I can keep checking for twist in the cut and shim to adjust. Before I assembled the new Unistrut setup, I tried just using the Unistrut as rails in bracket notches for the first cut like you're doing, and you can get everything leveled, but then screwing in the end brackets I would all too often end up pushing it a bit out of level again. All the endless leveling of that approach seems bothersome. I made up my 10" wide Unistrut setup because ladders are too wide to run on the surface of small log slabs. Using it every cut just makes starting and ending each cut so much more level, aside from correcting any twist. All that being said, I've started doing more cuts running on the slab face with the small log mill, because the lightness of the saw and mill setup with that makes it way easier to start and end a cut level than with a big heavy rig. And no time wasted resetting brackets.
Yup, one shim and you'll be good. Probably have to go to 2x3 12 gauge tubing to have zero flex over a 10' span. Or just cross members which would take all the flex out of your rails. Most people live with that amount of bow in their slabs, but for precision woodworking that's a 1/4" that has to be taken out of each side to level the board, and suddenly there's a 1/2" of wood wasted. For timber framing however that kind of bow really doesn't matter. I've always wanted to invent some kind of cheap steam bending press to flatten out warped wood again lol so I don't waste so much planing it. Sometimes if I catch it before it's dried too much I'll put 100-150 lbs of cast stone in the middle of a slab with the ends on blocks to try to reverse the bow.
Didn’t consider all thread for cross members. Might be a good way to go. I like the adjustability aspect of it.
Something is off with your tuning & I'd recommend sorting that ASAP to avoid damage.
It's a bummer this saw wouldn't idle out of the box. Something was definitely screwy when I got it. When I originally "reset" the saw to factory 1-1/8 turns out, I threw a tach on it and had trouble getting the RPMs within factory specs without turning the high adjustment out quite a bit. That seemed odd for higher elevation so I turned it back to 1-1/8th. It idled, started and bucked great. On the mill, I've been slowly (1/16th turn) making it run richer as I'm listening to the saw through the cut. I'll throw the tach back on it and give it another shot to get within the factory specs. If I can't dial it in, we have a resident small engine mechanic I'll have look at it. It does make sense that im running a little lean. When I let off the throttle the RPMs die and slowly come back up (within a split second but noticeable). I suspect that's low fuel flow. I have read that it's best to tune to the richer side of the RPM curve.
