bave30
ArboristSite Lurker
Hi all......buying some land and need some advice. I'm not a complete noob but pretty inexperienced, especially by your standards...I've cut maybe 15-20 cords of wood over the years and done some fairly light work around my house removing and chunking up limbs and small trees. The land I'm buying is 35 wooded acres. I will be clearing 1-2 acres for a building site and a driveway and will want to make some ATV/dirtbike/tractor trails, but the rest I plan to just maintain...take care of deadfall, thinning, etc. I do hope to build a couple of cabins at some point and would like to do some milling on-site for that. I haven't looked closely at the trees that are there yet and I've only seen half the acreage anyway, but most of the stuff I've seen and recall is pretty small. A few fairly girthy gnarly pines but I haven't seen a lot of big hardwood yet. Might be lots in the back. So this post might be pre-mature in that I should have more info soon about what I'll have to deal with, but chances are that I'll work around any big stuff unless it looks like it NEEDS to come down. I'll probably be back for advice on that if something looks suspicious.
I currently have a Makita DCS5200 and an old Craftsman 2.0/12 I use for trimming and stuff. I'm thinking that I'll want a bigger saw for frequent light or occasional heavy milling duty, and for dealing with anything big that needs to come down. With the research I've done (mostly here), it seems something in the 70-90 cc range might cover it....with the MS066/660, 395xp and 7910 being most commonly mentioned from the top end of that range. I'm trying to keep my spend close to ~$500, but I'm flexible if I can find something high value at a higher price point. I'm planning on buying a tractor too and there's only so much spending on stuff like this I can do before I start getting questions. (if it was curtains I was talking about, the budget would be unlimited).
The 7910 appeals to me since I've really liked my 5200, but it seems to be a newer model and I haven't seen a lot on the used market....this is a saw I'd consider stretching my budget for and buy new based on what I've read about it. Seems high value. I haven't seen too many 395s, but this seems like a good option if I can find one. The 066s seem to pop up quite often, but often look well used or quite expensive at times.
I took a saw class recently at my local dealer (awesome class, btw) and he had an 066 that seemed in decent shape, but he was asking $800 for it. That seemed high and looking around here seemed to confirm my suspicions....anything he could have done to it that would make it worth that much? I'd love to give him some business, but I can't throw money away either. He also had a 390xp that was in similar shape for $500. When I told him I would probably be doing some milling, he walked me over to the 066 (over the 390). He's a dealer for Stihl and Husky both and when pressed said he prefers to run Huskys....but would choose the 066 over the 390....I guess that's not surprising as I guess the power is more important for milling than the other things that differentiate saws like weight and vibe control. Yeah? What about oiling a big bar? I'm still searching and reading but I've only seen a couple of mentions of this being different between saws. Is it as important for milling as I would expect it to be? Is there a saw or saws that stand out as having better oiling or less heat issues or whatever? that is, what factors other than cubes should I be thinking about? BTW....I'm not too worried about weight....even if I end up doing some felling and bucking with the big saw....it's not going to be an everyday thing for me. I've got a year before I start building.
I've been keeping an eye on the Trading Post and seen some really nice saws come and go. My gut feeling is that my money may be best spent there. I've seen a few builders selling their projects saws and that appeals a lot to me.....they seem to be well regarded by this community and that would give me more confidence in buying used, sight-unseen. Is a heavily modded, smaller displacement saw going to be as well suited to what I want to do as a stock big displacement saw? Are modded saws more finicky than a stock saw, in terms of keeping it tuned and running properly? Or maybe the torque of a long stroke, larger displacement engine is just much better suited to this work. What do you think? For what it's worth, I feel like I'm pretty handy (I do my own work on my bikes and cars) and am willing to fiddle if there's enough to be gained.
Anyway.....post is too long already. I appreciate any and all advice you're willing to give.
I currently have a Makita DCS5200 and an old Craftsman 2.0/12 I use for trimming and stuff. I'm thinking that I'll want a bigger saw for frequent light or occasional heavy milling duty, and for dealing with anything big that needs to come down. With the research I've done (mostly here), it seems something in the 70-90 cc range might cover it....with the MS066/660, 395xp and 7910 being most commonly mentioned from the top end of that range. I'm trying to keep my spend close to ~$500, but I'm flexible if I can find something high value at a higher price point. I'm planning on buying a tractor too and there's only so much spending on stuff like this I can do before I start getting questions. (if it was curtains I was talking about, the budget would be unlimited).
The 7910 appeals to me since I've really liked my 5200, but it seems to be a newer model and I haven't seen a lot on the used market....this is a saw I'd consider stretching my budget for and buy new based on what I've read about it. Seems high value. I haven't seen too many 395s, but this seems like a good option if I can find one. The 066s seem to pop up quite often, but often look well used or quite expensive at times.
I took a saw class recently at my local dealer (awesome class, btw) and he had an 066 that seemed in decent shape, but he was asking $800 for it. That seemed high and looking around here seemed to confirm my suspicions....anything he could have done to it that would make it worth that much? I'd love to give him some business, but I can't throw money away either. He also had a 390xp that was in similar shape for $500. When I told him I would probably be doing some milling, he walked me over to the 066 (over the 390). He's a dealer for Stihl and Husky both and when pressed said he prefers to run Huskys....but would choose the 066 over the 390....I guess that's not surprising as I guess the power is more important for milling than the other things that differentiate saws like weight and vibe control. Yeah? What about oiling a big bar? I'm still searching and reading but I've only seen a couple of mentions of this being different between saws. Is it as important for milling as I would expect it to be? Is there a saw or saws that stand out as having better oiling or less heat issues or whatever? that is, what factors other than cubes should I be thinking about? BTW....I'm not too worried about weight....even if I end up doing some felling and bucking with the big saw....it's not going to be an everyday thing for me. I've got a year before I start building.
I've been keeping an eye on the Trading Post and seen some really nice saws come and go. My gut feeling is that my money may be best spent there. I've seen a few builders selling their projects saws and that appeals a lot to me.....they seem to be well regarded by this community and that would give me more confidence in buying used, sight-unseen. Is a heavily modded, smaller displacement saw going to be as well suited to what I want to do as a stock big displacement saw? Are modded saws more finicky than a stock saw, in terms of keeping it tuned and running properly? Or maybe the torque of a long stroke, larger displacement engine is just much better suited to this work. What do you think? For what it's worth, I feel like I'm pretty handy (I do my own work on my bikes and cars) and am willing to fiddle if there's enough to be gained.
Anyway.....post is too long already. I appreciate any and all advice you're willing to give.
