McCulloch 3-10E , battery start

[HimWill]

You're right,they are neat little saws.The pack,as you found out is 12 volts.Made up of (10) 1.2 volt ni-cads.Sounds like you know how to do it yourself on the re-build.What do you think about size,1/2 AA look about right,or maybe 2/3 AA like these:

http://www.onlybatteries.com/showitem.asp?ItemID=15046.31&cat1=13&uid=1048

 

[VolksDragon]

You're right,they are neat little saws.The pack,as you found out is 12 volts.Made up of (10) 1.2 volt ni-cads.Sounds like you know how to do it yourself on the re-build.What do you think about size,1/2 AA look about right,or maybe 2/3 AA like these:

http://www.onlybatteries.com/showitem.asp?ItemID=15046.31&cat1=13&uid=1048

Mine must be a replacement battery pack, because mine's only 5 cells, about the length of a D cell, but about half the diameter. I'm going to try AAs, because they're cheap, and LiOn AAs have plenty of power (in theory to start the saw)

 

[HimWill]

Look closely at the IPL,there should be 10 cells.There are 5 groups of 2 cells.The pairs are connected end to end (series).You only need 8 AA's for 12 volts by the way.(I'll bet you knew that already.)

 

[VolksDragon]

Look closely at the IPL,there should be 10 cells.There are 5 groups of 2 cells.The pairs are connected end to end (series).You only need 8 AA's for 12 volts by the way.(I'll bet you knew that already.)

Okay, I see what you mean now. My battery cells are wrapped in pairs, so you can't see that there's two per section. I pulled the battery assembly out entirely tonight, so I may split open the wrapping on one pair and check a little more what they're about.

My idea of 8-AA batteries did indeed generate 12v, but apparently not enough mAh to start the saw. Oh well. I may try LiOn batteries, which generates more mAh. I will look up that link you mentioned for 2/3A batteries. I was also looking at the Interstate Battery site, which has WAY MORE BATTERY INFORMATION than I might ever need.

 

[HimWill]

The same place has NiMH 2/3 AA,with twice the capacity, on sale.A much better deal:

http://www.onlybatteries.com/showitem.asp?ItemID=13239.31&cat1=50&uid=1910

Use the dimensions listed for the cells on the site to compare with the pack cells dimensions.

 

[gmax]

Battery packs made from Li-Ion cells always have protective circuits to prevent each cell from being overcharged.
There is no way I would attempt to build a battery pack using Li-Ion cells, even
soldering the ends of the battery can cause them to explode.

 

[mactodd]

Anyone ever get the magic formula for a battery pack yet? Finding a 12v charger, and solering an RCA jack is the easy part. I picked up a 5-10E on evilbay, and it's cherry. I bet it never cut more than 2 cords of wood. Even has a 95% Mac chain on it!

 

[Bill G]

If I get a chance tonight I will post some info from the manual.

Bill

 

[Bill G]

Here is one page.

Bill

 

[HimWill]

Anyone ever get the magic formula for a battery pack yet? Finding a 12v charger, and solering an RCA jack is the easy part. I picked up a 5-10E on evilbay, and it's cherry. I bet it never cut more than 2 cords of wood. Even has a 95% Mac chain on it!

Post some pictures of your 5-10E,pretty scarce saw by any standard.

 

[HimWill]

Bill,that first page is really informative.There are quite a few of us that have only been guessing about the packs and chargers.Any more pages ready yet?

 

[Brmorgan]

What are the dimensions? I have a couple very small lead-acid 6V, 4.5 Amp-Hour batteries that I scavenged from a couple of those cheapo $10 millon-candlepower handheld "flashlights". They aren't very big but the problem is that you'd need two in series to get the 12V and I'm pretty sure it would be too big and heavy at that point. I don't know if you can get 12V ones of similar size.

If a guy didn't care about keeping it looking exactly stock, I'd be tempted to find a battery mount from a busted DeWalt 12V drill, and find a way of mounting it to the saw and routing the connections from the internals.

 

[mactodd]

Post some pictures of your 5-10E,pretty scarce saw by any standard.

It's in pieces on the workbench right now. Trying to get it to run, but I'm having carb problems. Wants to flood. Thanks for the tech pages.
I'll see if I can get some good pics for you guys.

And the cells look more like "C" cells on this puppy. Originally made by GE.

 

[gmax]

I don't think it would be too difficult to make a battery pack, but I would prefer
to have the original one repacked with new cells, I don't want to use the saw it's just for my collection.

 

[belgian]

I tried the electric start today, it works very well, pressing a button to start a chainsaw is a real novelty

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that's a very nice vid, thanks for posting. I'm surprised how well this mac starts with this feature. Interesting saws for sure !!

 

[gmax]

that's a very nice vid, thanks for posting. I'm surprised how well this mac starts with this feature. Interesting saws for sure !!

I got lucky with this one, I bought it from ebay advertised as having good spark & compression. When it arrived had spark but no compression, I notified the seller,
he gave me a full refund & told me to keep the saw, the piston rings were stuck
in the grooves, once they were freed up it ran well.
It' nice to have an ebay win occasionally

 

[VolksDragon]

Well, it's been 8 years... but I finally had the battery pack rebuilt, and it works great. BatteriesPlus made a nice LiOn replacement pack, same number of cells and size, and fits entirely under the old cover. Currently the leads aren't wired into a plug, but I just went to the electronics store, bought a LiOn charger, and parts to install a new plug into the cover. The battery pack definitely works to start the saw! (After I rebuilt the carb, including hand-cutting a new gasket.) I can post video if anyone is interested in seeing it starting.

 

[mgr]

Interested to see a video.

 

[heimannm]

I got this very nice 3-10E from a member, even had a NOS bow bar I could put on it if I wanted.



I took the batteries out as they were starting to corrode...that's a McCulloch moped engine you see through the bar.



Out of curiosity, what did you have to pay for the battery pack? Last set of NiCad that they built for me cost $80 and that was several years ago.

Mark

 

[VolksDragon]

I got this very nice 3-10E from a member, even had a NOS bow bar I could put on it if I wanted.

I took the batteries out as they were starting to corrode...that's a McCulloch moped engine you see through the bar.

Out of curiosity, what did you have to pay for the battery pack? Last set of NiCad that they built for me cost $80 and that was several years ago.

Mark

I paid $60 for mine, but I think I got away cheap. It took them almost four weeks to find braided solder cable to connect the batteries, and the battery guy actually cleaned the entire saw for me while I was waiting for them to find the parts, and I suspect he put a significant amount of time into it! He said he had never seen an electric-start chainsaw before, and couldn't believe the thing still ran.