my experience with stihl

[SawTroll]

your chain is "extremely" dull !!!!!!!!

nuff said

Yes, looks like he has been digging ditches in the ground with it! :agree2:

Some of the damage may be bad enough that it is not worth the trouble to work on it (damage goes too far back).

 

[mattaggie]

To the OP: This dealer is incompetent; take the saw to another local dealer; you can find them on the Stihl website, preferably one with "Elite Dealer" .

Why does he need to go to an "Elite Dealer"? All that means is that they carry no competing products to Stihl. My local John Deere dealer is a Stihl Elite Dealer, and they suck. But I do agree his current dealer has been no help.

 

[braiding4fun]

I had a chain that looked like that last night.... It was sharp, and cutting great right up until I hit some cement.

I was taking a stump down to the ground beside an old building, and thought I was clear. That tree had somehow grown around some cement on the one side. Anyway, it only takes about 10 seconds to make the chain look like that. The good news is that in another twenty minutes it was back to cutting great again! :msp_smile:

 

[cedarshark]

Yes, looks like he has been digging ditches in the ground with it! :agree2:

Some of the damage may be bad enough that it is not worth the trouble to work on it (damage goes too far back).

Is it just me but I don't think we are talking to a newbie in this case. He has been heating his home with split wood for 2 yrs. Surely he not failed to sharpen a chain in 2 yrs or at least recognize a dull one. Something is amiss here. I don't think even an "incompetent" dealer could fail to recognize a chain in that shape.

 

[sunfish]

With the saw not running, you should be able to rotate the chain by hand, if not, then find out why.

Ya Think! :hmm3grin2orange:

Wonder if he's tried that yet???

 

[malk315]

Did the original poster ever show the number stamped into the drive link?
I'm still wondering what gauge the chain is on his 0.050 gauge bar? Was it revealed the chain is the right gauge?

Did I miss that in an earlier post? I thought I read the whole thread without ever finding out the gauge of the chain. If I just missed that info apologies in advance.

I'm certainly no expert but quite alarmed to see how rounded the points are on the teeth and the cutting edge looked rounded over... worried about raker depth too... go for some chain that doesn't have kickback prevention features to make raker filing easier. I'm a fan of Oregon 73LGX.

Also surprised to see the spur sprocket -- I'm guessing Stihl MS-300 series saws are not as full featured as the MS-400 series, but for the investment I was surprised to see a spur sprocket. Oregon probably has a rim conversion.

Hope this all gets figured out... quite surprised to see this going on. Best of luck.

 

[Philbert]

Anyway, it only takes about 10 seconds to make the chain look like that.

A few years back I played around with some simple numbers - I think that it is possible to make a new chain look like that in less than a full second. It's not how long it's been on the saw, it's what the cutters touch while they are moving. An embedded rock, small piece of metal, . . .

- http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/107300.htm

Also surprised to see the spur sprocket -- I'm guessing Stihl MS-300 series saws are not as full featured as the MS-400 series, but for the investment I was surprised to see a spur sprocket.

This is one of STIHLS 'mid-range' saw models. Some others in the '200' and '300' series come with rim sprockets.

Philbert

 

[Fish]

Ya Think! :hmm3grin2orange:

Wonder if he's tried that yet???

Actually, I don't think he has.

 

[paccity]

the corner on that chain will shine all the way back. while you could sharpen it it will never cut as a good one will. and clean out the bar groove , i'm sure it's full of crap by now. you'll get it all down eventually.

 

[OREGONLOGGER]

Never ever buy a plastic saw from a dealer nothing but problems I hear it and see it all the time. They will prep your saw and rev the s**t out of it without letting the saw warm up it's historic across the board..as far as I'm concerned unless your on a logging crew and need a fast lite saw get some plastic garbage that will be down before you know it..if your just cutting firewood...buy a used all metal Mac and save $500.00..if a dealer can't prep a saw nor set you up with the right apps for that saw don't ever give them business again..which I never do for this reason..bummer this happened to you

 

[cutforfun]

Dealer may be wrong for not suggesting that the chain is dull, but the op needs to take car of his chain. Putting all the blame on the saw is just ignorant. Put that same bar and chain on any saw and make a cut, you bet your arse its going to burn you when you touch it.

op , go see Philbert and be will get you back up and cutting

 

[cmarti]

Is it just me but I don't think we are talking to a newbie in this case. He has been heating his home with split wood for 2 yrs. Surely he not failed to sharpen a chain in 2 yrs or at least recognize a dull one. Something is amiss here. I don't think even an "incompetent" dealer could fail to recognize a chain in that shape.

:dunno: How experienced do you have to be to take the chain off and check the drive link number to see if it is on the correct bar? That was asked for 5 pages ago......I am not sure what is going on.

 

[belgian]

All this fuss about a dull chain......jeeeeezzzz :bang:

The OP should be gratefull for the fact that daddy Thall didn't join in and gave him a good @ss whoopin....:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[showrguy]

everybody seems to be bashing the dealer in this thread...

i'd like to, in this case, hear his description of events....... if ya know what i mean ??

 

[roberte]

All this fuss about a dull chain......jeeeeezzzz :bang::

Mom, it hurts when I do this:bang: well stop doing that.

 

[Saw Dr.]

everybody seems to be bashing the dealer in this thread...

i'd like to, in this case, hear his description of events....... if ya know what i mean ??

Me too. I have been the guy behind the counter more than once when "that guy" brings the saw back.

FYI, someone suggested calling Stihl in order to get some satisfaction, and then the dealer would be sorry....... I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but Stihl can call us all they want at the dealership. They cannot punish us, or make us do anything. They are always quite professional and interested in customer satisfaction at all cost. The issue is always what we can do as a team to make the person happy and willing to buy another Stihl product. They are not, however, afraid to deny claims should it be warranted. 95% of the time they back us up on whatever we want to do, even in customer abuse cases or out of warranty. That dealer is probably a dud, but let's be realistic and realize that there at two sides to this story. Remember that very few dealers actually have folks employed by Stihl working for them. We are customers also, in that we buy items from Stihl to re-sell in our store. I promise you that most dealerships will buy more Stihl products in one week than the O.P. will in his entire life.

 

[RogueWave]

Good lord, what da...???

 

[Philbert]

(looks like we might have scared another new guy away?. . . . .) I hope not.

I have been the guy behind the counter more than once when "that guy" brings the saw back.

You are right - we only heard one side of the story.

Just curious, if someone brought in a saw with 'smoking chain' problems and you saw that chain, what would you have counseled? Would it be normal practice to charge to put a new saw 'in the wood' if a customer had concerns?

Part of the STIHL mantra (at least in their ads) is that they don't just sell saws, but make sure that a customer knows how to use their saws, etc. I know that there are full servicing dealers with knowledgeable sales staff, and there are some hardware stores, etc., that have a few STIHL saws on their shelves (and somehow manage to meet their dealership requirements).

Philbert

 

[Saw Dr.]

I am constantly at odds with the store owner about his "shop warranty" practices. We do not charge for estimates, chains are $7 regardless of length or damage, and he gives ALOT of stuff away. Just replaced a head on an FS-90 yesterday where the owner had obviously hit something and damaged the head. No charge said the shop owner. I do file warranty claims on new stuff if it fails, but we eat plenty of it too. We would not be charging to test run a new saw, and he probably would have just gotten a (free) new chain and some more instruction at our place. Maybe that is why we are exploding in size, even during a terrible economy.

Let it be known that the oilers on newer saws are stingy, so when things go awry it can get ugly. More on that later. Off to have a baby.

 

[spike60]

I bet if we were to hear the dealer's side of this, we would find that the OP is "one of those customers". Page after page of what the dealer is or isn't doing for this guy and then we see pics of a rocked out chain. And somebody suggests giving him a free chain? Come on guys.

A bar chain mis-match is almost impossible to do. A .058 gauge chian will not even fit in a new .050 bar when both are new, let alone a .063.