No. You want a serious saw to mill red oak. The 395XP package would be something you'd never need to upgrade you could mill anything with you were likely to tackle. That package, depending on the bar it has with it, isn't that much less than it all costs new, so not a screaming deal, but a good ready to go starter package that saves you having to figure out everything you need. If it has a quality bar with it, then it is a reasonable price.
Thank you. Still hunting. Trying to avoid “made in China” saws has taught me that basically every major saw manufacturer has a site in China. Even Stihl. Sigh.
The problem is nearly everyone - Oregon chain, etc - has factories in China. They intentionally provide no information which of their products is made there and which is still made in their US factories. But the general rule is that they farm out their
Everyone has their preferences. Those with unlimited power often favor larger chain. You can run anything on the 660, even super small 3/8" .050 lo pro with thinner GB lo pro bars. Popular in Europe now running 660's with 36" lo pro bars. But requires a light touch to not snap the much lighter smaller chains. My feeling is the larger the chain, the higher the teeth sit above the bar, the more the teeth can be deflected side to side by the side forces of the leading edge of each tooth grabbing and pulling the chain outward, and any slop in the bar rail groove is magnified the higher the teeth sit above the rail. It's a feedback loop, then the bar groove gets worn more quickly too making it worse. The worse my big .404 .063 bar wore out the groove and got sloppier, the worse results I got til I put the big saw away and started milling everything with lo pro til I figured out the crossover point where lo pro didn't work so well, and it was time to move up to 3/8" or .404 (around 28-30" wide slabs). Now I've learned the importance of monitoring my rail groove width so the chains are always snug and making sure .050 hasn't become .055, or .063 hasn't worn out to .068, I've realized I can get much better results again with my larger saws and larger chain.
Dang, I want that!
Hell, I do too, even though I have more than enough gear already. Not exactly in my neck of the woods, either, it's in deep East Texas over by the Louisiana border.
The 460 is not enough saw to run a 36" bar, I run a couple of mills in 36" & 66" for hardwood, on the 36" I run a Redmax GZ7000 on Red & Yellow Box with a GB Lo Pro bar using Carlton 3/8LP skip chain which I have some old stock, on the bigger milI use an 880 Stihl.
hey, nice, same setups as I'm running - had the 36" GB lo pro on a 64cc Makita which ran it fine but switched it to one of my 87cc Stihls. Then have my 880 for the 42" and 72" bars. I need to find some of that old Carlton 3/8 LP skip. Ran into the limits of LP full comp maxing out my bar on 26-30" slabs. Dealing with stuff like mesquite and live oak here, which gets up toward the hardness of red and yellow box, I became convinced that 3/8LP was far and away the best way to mill the super hard stuff. I've taken a lot of my cues from what the Aussies on here are doing because your hardwoods are so much harder than the average stuff we have in the US and more comparable to the south Texas hardwoods I'm dealing with. Amazed at how well 3/8LP cuts.
Sorry for delay, I don't get notification on replies to my posts.
I have w .404, 3rd and 4th cutter out. Love it. Going to start doing LP chains that way for the 36” bar. A few of us are convinced that’s the best skip, but very few people do it. Someday I might get roll chain manufactured that way as I’m looking at starting an online store for lo pro milling gear here in the US.
I believe Oregon & Carlton will manufacture, minimum order used to be 10,000 feet.
10,000!
Sounds right. I looked at Alibaba and chain factories in China - some of which Oregon and Carlton are using now I'm sure - have min orders of 100 rolls, so 10,000'.
