New to older chainsaws

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farmerwannabe

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Hello...I'm new to chainsaws in general. Never owned one before. The farmer I help down the road gave me an old David Bradley 917.61401 gear drive saw for free. It was a mess, but I cleaned it up and got it to start and run really well today.
Anyone have any suggestions on this saw. Does anyone know what years they were made? Also, there seems to be a place for an air filter element. When I checked, there was a brown cylinder that appears to be what hold a filter in there. Is this accurate, and if so, where can I find a filter. Thanks for the great site.
:D
 
If you can't find the right filter but still want to run the saw try to find the green, open cell, foam rubber that they make the lawn mower/weed wacker filters out of and cut one up to fit. A drop of oil on the foam helps it collect the finer dust. You're only going to want to run that tank until till your arm feels like it's going to fall off, then go buy yourself a new, light weight, high performance saw and save the old David Bradlely for show. Just run it once in a while to remind yourself why you bought the new, lightweight, high performance saw. It shouldn't take but an hour or two of running the David Bradley till you feel like your knuckles are dragging the ground because your arms are streched.
 
That old Bradley will wear out more men than men will wear it out, but a gear drive and 1/2" chain it is a cutter. Some two cycle Techumseh engines used the same filter element. It was a power products engine and these filters are still common. If you can find a Tecumseh # 29961 that measures 2 1/2" to 3 3/8" OD I would give it a looksy
 
I have the same saw, but mine is a direct drive.These saws are 95cc and rated at 7hp..Thats not bad in my book.They are heavier than more modern saws(much) but if the weight is not too much of an issue or if you don't use it that often it should cut great.It won't have the chain speed of a newer saw of comparable size but it will have freight train torque.The real pita is that 1/2in. pitch chain, wich is very hard to find.Congrats on your new aquisition and gettig it running.:)




luv those big cube saws:D
 

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