Old School PNW Big Timber Saw

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GASoline71

Mr. Nice Guy
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The Great Pacific Northwest
This weekend I picked up 2 saws... This old Homelite 770G and an early 1900's drag saw. I will fill you guys in more on the drag saw later.

This old Homie is from the early 60's. 95cc gear driven monstosity. It originally was sporting a 50"+ bar on it. But that is where some intersesting history comes in. Back in the day when we had logging trains runnin' from the foothills of Mount Rainier to Commencement bay, Tacoma and the Port of Olympia, they would load the logs on the cars and then cut them off at the ends. This was one of the saws that did that job. Up until the late 70's when it was retired.

The stripe you see on the bar is a weld that was done in stainless steel around 1970 when the saw was run over by a rail car on the tracks. It severed the bar in two and the saw got a little banged up. Therefore it doesn't have the carb cover, spark plug cover is from a later model Homie, the wrap bar was restraightened and remounted, and the big as dog on the front was "fixed" and remounted. The bar was cut down to the size you see here and was welded back together with stainless steel, and restraightened.

This saw has a lot of history behind it. I got it from a family friend that had it hanging in his shop since the mid 70's. It was his Father-in-laws saw. He is the one that ran it in the woods during those glory days of PNW logging.

I hope you guys enjoy the pics and my dad and I are trying tp dig up some old pics of this saw in action back in the 60's. So hopefully we can get some scanned up. I am going to eventually try my first full saw restoration with this baby.

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More to come on that drag saw later... :cheers:

Gary
 
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get it going!

Sir, yes sir!:cheers:

It will be a winter project. Got a couple other things ahead of it. I'm tryin' to decide whether or not I wanna do a no kiddin' full on restoration on it.

My Dad thinks it would be cool to get it whipped into shape and maybe give it a coat of paint... to make it look like it did when it came out of the woods in the early 70's...

With the homemade dog and the repaired bar still intact. That is probably the way i will go.

Oh yeah... guess what saw it was retired for... a Stihl 090G!!! Still lookin' for that one. The guy I got the Homie from... might have his finger on that one too.

Gary
 
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Sir, yes sir!:cheers:

It will be a winter project. Got a couple other things ahead of it. I'm tryin' to decide whether or not I wanna do a no kiddin' full on restoration on it.

My Dad thinks it would be cool to get it whipped into shape and maybe give it a coat of paint... to make it look like it did when it came out of the woods in the early 70's...

With the homemade dog and the repaired bar still intact. That is probably the way i will go.

Oh yeah... guess what saw it was retired for... a Stihl 090G!!! Still lookin' for that one. The guy I got the Homie from... might have his finger on that one too.

Gary

When I get something old and cool, I always say to myself first: "They're only original once". Then I decide if It warrants paint or just mechanicals.
 
you lucky pup

what a piece of history,need to get the the guy you got from let you video tape a interview with him. the old saw is good lookin the way it is .rebuild the carb and go play with it. old sawz rule:rock: the old saws are loud,slow, and heavier than my ex wifes purse:chainsaw:
 
When I get something old and cool, I always say to myself first: "They're only original once". Then I decide if It warrants paint or just mechanicals.

That is what I'm thinkin' too. My Dad was sayin' I ought to clean 'er up real good after the carby rebuild and other mechanicals... and then give it a coat of some sort of satin clear or something. Just to keep the exposed metal from corroding.

Gary
 
Gary, the bar that is on it now, the one with the weld, did that start as a 50" bar? Or was that another bar? How much did that saw sell for new?

That is the 50"er that was cut down and rewelded after it was severed in half. Amazing what the old timers would do to save something. It is flawlessly straight. I will post some more pics of the weld and such when I tear the old girl apart for cleaning. It will look kinda cool with the Stainless racing stripe on there when I clean up the bar.:clap:

Not sure how much it was new... but I got a decent deal on it... FREE!

Gary
 
When I get the big Homie out and about one of these days... I'll bring it down to Woodinville for it's "maiden voayage".

Looks like I need to scrounge up some 1/2 inch chain too... that sucks. Unless I can convert the old girl to .404

I haven't checked into that yet.

Gary
 
...Looks like I need to scrounge up some 1/2 inch chain too... that sucks. Unless I can convert the old girl to .404

I haven't checked into that yet.

Gary

That shouldn't be a problem. My 995 has been converted to .404 and I'm almost sure it has the same sprocket as your 775 (but I have been wrong before).

It may not take as much work to get it running right as you think. When I first brought my 995 home it would only run for a second or two then die. I figured I needed a carb kit so I ordered one, but then after sitting with gas in it a couple days I tried it again and it ran a little better. After another couple days it was running pretty good. I imagine the diaphragm was just dry and it took a while to get it pumping good again. I still think mine needs a carb kit, but it is running well enough I've been too lazy to tear into it.
 
That looks to be the same saw my dad had when I was a wee lad. Almost brings a tear to my eye. I don't know what happened to it to make it quit running, but he took it in to the saw shop and they told him it'd cost more to fix than it was worth. They sold him a new saw and "properly disposed of Homer" That was dads name for it.
 
Nice saw Gary...

Good story too.
Just by looking at the saw, it looks like it could tell alot
of interesting stories.

Just wonderin,
how much does that baby weigh ???
 
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