Saw modifications vs. Stock saws.

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mtcowboy77 said:
I've wondered this too. I've been told that porting a saw shortens it's life expectancy. Is that true? I have a hard time believing that when people put the kind of money into them that they do. Also, like traktorz said, if it is that big of a benefit why don't the manufacturers offer it from the factory?
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Epa restrictions
 
Just being devils advocate.... :) I like my tweaked saws. But making the point on the grand scale of things ...not a big deal. BUT recognize it is a big deal in cyber space. Looking for reasons why it might expand as a business vs. service the web sites.
 
weimedog said:
Nice collection... so why do YOU spend your dollars that way??
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I started by working as the one man tech show at a Stihl dealership. Bought a 290 and wanted more power so I bought a 441. Looking to muffler mod it and found this site. Spoke with Randy (mastermind) and decided to have my saw ported. Been hooked ever since! I'm just a weekend warrior and firewood cutter. I don't make a living with my saws just love running them.
 
Bingo. Bet you both represent many here. Some people dump money into boats...doesn't mean they are fishermen! I dumped a pile of time and money into racing dirt bikes! Went nowhere really fast for a long time.... because I wanted too and I liked the sport..

See? This is like alcoholic's anonymous....we can call this what it is! Its OK.... :)
 
More power, more fuel, more fill ups, more downtime. The production benefits cancel themselves out IMO. I don't get saws ported to increase production, l do it as l love running well tuned saws. l like ported/modified saws, but l also find there are many models on the market that perform pretty darn well stock. For example l am very happy with the way my MS200t, Solo 681, Solo 665 run in stock form. l actually think a stock 681 would give a ported 576/461 a real run for there money. Stock saws make sense when running a business for many reasons outside performance. I think one of the best gifts OEM's have done is stratofied scavenging increasing efficiency and reducing the pollution in a industry workers environment. Most of us here are saw nuts and will always look for ways to tune our saws, make our chains cut faster and make what is an already rewarding tool to use, more fun. This has been going on for many decades prior to the existence of AS. l find some of JacobJ's posts really interesting as he has had an eye on modified saws for such a long time. l also think what was considered a 'woods port' ten or twenty years ago is far far from what a woods port is today. It really is a fine art that take time and study to perfect. We are lucky to have access on AS to some really talented guys that have spent many, many hours perfecting their art and go far to help members who need 'help'.
 
A couple of points...
first, on the grand scales of things in the logging world, modded saws are an anomaly not main stream
Second we make a lot of claims as to why we should have them and also evangelize to others without real data to support the premise
For most of us...me included.. it doesn't matter because we will never put enough time on those saws to wear them out anyway.
Sub set of that argument is many of us have multiple saws. I ran into this when I was trying to test and quantify the value of some aftermarket parts.
I got my AM saws to run...did a job or two, then put them on the shelve and went to the next project! NOW I put them in the hands of a couple
of logging outfits and let them run them for a period of time.... a much better evaluation. I'm getting real feed back that makes sense now.
Who comes up with the numbers to justify the expense of these modifications? It doesn't matter to the typical enthusiast I understand...
Where is the endurance testing as the OEM's do to there products?
Just want to point that out. And eventually there will be the "Pro Circuit" of chainsaw mods out there and that will change the game.
For now....its enthusiasts who are supporting the chainsaw modification business. not the logging companies. And as I said earlier, some professionals are also enthusiasts....

Hopefully this thread will get folks to start trying to quantify and share their experiences by trying to argue the case for modified saws based on their time with those saws.... I'm looking to justify my hobby same as you. SO I argue against hoping more will argue for... with data. but when I put my business hat on and evaluate as I did with my excavation business years ago... they don't make sense. Not yet. Convince me I'm wrong please. :) have to go for a while...

Other factors....liability, reliability, supportability.
 
CR888 said:
More power, more fuel, more fill ups, more downtime. The production benefits cancel themselves out
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I would suspect you're right in regards to the typical "woods ported" saws. BUT when you lower the exhaust port and raise the psi you can make a faster cutting saw and use less fuel at the same time. Two examples are; Randy's 066 that he built or is still building? Also, I just built a Husky 353 very similar.
 
CR888 said:
More power, more fuel, more fill ups, more downtime. The production benefits cancel themselves out IMO. I don't get saws ported to increase production, l do it as l love running well tuned saws. l like ported/modified saws, but l also find there are many models on the market that perform pretty darn well stock. For example l am very happy with the way my MS200t, Solo 681, Solo 665 run in stock form. l actually think a stock 681 would give a ported 576/461 a real run for there money. Stock saws make sense when running a business for many reasons outside performance. I think one of the best gifts OEM's have done is stratofied scavenging increasing efficiency and reducing the pollution in a industry workers environment. Most of us here are saw nuts and will always look for ways to tune our saws, make our chains cut faster and make what is an already rewarding tool to use, more fun. This has been going on for many decades prior to the existence of AS. l find some of JacobJ's posts really interesting as he has had an eye on modified saws for such a long time. l also think what was considered a 'woods port' ten or twenty years ago is far far from what a woods port is today. It really is a fine art that take time and study to perfect. We are lucky to have access on AS to some really talented guys that have spent many, many hours perfecting their art and go far to help members who need 'help'.
Click to expand...


I should have read this post... what he said.
 
weimedog said:
Relevant here. What maybe ten-fifteen builders can feed their families?? They (builders) come and go. but the factories remain. Some shops use the mods as a differentiation with other dealers....AND the percentage of saws modded isn't very high. Not to be an arse, but if none of the speed shops existed, saws would still be working in the woods. Builders aren't necessary to the wood cutting industries...BUT Folks being who they are like having a special tool....and will spend money on top of money when they can afford it to get one. Places like Madsens provided better mouse traps to the pro's in their areas, places like arboristsite.com spread the word to the regular guy and effectively built the business as we now know it... :)
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You make a valid point, and it is true. I don't know how many years Randy or Brad or whomever have been in business; I'm simply saying modded saws will always be in demand, and therefore people like them will be in business until who knows when. I'm not a pusher of modded saws in any way and won't likely own one. From what I've heard, it's a sickness; people won't go back to a stock saw after they've run a ported one. That's fine, but it's not for me.

And I agree with your statement; internet sites essentially brought the concept to the average person.
 
Roll Tide said:
My saws ported my Randy (Mastermind) will cut circles around the stock model and that's
all that I care about as with most here. If that's not what you want there is no point in porting your saws. Oh and I've made a few good friends from this whole ported saws fad.
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Now THATS a valid reason.... truly is. So have I and I would argue that my closest friend is as a result of the chainsaw habit. AND I can honestly say this community is way easier to get along with than the racing community was. Great people here. And as was mentioned before folks like Mastermind (Randy) and brad have really educated a lot of us....unselfishly. And that is priceless.
 
weimedog said:
Now THATS a valid reason.... truly is. So have I and I would argue that my closest friend is as a result of the chainsaw habit. AND I can honestly say this community is way easier to get along with than the racing community was. Great people here. And as was mentioned before folks like Mastermind (Randy) and brad have really educated a lot of us....unselfishly. And that is priceless.
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Very true.
 
weimedog said:
Now THATS a valid reason.... truly is. So have I and I would argue that my closest friend is as a result of the chainsaw habit. AND I can honestly say this community is way easier to get along with than the racing community was. Great people here. And as was mentioned before folks like Mastermind (Randy) and brad have really educated a lot of us....unselfishly. And that is priceless.
Click to expand...
Another thing about this site is how quickly people answer somebody which is great
It's like they sit there, waiting to be the first one to post on a new thread haha
 

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