... not sure what you meant by this:
"You can also sell a used saw for almost what you have in it. You sure ain't going to be able to do that with a new saw."
Agreed, you lose dough the minute you walk out of a dealer's shop with a new saw because then it is used. However, unless you repair an old saw (and that usually means money), you will also not receive what you have in it unless you bought it for practically nothing.
I think we are saying the same thing here. You take a major hit when buying a new saw. However, if you buy a used saw that has seen a lot of use, but has been well maintained, then you shouldn't need to put any money into it. After cutting the one tree, the OP would be able to sell such a saw for what he has in it, or maybe even a little more if he got it for a good price.
For instance, I got my 036 for $200. I have also seen the same guy sell two different 034 Supers for the same price. The 034s were fresh rebuilds. Mine had been a trade in. The original owner could no longer get it to run. The shop I bought it from simply put the correct plug in it, and it runs like a champ. It still had the original bar on it, and hardly any of the paint had been worn off of it (the bar). At the time that saw could have gone for $300 to $400 on flee bay. My 064 was a fresh rebuild for $375. On both of these saws I could easily get out of them what I paid for them even though I've been using them now for 3 or 4 years. I'm a cheapskate so I prefer to buy older saws for a little bit of nothing. I can see the value in buying a new saw if it's going to be my primairy saw. The extra creature features arent' worth it to me, but I can still see the benifit. But if a saw is going to see limited use at best, then $800+ is a LOT of capitol to have sitting on the shelf for the next 20 years.
I would also agree that for one tree, I'd try to borrow a saw from somebody. Acutally, for a tree that big, if I had a buddy with a big saw who knew how to use it, I'd offer him lunch, a steak dinner, and a case of beer to come over and help me get it down and bucked up with his saw. I mostly cut on my own, but I do have 3 other guys that I cut with from time to time, and for a big saw we just borrow from each other. The only reason I bought the 064 instead of borrowing an 041 from a friend of mine was because of the price. At the time I didn't have any kind of splitter, and while my 036 will noodle, the 064/066 makes much better use of my time.
From the sounds of the last few posts, it looks like there's a really good option for the OP over in the classifieds. With the extra B/C thrown in, a guy should be able to get his money back out of it when the job is finished. Might even be able to hang on to that 20" B/C in the process.
Just my 2 bits,
Mark
on the odd times I need more than the 24" it normally uses.
