Stihl ms500i with a .404 chain?

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Na that Stihl is running a fresh square grind - skip to 5.55 in the video.

Na that Stihl is running a fresh square grind - skip to 5.55 in the video.

In tough wood, with someone that's used to making timed cuts "Billy is more in tune with real work" the 500i will be well ahead. That said never count them old Pioneers out, they were really strong saws from the get go, one of the most impressive stock saws I've had my hands on was a 655bp, torque and good chain speed. The Poulan 4200-5200 surprises people too.
 
I don't know if he has an arrangement or not, I think he's just used to Husqvarna saws, especially the older ones, I like them too. I'll be getting a 592 when they get here, I have high hopes for that one.
Yeah a lot of new models hitting the market Stihl with the ms382 & ms400 along with the husky 592 xp should be interesting to compare to the 500i ! ;)
 
I have no verifiable answers, however, in my limited experience I can’t discern any longevity advantage of square.404 over square 3/8, Semi chisel maybe - or maybe just the influence of the repeated assertions. Less binds - a fact though I don’t know why. Easier insertion of wedges - also a fact but I doubt a pro would actually need the extra space very often.

Ron

"or maybe just the influence of the repeated assertions"
Lol
That sounds good.
I'll eliminate the maybe out of the equation
and close the case.
IDK, couldn't say for certain.
_____
"Less bind"?
As in top, bottom or side bind?
Like pinched in the buck more often otherwise?

Was mentioned earlier. I don't know precisely what people's definition of 'bind' is to mean for certain
 
"or maybe just the influence of the repeated assertions"
Lol
That sounds good.
I'll eliminate the maybe out of the equation
and close the case.
IDK, couldn't say for certain.
_____
"Less bind"?
As in top, bottom or side bind?
Like pinched in the buck, otherwise?

Was mentioned earlier. I don't know precisely what people's definition of 'bind' is to mean for certain
Never found myself in a bind of a bound .404 ! :laughing:
 
I don't know if he has an arrangement or not, I think he's just used to Husqvarna saws, especially the older ones, I like them too. I'll be getting a 592 when they get here, I have high hopes for that one.
Which makes sense given he lives in BC. Husky saws are more popular than Stihls from what I have seen. A friend that logged in the Tongas said the same thing about Huskys in SE Alaska.
In the mountain west it seems to be Stihl all the way from what I have seen.
 
Many loggers use ported saw, they last just as long as factory, maybe longer.

What do you consider a logger? Most loggers around my area don't use chainsaws.

58819ec655272e8aee6f27ee957c0770.jpg


If you mean people that use chainsaws in their job. I don't know about that either.

Last time I was at dealer, the guy helping to put together a chain for me answered a phone call from the Forestry Service in Seeley Lake, an area I am very familiar with. They were asking about the status of a 391 they had in for repair. $24 it was for a new spark plug. My eyebrows went up, but I said nothing. The guy said, that was the cost of the plug and the time it took to find that the plug was the problem. I highly doubt that the Forestry Service is customizing/porting their saws, when they can't change out a plug as regular maintenance or in trying to fix a troubled saw.
 
What do you consider a logger? Most loggers around my area don't use chainsaws.

58819ec655272e8aee6f27ee957c0770.jpg


If you mean people that use chainsaws in their job. I don't know about that either.

Last time I was at dealer, the guy helping to put together a chain for me answered a phone call from the Forestry Service in Seeley Lake, an area I am very familiar with. They were asking about the status of a 391 they had in for repair. $24 it was for a new spark plug. My eyebrows went up, but I said nothing. The guy said, that was the cost of the plug and the time it took to find that the plug was the problem. I highly doubt that the Forestry Service is customizing/porting their saws, when they can't change out a plug as regular maintenance or in trying to fix a troubled saw.

There’s always ground that’s too steep for a CTL(cut to length) machine or a tethered machine with a grapple saw or hot saw that’s where a lot of guys still make a living cutting timber.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Lmao , I just finished watching the video , yep that ole Pioneer girl holds her own , love the sound of ported Pioneers , with fresh ground skip tooth . I would love to see her set up with full comp . I have ran my 11-60 1967 era. bone stock , against my woodported 357 xp 2007 era. numerous times though , stock to stock its close however the porting on the xp makes it walk away from the green lady , let alone a 80 cc saw. You must also remember that the 500 i is running hand file stock chain vs a aggressive grind profile skip tooth on the P-38 . I ' am very surprised the ole girl was even close . Love Billy met him once up in Peterbourgh at a GTG .
I just watched at the 24 min mark for a min.
The 266 had round filed skip
The Pioneer had semi skip square ground Full comp may not be faster in that cut? Be close.
i'll use 404 on anything that will pull it like it owns it.
right now 288 is smallest
new to me 5200 has 3/8 now, but will try 404 someday
pluggin up n durability are my "whys"

wbf, the pattullo will be gone in few yr, i been round hear 30+yr, few blk behind turf.
many changes over that time
when's last time u were around?
So it pluggs less. That makes sense. Square round ?
I was trying to establish in the Valley in may & June of 2016. Falling for property development and small private. Between Chillawack & Surrey. Had some connections through Jonny who did saw work for these guys. He was an establishment Faller that was passing me work that he was too busy to do. A bucker got me in on another development company. I had ads on CL & Kigigii that were working. Good money as a contract Faller. Ad worked too well as a coast contract saw my ad and conned me back in the inlets heli Falling for Interfor. That was my 'town' career. Did a fair bit in Surrey.
Knocked one block down that was 10 acres. Some pretty steady sized wood in there.
Took a little ferry over to a reservation island in the middle of Fraser River, another time. Can't remember it's name. That was interesting. Falling between boat and vehicles and sheds, houses everywhere.
They had a big storm just before that so they got scared.
They are taking the bridge down?
Yeah after high school, a was working for Redrood Plastics Corp in Nanaimo.(all industrial Plastics)That was in 1987.
Head Office and their extrusion & machine shop was at the bottom of the bridge.
So they send me over for a week in main shop for training, company golf tournament and service the little p/u.
So they leave me the truck bone dry after my first day of work on the way to my hotel I bet it was the first time driving in the big city. Pulled out onto the bridge just about to the top and runs out of gas in rush hour...lol put the hazards on and coasted back down the hill when I could.
 
In regards to porting have no working knowledge of Ironhorse or Tinman or eithers quality of work or business ethics . However have a working knowledge of 2 stroke porting techniques . In layman's terms I see most porting as a form of enhancing the attributes of various engine designs . I'am much more experienced within snowmobile and motoX applications . However can transfer my working knowledge to firewood saws quite readily . The majority of work saws are ported mildly to improve performance throughout their designed rpm range , however not at the expense of reliability . Most mildly tuned saws benefit from marginally more power throughout their intended rpm , by increase in net horsepower & torgue within this design range . Another benefit is that of cooler and smoother running engine overall . Downside however is normally an increase in fuel consumption and ambient noise due most often to exhaust modifications to enable better flow and scavenging profiles enabled by the various machining & polishing techniques applied . My ported 357 xp has realized a 20 % increase in rate of cut with only a 3 % increase in fuel consumption , by all standards , I think that's pretty darn good volumetric efficiency even for a small quad port designed 58 cc class middle weight ! ;)
 
So it pluggs less. That makes sense. Square round ?
I was trying to establish in the Valley in may & June of 2016. Falling for property development and small private. Between Chillawack & Surrey. Had some connections through Jonny who did saw work for these guys. He was an establishment Faller that was passing me work that he was too busy to do. A bucker got me in on another development company. I had ads on CL & Kigigii that were working. Good money as a contract Faller. Ad worked too well as a coast contract saw my ad and conned me back in the inlets heli Falling for Interfor. That was my 'town' career. Did a fair bit in Surrey.
Knocked one block down that was 10 acres. Some pretty steady sized wood in there.
Took a little ferry over to a reservation island in the middle of Fraser River, another time. Can't remember it's name. That was interesting. Falling between boat and vehicles and sheds, houses everywhere.
They had a big storm just before that so they got scared.
They are taking the bridge down?
Yeah after high school, a was working for Redrood Plastics Corp in Nanaimo.(all industrial Plastics)That was in 1987.
Head Office and their extrusion & machine shop was at the bottom of the bridge.
So they send me over for a week in main shop for training, company golf tournament and service the little p/u.
So they leave me the truck bone dry after my first day of work on the way to my hotel I bet it was the first time driving in the big city. Pulled out onto the bridge just about to the top and runs out of gas in rush hour...lol put the hazards on and coasted back down the hill when I could.

round grind, too poor [cheap] fer square grinder. gots a file n 2 square 3/8 chains, fer chits n grins tho.
used to be lotta nice wood in what's now resi areas
early 90s was o/o moving interfor iron, mostly hope area & lil on island
barnston i? fort langley? fort ferry is no more, maple ridge bridge killed that.
new bridge replacing the 1930's pat, will be a few yr.
'87 that bridge was quiet compared to now. busy mf now...
 
"or maybe just the influence of the repeated assertions"
Lol
That sounds good.
I'll eliminate the maybe out of the equation
and close the case.
IDK, couldn't say for certain.
_____
"Less bind"?
As in top, bottom or side bind?
Like pinched in the buck more often otherwise?

Was mentioned earlier. I don't know precisely what people's definition of 'bind' is to mean for certain
WBF,

Bear in mind that though I cut a fair amount of wood in my lifetime, I am not a pro and probably don't rate too high skill-wise among amateurs either. I was talking about being pinched in the cut generally - but most notably top bind when bucking greater than bar length stems and those pesty twisting binds when you are whacking a small stem or limb and not paying the attention you should to the manner of the cut. I rarely have top bind/pinch with .404 where I can't pull the saw out (in other words, I have stuck a lot of 3/8 equipped saws) and I have noticeably fewer top binds/pinches of any sort. I haven't taken the time to figure out why - it would seem that the advantage of the .404's wider kerf would be offset by the wider cutter in said kerf.

As to the wedging advantage for me, when bucking greater than bar length oak stems I tend to be overly aggressive (or optimistic) when in a cut where the kerf is closing. I often stay there too long. I usually get the saw out before it pinches, but I may have difficulty inserting a wedge to continue a top down cut - the .404 makes that task easier. If I were built like Bucking Billy Ray, I would just cut more from the bottom up, but I am not.

The .404 chains that I run are typically Stihl, but regardless of make the .404 I run has a significantly larger/taller cutter than 3/8s. I can't remember the brand but I had a chain or two that had a much smaller cutter, very similar to a 3/8" cutter, as you might expect it didn't cut much different than 3/8s.

Ron
 
There’s always ground that’s too steep for a CTL(cut to length) machine or a tethered machine with a grapple saw or hot saw that’s where a lot of guys still make a living cutting timber.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
As long as there is timber being cut, if it is as steep as a cows face, they will send in the hand fallers.
 
As long as there is timber being cut, if it is as steep as a cows face, they will send in the hand fallers.

The tethering has taken even some of the steep ground that we’ve always hand cut till about 5 to 10 years ago. If you haven’t seen any yet look up what they cut in New Zealand it’s pretty impressive and you sure wouldn’t catch me with my butt hanging off a cable like that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Which makes sense given he lives in BC. Husky saws are more popular than Stihls from what I have seen. A friend that logged in the Tongas said the same thing about Huskys in SE Alaska.
In the mountain west it seems to be Stihl all the way from what I have seen.

In the mountain west Its mostly because they can't pronounce Husqvarna.
They already think s-t-EEE-L has 4 syllables.
 
Wow, that was alot of jibber jabber bout saw chain lol. I'm not particular anymore, I just run what I can get locally, I have no brain energy to waste on products that my dealers don't sell. I have bills to pay and trees to saw

Haha
Did you read that jibber jabbar? Hey, you are in deeper than you thought.
Doesn't take me a full day to do a full days work..but it may take me a full day to write a post? Now that's the challange . Maybe my family is very very wealthy and I can afford to be a 'Living room cutter now and then?
Besides, it's safer that heli Falling. I heard the exhaust from the saw is dangerous.
 

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