What makita saws were good and why
- Thread starter Herman the German
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True story: I once had a job where I saw every returned piece of power requirement at a Home Depot (not a rental, but stuff that was purchased and returned).
Far and away the most common reason for chainsaw return is "chain fell off". Think about that for a minute!
The king of chainsaw returns is the guy whose problem description was "went on fire". It was a brand new Echo, and it had clearly been on fire. Inside the gas tank was some gas. Inside the oil tank was.... nothing. It was melted but totally clean and empty, with absolutely no trace of bar oil. My guess is that dude had filled BOTH TANKS with gas and run the saw.... then he took it back to Home Depot, probably complained about the extreme safety hazard posed by defective Echo brand saws, and bought himself a nice safe Poulan I should imagine. I have pictures of this saw at home.
Far and away the most common reason for chainsaw return is "chain fell off". Think about that for a minute!
The king of chainsaw returns is the guy whose problem description was "went on fire". It was a brand new Echo, and it had clearly been on fire. Inside the gas tank was some gas. Inside the oil tank was.... nothing. It was melted but totally clean and empty, with absolutely no trace of bar oil. My guess is that dude had filled BOTH TANKS with gas and run the saw.... then he took it back to Home Depot, probably complained about the extreme safety hazard posed by defective Echo brand saws, and bought himself a nice safe Poulan I should imagine. I have pictures of this saw at home.
Actually, I found those pictures because I posted them to another site back when it happened.
See that one little wood chip stuck in the chain? He was trying to cut wood with gasoline spraying out of the oiler.... look inside that bar oil tank!
See that one little wood chip stuck in the chain? He was trying to cut wood with gasoline spraying out of the oiler.... look inside that bar oil tank!
One of my saws is a 64xx Makita. A home depot cast off. Carb was ethanoled to almost death and the oiler pump was melted. So used and abused. Replaced pump, fixed carb, didn't see any scoring, been great ever since. Kinda a testament to the quality of the saw I guess ( Dolmar build). at the time I think a new 64xx power head was around $700+
tek9tim
ArboristSite Guru
I have a Makita 6400 that I bought new back in ‘08. Never started it up as a 64cc saw, threw the OEM 79cc top end on, bought the full wrap bar as soon as it was available in the US, put the HD air filter on it as soon as that was available in the US, and finally put the western dogs on it last year. That saw cuts real well. I usually have it set up with the 20” bar it came with, I don’t have any other Husky mount bars, and my Stihls are often wearing the 25-32” bars already. I run a 9 pin sprocket with that setup, plenty of chain speed. Usually just use it as a firewood saw in smaller wood, or my wife likes running it too. It has done a lot of time with a 32” bar on it, and it pulls that plenty well.
I bought a Dolmar 5100 back in ‘06. Punched an extra hole in the muffler and unlimited the carb, and it has cut some wood since. Thing pulls like a champ with the 18” bar and 3/8 full comp full chisel.
Makita’s cordless saws are great as well - in their intended use. My wife has an XCU06 top handle and an XCU03 rear handle. I love using the top handle when climbing for limbing up firs and pines when the branches are smaller. I topped and chunked a smaller ponderosa down with it last summer. No run time on the rear handle saw yet, just showed up this week. In my experience with cordless saws, you have to manage expectations a bit and let the chainspeed stay up. Reminds me of running a saw builder friend’s piped 026 back in the day. Cut pretty slow if you pushed on it like it was an 044, but if you kept your hands light, it’d rip through an 8” log way faster than an 044.
I bought my mom a Makita DCS401 several years ago. That thing is phenomenal for a small saw. Magnesium case, adjustable oiler, compression release. It weighs about what a Stihl 170 weighs, but puts out the power of a Stihl 230, with 5ccs less displacement. My mom didn’t put it to much use, but my sister has it now and it sees a lot of work alongside her 044 for firewood cutting.
Long story short, even though I’m a born and bred Stihl guy, I like the Dolmars/Makitas pretty well. Never have regretted buying one.
I bought a Dolmar 5100 back in ‘06. Punched an extra hole in the muffler and unlimited the carb, and it has cut some wood since. Thing pulls like a champ with the 18” bar and 3/8 full comp full chisel.
Makita’s cordless saws are great as well - in their intended use. My wife has an XCU06 top handle and an XCU03 rear handle. I love using the top handle when climbing for limbing up firs and pines when the branches are smaller. I topped and chunked a smaller ponderosa down with it last summer. No run time on the rear handle saw yet, just showed up this week. In my experience with cordless saws, you have to manage expectations a bit and let the chainspeed stay up. Reminds me of running a saw builder friend’s piped 026 back in the day. Cut pretty slow if you pushed on it like it was an 044, but if you kept your hands light, it’d rip through an 8” log way faster than an 044.
I bought my mom a Makita DCS401 several years ago. That thing is phenomenal for a small saw. Magnesium case, adjustable oiler, compression release. It weighs about what a Stihl 170 weighs, but puts out the power of a Stihl 230, with 5ccs less displacement. My mom didn’t put it to much use, but my sister has it now and it sees a lot of work alongside her 044 for firewood cutting.
Long story short, even though I’m a born and bred Stihl guy, I like the Dolmars/Makitas pretty well. Never have regretted buying one.
I have always assumed that Makita lent their electrical tool expertise to the corded and battery portions of the electric chainsaws and power equipment, and derived the chainsaw portions from Dolmar.
Sadly, they have decided to phase out gasoline powered tools:
"Makita, a major power tool company, will discontinue the production of engine products such as engine mowers, engine chainsaws, and other engine products for garden equipment at the end of March 2022. The company will concentrate its resources on its mainstay rechargeable power tools and garden equipment, for which demand is expected to increase in the future."
Philbert
Sadly, they have decided to phase out gasoline powered tools:
"Makita, a major power tool company, will discontinue the production of engine products such as engine mowers, engine chainsaws, and other engine products for garden equipment at the end of March 2022. The company will concentrate its resources on its mainstay rechargeable power tools and garden equipment, for which demand is expected to increase in the future."
Philbert
Boo! I wonder if they are axeing Dolmar, or just ending their practice of selling blue ones?
I'll be sad if they shut down Dolmar.
I guess I am veering dangerously off topic here... but does anyone know how those magic autotune/m-tronic saws fare when you start modding them? Do they just adjust themselves and run great with non-stock mufflers, cylinder sizes, etc?
I'll be sad if they shut down Dolmar.
I guess I am veering dangerously off topic here... but does anyone know how those magic autotune/m-tronic saws fare when you start modding them? Do they just adjust themselves and run great with non-stock mufflers, cylinder sizes, etc?
Herman the German
ArboristSite Operative
I hope to see someone buy Dolmar, yet I'm not sure what the deal is anyway, I have still been seeing some orange Dolmar saws around that are pretty new. The ones I've been seeing aren't the pre 1991 Dolmar saws (makita bought Dolmar in 91) so I'm wandering what's going on there, if makita isn't selling alot of "makita" saws and they have tried to sell more saws by using the Dolmar name? Or does Dolmar have some kind of free range in the contract after they produce so many for Makita they can sell under there name and they are still a company or something crazy.. hehehehe. Not sure but just wishful thinking cause I love the performance of this little makita I have and would love to find a bigger one at a decent price.
sounds like the old buy a company load up it with debit after draining it first and the heave the carcass on the market. SOP for corporations for quite sometime now. Anyone want to buy a North American continent country dirt cheap been around since the late 1700's
Like my wife...lol.Possibly nobody knew how to start it. I had to get to know mine a little before she decided she liked me.
You're a lucky man.... that saw is always happy to start right up whenever I'm in the mood now!
Disagree. You could, maybe, blame it on a climate change conspiracy, if looking for a villain. Makita has owned Dolmar for 30 years. It was a good match, in my mind, but corporate decision makers are often focused on different things. Automobile companies like Volvo, GM, Toyota, BMW, etc. have all announced phasing out of gasoline cars, so, small engines are not hard to understand as well. It's what I know, but, maybe, in 30 years it will not affect me directly.
Hard to know if Dolmar would have survived on its own, with consolidation in the market, and Husqvarna buying up all its competitors.
'How Dolmar Became Makita. Makita acquired Dolmar in 1991. While Makita was a familiar name in the realm of electric-powered tools, Dolmar was known for its gasoline-powered tools.'
Philbert
Dolmar was the last "good" saw manufacturer (in my mental list of good saw manufacturers) to have non-electronic carbs, which is how I ended up with a Dolmar (and an Echo, but they are going electronic now too).
Electronic carbs would be a great thing for me if you could plug in and tune parameters; they are a whole other thing when they're a black box that either works the way it wants to or doesn't work at all.
I also look forward to owning a fleet of electric chainsaws that are stronger and more reliable than my old gas ones, but we are not even close to being there yet.
Electronic carbs would be a great thing for me if you could plug in and tune parameters; they are a whole other thing when they're a black box that either works the way it wants to or doesn't work at all.
I also look forward to owning a fleet of electric chainsaws that are stronger and more reliable than my old gas ones, but we are not even close to being there yet.
Herman the German
ArboristSite Operative
I can't understand why many many companies are meeting to electronics other that to look intelligent. But it doesn't seem too intelligent when these electronics start to fail. If I were a company owner or shot caller within a company I would use situations like the 727 max aircraft crashes (that have relied on these type of electronics) to not go that direction.. what it boils down to is that the E.P.A. has too much power through liberal dem overseers and they are pushing this fake (global warming) agenda on the rest of us and putting a lot of pressure on business in this country. Then the stuff these companies are forced to build end up crap and nobody wants to buy from them. Like ford f250 7.3 turbo diesel was indestructible for years.. EPA got a hold of em put pressure on them and they changed everything to a 6.0 which was junk and they haven't been able to build anything good since until the 6.7.... just my opinion
EPA regulations have forced a revolution in woodstove technology.
When I was a kid there were no regulations, and we would either get up every four hours to load the stove, or shut down the air, get creosote everywhere, and all the faucets had to be dripping so they didn't freeze.
The wood stove I'm next to right now burns 24 hours if I ask it to, and it's got a smaller firebox! Ask me how much less wood I have to put through it too...
So deny global warming if you really want to ignore data, but don't say the EPA never did anything for you.
(Also, in 1943 people thought that LA had been attacked (link) with chemical weapons because their first smog day had come. By the time the EPA came about in 1970, LA looked like Delhi does today.... they had 118 level 1 smog days in 1975. So if you like breathing, give credit where it's due...)
Herman the German
ArboristSite Operative
Ok
Herman the German
ArboristSite Operative
Anyone that can think for themselves can take an old stove and fix it up a bit to burn longer/ more efficient, and don't need an EPA or government thinking for them to be able to do it. That's what's wrong with everyone.. (relying on google) there are some that just don't really feel the need to be self-reliant, but that's ok. Also we don't need thier data as most of us have our own. (IT'S COLD RIGHT NOW) because it's winter and ITS HOT IN SUMMER.. it's called seasons changing....there's the data. .... If the earth is warming so rapidly why are sitting by a wood stove? Cause you'd be cold if not? Some data. Yes I proudly ignore false data.
Herman the German
ArboristSite Operative
And I'm not being mean to jetsam, it's just a topic I feel strongly about and find a ton of flaw in. My previous statement reflects the way I see it and not everyone will agree and I don't force my beliefs on anyone. All of us have different views and I respect that. I just had to point out that it feels pretty darn cold outside right now to me, hehehehe
Herman the German
ArboristSite Operative
Water pollution is a thing for sure I can actually see in our local rivers,lakes and streams. I love to trout fish or fish in general and there is not one body of water in the whole state that doesn't have a crap mixing pond next to it and signs everywhere saying not to eat the fish. The issues that actually have data that I can see in my personal interactions with nature are the issues that I have found to be real, I'd love to see them do something about the waterways that's for sure
just to back up a bit- ford 7.3 when first introduced , replacing the 6.9, had it's issues also- one was the crank sensor failures, another involved the wiring harness for the injectors and glow plugs(built into the head gaskets)i think there were some egr problems as well, but my memory is fading. There isn't an engine in the automotive world that isn't suffering from some sort of glitches. With complexity comes issues.
Global warming- the earth as a whole goes through cycles- warmer / colder . Mt St Helen's blew it's top and dumped more stuff into the atmosphere than in all of mankind's total existence. Now multiply that by the number of other Volcanoes since that time and add in the undersea ones that have cause major ocean current changes, forest fires, and on and on. Is it real sure. Is it caused by Humans NO, do Humans play apart in it Yes. For all our tech skill we are still stupid. Build a city below sea level- your gonna get wet. build a city in a bowl yep your gonna have some bad air days, build a city on the slopes of a volcano yep your gonna get burned. build in a swamp and yep your gonna have insect problems and on and on.
Global warming- the earth as a whole goes through cycles- warmer / colder . Mt St Helen's blew it's top and dumped more stuff into the atmosphere than in all of mankind's total existence. Now multiply that by the number of other Volcanoes since that time and add in the undersea ones that have cause major ocean current changes, forest fires, and on and on. Is it real sure. Is it caused by Humans NO, do Humans play apart in it Yes. For all our tech skill we are still stupid. Build a city below sea level- your gonna get wet. build a city in a bowl yep your gonna have some bad air days, build a city on the slopes of a volcano yep your gonna get burned. build in a swamp and yep your gonna have insect problems and on and on.
