Back to the filter. I Keep two out bush. Each chain change either give the filter a good blow then after second chain swap filter over. Get home compressed air in both then warm soapy water. Had same two filters for 8 years now.

It's not that hard to sharpen chains, find the smallest blade, measure with a small wrench.

Use a file guide and also this old school but bloody good Stihl guide that sits on the chain itself and the file guide runs through that as well. Cut all teeth back to the smallest blade. Only taught someone this weekend how to do it. Does take long once you've got the knack. Get a couple of years out of each chain. I've tried lots of other mechanical devices etc but this one above is simple and it works.

Sharpen chains then when in bush just change them over when blunt. Few minutes work.

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..
Can't believe this is Stihl going

Macro, given your chainsaw technique maybe forget your latest plan.

When I was a kid, a factory made water heater (externally mounted) blew up at my footy club. Brick building, normal household 150-200L ish water heater. It demolished the building and killed people.
For god's sake don't build stuff and say normal copper "should be" good for 10bar.
FFS

I was there too Mark, ex Jerry.

What are those sharpeners like that you clamp on the ebd of the bar and run the saw? Looks easy

Yeh tried them. They tend to cut too much off the chain blades and I found it really hard to get consistency of blade length. But it's the hands of the user of course. My way is simple and can be done in the bush if need be with a wood stump clamp although I tend to have sharpened chains and just change them over. Then sharpen at home.

Had some kiwi kiwi tree lopers at my house once. Hilarious bunch. Had a massive tuart that needed specialised attention so Called then in. So I'm talking to them and this dude just has his chains saw clamped between his legs and with a simple file (whilst having a chat) just by eye sharpens his chain using both left a right hands. Bloody amazing.

i am sharpening a chain today actually after a trip to the bush will take a pic of what I use if you guys want. Tried all sorts of gadgets over the years but this simple way works every time.

ive cut about 4 tonne of jarrah this year using just three chains and I've done this for the past 15 years using this technique of sharpening.

there is a emmisions filter in exhaust that blocks up and stops machine reving. insted ofreplacing exhaust.there is emergency bolt that can be removed or better still remove exhaust and drill hole 8mm or 10mm thru for bypass. just did it with chainsaw other day out in bush after googling. saved half a day and a trip back into town

Why did it save you half a day and a trip back into town ?

My Stihl chainsaw MS180 is fantastic.
But now I am looking at battery electric chainsaws as alternative.
With latest Lithium battery power, modern electric chainsaw is almost as good at small petrol one.
The most important future like a chain speed is almost identical.
Used to be 7m/s for old corded chainsaw but not is above 20m/s for modern battery powered.
Because I am using now chainsaw mostly for cleaning bushes from 10-15 cm diameter trees, electric seems to be the way to go.
I am looking on available electric Makita, AEG, Stihl , (Ryobi is cheap but I don't trust the brand).

As usual I see already room for improvement.
Instead of handling heavy battery pack, I would rather use back pack battery and short cable.
Electric bikes battery now are cheap and powerful. Something like 36V 20Ah should last for few hours.




Clearing small trees in the bushes require more walking and just few second cutting,. Electric seems to be the way instead of constantly rumbling motor.
I need to cut paths in the bush along fences, roads and make som fire breaks.
Have anybody any feedback regarding modern electric chainsaw?

spend 45 min driving back into town to mower shop to busy to look at it till Monday . Dunno about the electric needs a bigger bar if your felling a decent tree but I guess be perfect for light work. . Still has been a very reliable machine never missed a beat apart from the spark arrestor emission's thing and the model I have is a exhaust replacement its unable to be stripped and cleaned. . Got a mate who used to be a logger so he gave us a rundown. He was saying dangerous job as large diameter and high trees would fall on marked trees and difficult terrain

Not a greenie but I think a lot of infrastructure from the south west was logged and shipped to the port of Bunbury originally. Put the sw on the map

I used to chain saw a lot of different wood.
Files and jigs , kinda was ****y and didn't work .
Angle grinder with rounded disk worked best .
Half a dozen sharpens per chain , its done .
Whacko odd cutting edges seems to work best for average hack work.
From inch green to 100 year old sleepers .
PS , don't ever think cutting an old lamp post . I don't know if it is actually made of wood , its got to be an aliens prank .

Select to expand quote

Macroscien said..
My Stihl chainsaw MS180 is fantastic.
But now I am looking at battery electric chainsaws as alternative.
With latest Lithium battery power, modern electric chainsaw is almost as good at small petrol one.
The most important future like a chain speed is almost identical.
Used to be 7m/s for old corded chainsaw but not is above 20m/s for modern battery powered.
Because I am using now chainsaw mostly for cleaning bushes from 10-15 cm diameter trees, electric seems to be the way to go.
I am looking on available electric Makita, AEG, Stihl , (Ryobi is cheap but I don't trust the brand).

As usual I see already room for improvement.
Instead of handling heavy battery pack, I would rather use back pack battery and short cable.
Electric bikes battery now are cheap and powerful. Something like 36V 20Ah should last for few hours.




Clearing small trees in the bushes require more walking and just few second cutting,. Electric seems to be the way instead of constantly rumbling motor.
I need to cut paths in the bush along fences, roads and make som fire breaks.
Have anybody any feedback regarding modern electric chainsaw?

Battery chain saws are ok if you only want to cut a few small bushes or branches down. They are a waste of time if you need to do a few hours of cutting up a trailer load of firewood, or cutting trees off a fenceline, or any serious cutting at all really. I use a battery saw for pruning a few orange trees and that's all.
The speed of cutting anything depends on the amount of power available.
A battery can put out about 400 watts for 20 minutes, if you're lucky.
A small petrol chain sore can reliably crank out at least 4 times that and thus cuts proportionally faster.
But petrol chain saws have a bad habit of stalling every time you pick them up to saw something. They idle reliably when you leave them on the ground between cuts but then as soon as you pick them up and hit the throttle, they suddenly die. They are also as noisy as,.. right in your ear.

Over many years I have found the best option is to buy a few electric chain saws, say a 14 inch and a 16 inch, all dirt cheap at Bunnings, typically around $100 when on special or around $150 when not on special.
Put a simple 2kw petrol generator in the back of a ute or trailer and run a cheap Bunnings 30 meter cable from the generator to the job.
Dont bother with an inverter generator for such a menial job. They cost a lot more and the inverters have a limited life.
An ordinary cheap 2kva or 2.5kva generator does the job really well.
That way, the noise of the generator is not right in your ear, so much less wearing on the nerves.

The chain saw still make a bit of noise while cutting but obviously are completely quiet when not cutting, unlike a petrol saw which is left idling, and then conks out when you need it anyway.
The petrol generators are much quieter, more efficient fuel wise and can run half a day on one fill of straight petrol, about 3 or 4 liters, so no mixing 2 stroke fuel.

I always use an electric chain saw except for jobs which need a 20 inch blade. That requires a petrol saw but for everything else, the electric running off a generator is better.

The 30 meter power cord gives a good working range without having to move the generator often.

While I'm on the keyboard, a few other things which might be helpful on electric chain saws.;

Keep the chain tight. Don't let it slop around loose because they wear faster when loose than they do when tight.
Yes I know, you would think it was the other way around but it's not.
A sloppy chain slapping around flogs out the link pins and also wears out the chain bar faster, and is more likely to jump off the drive sprocket, and the cut is more likely to drift sideways.

Also, use ordinary 30 grade engine oil for the oil feed, not the thick chainsaw oil. The thick chainsaw oil is too slow through the oil feed system and the blade tends to run dry and thus wears quicker. If it goes through the thin oil really fast then mix in a bit of thicker oil. One fill should last around an hours cutting.

Also, don't mess around with all those fancy electric chain sharpeners. They are a waste of money and time, literally.
Get the hang of using a simple chain sharpening file mounted in a depth gage mounting with an angle marking. All quite cheap at Stihl.
Oh, and use the correct diameter file for the chain you have. That is fairly critical to cut the correct profile on the chain tooth.

Keep the angle the same for the left teeth and the right teeth. If you don't the chain will very soon develop a drift either left or right and be impossible to do a straight down cut. It will also result in the chain bar channel wearing wider.
That's what the angle marking is for on the file mount, so you can file the same angle for left teeth and right teeth.

Once you've done it a few times, a chain sharpen on a 14 inch chain can be done in five minutes. Do all one side, then turn the saw around and do the other side. If you sharpen it often then each tooth only needs 3 or 4 licks with the file, so , sharpen it often enough so that the saw cuts without having to force it down into the job. If the chain gets blistering hot it is either running dry or too blunt or the depth rakers are too high. File the rakers down a few thou every three or four sharpens.
Don't keep using the chain when the teeth are so blunt that the chain is smoking. ( yes, I've seen someone doing this). The heat wrecks the metal. If the teeth look blue then someone has already done it.


Always start at an easily identified starting point on the chain , otherwise, some links will get done twice and some might not get done at all.
I always start at the double link point, i.e at the point where there are two teeth together pointing the same way, left or right.
File just one link and then pull the chain through to file the next link in the same position. It makes it easier to file the exact same angle for each tooth.
ANd,.always wear a leather gardening glove on the hand you will be using to pull the chain around. The chain is oily and it's really easy for your fingers to slip on the chain if it hits a tight spot. You will then demonstrate how your nicely sharpened chain can cut through the skin on your fingers as they slip over the teeth.

Oh, yes , and don't hold your head over the blade while cutting, always have it to one side. You would be surprised how fast the blade can throw back into your face if the top of the chain binds on something.

Hmmm, lots more could be said here but hey, just start somewhere and work the rest out as you go along.

There is a chainsaw system with a backpack battery - Pellenc.
It will run all day plus more. And the pole saw is much lighter and easier to use than petrol driven ones
But a professional level set up will be $4,000; and that's just for one saw

Ozito, talon and the like 240v chainsaws from bunnings fo pretty hard. My talon is 14 hundered watts or something and is similar in power to a petrol. Also good how they stop immediately. I.have access to a petrol but for around the house electrics are awesome.

Select to expand quote

pweedas said..

Macroscien said..
My Stihl chainsaw MS180 is fantastic.
But now I am looking at battery electric chainsaws as alternative.
With latest Lithium battery power, modern electric chainsaw is almost as good at small petrol one.
The most important future like a chain speed is almost identical.
Used to be 7m/s for old corded chainsaw but not is above 20m/s for modern battery powered.
Because I am using now chainsaw mostly for cleaning bushes from 10-15 cm diameter trees, electric seems to be the way to go.
I am looking on available electric Makita, AEG, Stihl , (Ryobi is cheap but I don't trust the brand).

As usual I see already room for improvement.
Instead of handling heavy battery pack, I would rather use back pack battery and short cable.
Electric bikes battery now are cheap and powerful. Something like 36V 20Ah should last for few hours.




Clearing small trees in the bushes require more walking and just few second cutting,. Electric seems to be the way instead of constantly rumbling motor.
I need to cut paths in the bush along fences, roads and make som fire breaks.
Have anybody any feedback regarding modern electric chainsaw?

Battery chain saws are ok if you only want to cut a few small bushes or branches down. They are a waste of time if you need to do a few hours of cutting up a trailer load of firewood, or cutting trees off a fenceline, or any serious cutting at all really. I use a battery saw for pruning a few orange trees and that's all.
The speed of cutting anything depends on the amount of power available.
A battery can put out about 400 watts for 20 minutes, if you're lucky.
A small petrol chain sore can reliably crank out at least 4 times that and thus cuts proportionally faster.
But petrol chain saws have a bad habit of stalling every time you pick them up to saw something. They idle reliably when you leave them on the ground between cuts but then as soon as you pick them up and hit the throttle, they suddenly die. They are also as noisy as,.. right in your ear.

Over many years I have found the best option is to buy a few electric chain saws, say a 14 inch and a 16 inch, all dirt cheap at Bunnings, typically around $100 when on special or around $150 when not on special.
Put a simple 2kw petrol generator in the back of a ute or trailer and run a cheap Bunnings 30 meter cable from the generator to the job.
Dont bother with an inverter generator for such a menial job. They cost a lot more and the inverters have a limited life.
An ordinary cheap 2kva or 2.5kva generator does the job really well.
That way, the noise of the generator is not right in your ear, so much less wearing on the nerves.

The chain saw still make a bit of noise while cutting but obviously are completely quiet when not cutting, unlike a petrol saw which is left idling, and then conks out when you need it anyway.
The petrol generators are much quieter, more efficient fuel wise and can run half a day on one fill of straight petrol, about 3 or 4 liters, so no mixing 2 stroke fuel.

I always use an electric chain saw except for jobs which need a 20 inch blade. That requires a petrol saw but for everything else, the electric running off a generator is better.

The 30 meter power cord gives a good working range without having to move the generator often.

While I'm on the keyboard, a few other things which might be helpful on electric chain saws.;

Keep the chain tight. Don't let it slop around loose because they wear faster when loose than they do when tight.
Yes I know, you would think it was the other way around but it's not.
A sloppy chain slapping around flogs out the link pins and also wears out the chain bar faster, and is more likely to jump off the drive sprocket, and the cut is more likely to drift sideways.

Also, use ordinary 30 grade engine oil for the oil feed, not the thick chainsaw oil. The thick chainsaw oil is too slow through the oil feed system and the blade tends to run dry and thus wears quicker. If it goes through the thin oil really fast then mix in a bit of thicker oil. One fill should last around an hours cutting.

Also, don't mess around with all those fancy electric chain sharpeners. They are a waste of money and time, literally.
Get the hang of using a simple chain sharpening file mounted in a depth gage mounting with an angle marking. All quite cheap at Stihl.
Oh, and use the correct diameter file for the chain you have. That is fairly critical to cut the correct profile on the chain tooth.

Keep the angle the same for the left teeth and the right teeth. If you don't the chain will very soon develop a drift either left or right and be impossible to do a straight down cut. It will also result in the chain bar channel wearing wider.
That's what the angle marking is for on the file mount, so you can file the same angle for left teeth and right teeth.

Once you've done it a few times, a chain sharpen on a 14 inch chain can be done in five minutes. Do all one side, then turn the saw around and do the other side. If you sharpen it often then each tooth only needs 3 or 4 licks with the file, so , sharpen it often enough so that the saw cuts without having to force it down into the job. If the chain gets blistering hot it is either running dry or too blunt or the depth rakers are too high. File the rakers down a few thou every three or four sharpens.
Don't keep using the chain when the teeth are so blunt that the chain is smoking. ( yes, I've seen someone doing this). The heat wrecks the metal. If the teeth look blue then someone has already done it.


Always start at an easily identified starting point on the chain , otherwise, some links will get done twice and some might not get done at all.
I always start at the double link point, i.e at the point where there are two teeth together pointing the same way, left or right.
File just one link and then pull the chain through to file the next link in the same position. It makes it easier to file the exact same angle for each tooth.
ANd,.always wear a leather gardening glove on the hand you will be using to pull the chain around. The chain is oily and it's really easy for your fingers to slip on the chain if it hits a tight spot. You will then demonstrate how your nicely sharpened chain can cut through the skin on your fingers as they slip over the teeth.

Oh, yes , and don't hold your head over the blade while cutting, always have it to one side. You would be surprised how fast the blade can throw back into your face if the top of the chain binds on something.

Hmmm, lots more could be said here but hey, just start somewhere and work the rest out as you go along.

Agree above. I use a permanent marker to locate the smallest blade - Mark it, then you always know your starting spot. I then use a simple small wrench to get a feel for the smallest blade width. Then sharpen all teeth to roughly that size.

Agree on using ing a simple file and guide. But I also use a chain mounted stihl guide that the file guide runs through. Gives you a better chance of a horizontal stroke and at the right angle. Also is a good guide for blade length to sharpen to. Honestly the other gadget makes a world of difference.

Mark blade. Sharpen, measure, move stihl guide to next blade and sharpen ... give same strokes to all.... takes 2 minutes most to run through one side from here. Then go back a quickly measured any blade if still too long.

Onvioiksy then check rakers in that side.

Turn around repeat.

Quick as and very effective.

Oh oh make sure you rotate the file in the guide very 3 or 4 teeth and I also give it a quick brush with a wire brush to get filings off.

Pweedas forgot to mention the horrible fumes of a 2 stroke which can build up in thicker scrub if the wind is low.

After chainsawing for a while you'll get back to the plain old file. You'll even dispense with the guide when you develop the feel. A vice at a nice comfortable working height though. Sharpening in full sun is handy because you'll know a tooth is sharp when it doesn't reflect on the edge. Stealth bomber principle. If you're working close to the ground, as it sounds like you are Macro, and graze the odd rock filing everything back to the shortest tooth might not be practical.

Remember that if your saw is blunt your neighbour a hundred metres away might be able tell just by the sound of the 2 stroke. Go electric.

not practical in the bush to cut down to the smallest link, hence just take a few sharp chains with you. No point in wasting time out bush sharpening chains when you can be cutting.

But you need to have the blades the same length for a proper straight cut.

Once you have your teeth all the same, then you will find next time you sharpen, they are stay pretty much the same length. hence sharpening becomes very quick.

I disagree on using just the file unless you are on the chainsaw all the time. You have a high probability of stuffing your chain up completely. Unless you are cutting and sharpening all the time you never get it quite right.

My father in law has been cutting firewood in the bush for over 50 years. Even he has trouble with just a simple file. He's not bad but it's just as easy to have your chain saw in a vice and use the file in a guide. There is nothing to be gained by using just the file unless you plan on touching up your chain out bush. But why? Just take some sharp chains and get on with it.

When blunt...you can easily tell as the saw stops doing the cutting by itself. You are starting to force the issue. Also the wood chips become a finer and finer dust. Don't cut with blunt blades, stop, change over, grease the sprocket and the bar, blow out the filter...takes 2-3 minutes max. then get cutting again!

Avoid the sand!! One hit and ya blade is knackered.

Yeh electric will eventually be the normal for sure.

yeah starting at $99 for an electric at bunnings. stihl chains are probably $40! I've had my talon for nearly 15 years i reckon.
Bought it to cut down a couple of coconut palms. they suck sand a good 5 - 10 cm into the tree. My grandad sharpened the chain for me when he was alive. when we were cutting down said coconut palms they were very high. Old boy found a 5m neill pryde ally mast in my shed and he had duct taped it to the mast, snaked a lead down the mast and said it would be safe because he would stand at the power switch on the ready! dodgy old fart. and it would have been too heavy.
old boy has one of those ryobi ones on a stick. they're good around the house also.
Trying to start the old sthil once in a blue moon was always an exercise in frustration. With the little throw pull etc. (plus it was old and tired)
And if you have a big inverter or quiet gennie the electric saws would be good out bush too. bit of sneaky firewood without drawing unwanted attention. nothing carries like the sound of a 2stroke chainsaw at full noise

Yeh be good for stealth wooding missions for sure !!

So there is my another idea.
Suppouse that your land produce much more firewood that you need>
What would youi do with access?
1) Burn it all
2) Sell as firewood to the nearest city
3) Make a charcoal from that wood. This last is my latest idea to convert all excess of the wood into valuable charcoal and then sell.
Price per kg of firewood , less delivery cost and selling - may not be business wise at all.
But converting this onsite into charcoal in industrial furnace may have sense.
I am considering now two options:
1) get of the shelve furnance that will produce 1-2 tonnes of charcoal a day
2) design my own system that obviosly is much more efficient and cheaper to implement.
The question is
How much could I expect for the product like charcoal sold in Australia to ?

Not a lot $$
Making charcoal is a bit of work, its easy to make crap stuff.

Select to expand quote

kato said..
Not a lot $$
Making charcoal is a bit of work, its easy to make crap stuff.

I have been thinking about those two"
1) Restaurants and similar bulk buyers on Gold Coast that could accept 100 + kg orders for charcoal
2) Industry that will buy our charcoal for carbon fibre, chemical active carbon and similar
The problem is that We/ I have too much wood on my farm to be used .
Converting into something useful may be more profitable then running cattle farm itself on 100 Ha bushy land.
I assume that buyer could pay up to 1$ per 1 kg of good charcoal.
It would make 1000 per 1 tone
Much more then plain firewood could ever do.
Obviously I would like to invent something on the way , so my charcoal production line seems to be more efficient and easier then everything around so far.The problem is that I feel terrible to just burn the access fallen trees and branches to clean the space.
Can we do something usefiull?

use the scrap timber yourself - charcoal gas generators were very common on vehicles during WW2 when petrol was rationed.

Wood chips

Select to expand quote

Macroscien said..

kato said..
Not a lot $$
Making charcoal is a bit of work, its easy to make crap stuff.

I have been thinking about those two"
1) Restaurants and similar bulk buyers on Gold Coast that could accept 100 + kg orders for charcoal
2) Industry that will buy our charcoal for carbon fibre, chemical active carbon and similar
The problem is that We/ I have too much wood on my farm to be used .
Converting into something useful may be more profitable then running cattle farm itself on 100 Ha bushy land.
I assume that buyer could pay up to 1$ per 1 kg of good charcoal.
It would make 1000 per 1 tone
Much more then plain firewood could ever do.
Obviously I would like to invent something on the way , so my charcoal production line seems to be more efficient and easier then everything around so far.The problem is that I feel terrible to just burn the access fallen trees and branches to clean the space.
Can we do something usefiull?

I think it will be an even bigger success than the solar powered catamaran and more potential than the thru earth pipeline to china