How did your chainsaw line up evolve?

[JonCraig]

My dad taught me how to repair small 4-strokes as a kid. Briggs, Tecumseh, Seems he always had random push mowers & riders.

5 years or so ago, my father in law handed me his 041av and said “this won’t start. You wanna tinker with it?” It had no spark, and where I expected to find points, I found (what I now know to be) an SEM electronic ignition. Google brought me to AS. “There are whole FORUMS for CHAINSAWS?!?”

But what really started the CAD was I happened to search Craigslist for “Stihl Chainsaw.” There was a listing for what looked like a pretty big saw for $75. It had a broken rope. I was the first to shoot the guy a text and drove an hour away to get it. That was my first MS460...

Since then, I’ve gone through some phases, mostly “cool vintage” SXL 925, Poulan 245, then older Stihls (an all-original, low-hour 064 for $175), now I’m in a Hooskie phase... last saw was a 288xp, on the bench now is a 261xp that I’ve put a 262xp slug in.

Sprinkle in the ones that I fix and sell, and I bought my 87 4WD F150 with the “saw fund”. Should have seen my wife’s face when she came in the house... “what did you do?”

I describe the hobby to friends like this: it’s like restoring classic muscle cars, only parts are WAY cheaper and I can fit 20 of them in my garage.

 

[Al Smith]

I started cutting wood with my dad, xl 12 homelites with foam pipe insulation taped to the handles (anti vibe) lol. .

We did the exact same pipe insulation trick on the 10-10 McCullochs .Some didn't rattle and some did to the point you couldn't feel your fingers after about 5 minutes .

 

[Fishnuts2]

My first saw was my Dad's 1-10 that he couldn't get to run, but being he had no patience with any small motor, he just about threw it at me and said to get it outa here! That cut my firewood for a number of years, and then the FIL bought a Jonsereds 49SP, and later a 920, now cutting firewood was a lot more enjoyable. Some years later I found some forums pertaining to saws and I fell into a burning ring of CAD. Over 50 runners now of different brands, and I'm enjoying all of them!

 

[Fruecrue]

Great thread! I got started because of the infamous “October storm” in Buffalo, 10/12/06. Had my first house in a park like setting and that night we had a rainstorm turn to two feet of heavy snow while the leaves were still on the trees. You could hear branches snapping and trees cracking all night long.
I bought a small poulan 4218 to clean up the mess. Small saw and heavy hands don’t mix. I had to have more power, any way I could get it.
Later bought an outdoor wood boiler and had a tree service dropping wood in the yard in exchange for saw repairs.

 

[hseII]

I started using my uncles 041 farmboss to cut firewood with them @ 15.

I bought an 029 Supa @ 19.

I “needed” a bigger Saw @ 23 so I bought a $100 044 in a pawnshop That wouldn’t start.

A few rubber bits & a Carb refresh & it was great until 4 years ago when I needed a bigger Saw.

I found AS & A like new MS660.

The 044 finally lost enough compression that it needed a rebuild so it went to the Tennessee Plateau spa when she gave up the Ghost.

It’s been a wormhole ever since.

I average about 12 saws.

In Service-
3- MS200T
2- 026
1- MS461R
1- Pro Mac 800
1-066
1-MS661R
1- PPT-280

To be serviced-
1-Pro Mac 700
1-Pro Mac 10-10S
1-Husky 136
1-Jonsered 920/930

 

[Homemade]

I started with my grandpas xl12. Ran it for a day until I basically straight gassed it running the same 50:1 as my dad was running. After letting it cool down during lunch, she was tighter then a Swiss watch and threw it away. (That was 12 years ago, well before here).

Next was a husky 460 I bought new. Had it for about a year until it was stolen out of the back of my truck.

Then a 362 I bought on the road when in desperate need for saw at work. I’ve had a few after that, that I bought and sold.

 

[sunfish]

Bad back, wanted smaller but faster cuttin saws. Ported XPs' fit the bill.

 

[bigbadbob]

026 in the work dumpster. Well about 100 saws later,,,
Im down to about 25

 

[CR888]

The initial itch to own saws started when I was a young kid who would go get firewood with my father and bring it home to cut and split to heat the family home. He had a Partner 5000 and I wished he has a Stihl as no one had them funny yellow saws, but it ran strong and smelled good. That saw got stolen & he bought a husky. Now that I know a little about saws I'm kinda glad he had a Partner & not a Stihl. Wish that saw never got stolen and was around today. Now I have a few saws about 25ish runners. But only about 10 are used for work, some are vintage saws I've restored, some are play saws & some are NOS in boxes that have never been started.

 

[Brian72]

My uncle was in pretty bad shape years back. I bought a Poulan Wild Thing to help him with his firewood. After a few truckloads, I realized I needed something better. I bought my Echo cs520 and it all went crazy from there! That really opened my eyes to the benefits of a pro saw over a homeowner saw. I've since added a cs590, cs680, 355t, Husky 372xp, Stihl ms 661, a couple Mac 10-10s and a Pioneer 620. All have served me very well but my 520 will always be my favorite. It's a great saw with many great memories of cutting with my uncle and son. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

 

[Wood Doctor]

I started in 1975 with a Poulan counter vibe but made a mistake. I lent it to a "friend" who straight gassed it and gave it back dead without blinking an eye. Then I bought a McCulloch 610 TimberBear that I still have today. It runs nicely because I never straight gassed it -- heckuva saw.

From there I bought Echo and Stihl because McCulloch went out of business. Now I am enjoying running Husqvarna, Stihl, Makita, and whatever else works well. I like chainsaws that run well. My saws all start and run. I am proud of that.

 

[Basher]

My assortment just grew because my family never sold a saw, just passed them on to me so I still have the first and every saw we ever owned. As I grew so did my saw collection and as I worked on saws many were brought to me to repair. More than occasionally the owner did not want to waste his money repairing a saw and it was left with me to do as I please with it. Most of them would be repaired and run for a while, then just retired to shelf life. Pioneers, Homelites, Poulans, Sachs Dolmars, Makita`s and a slew of Stihls all grace the shelves of my storage and work buildings.

 

[MustangMike]

Bought my first house and had my first daughter in 1977. A few year later, there were gas lines and fuel oil tripled in a day (from about 50 cents to $1.50/gal).

I was working for NYS not earning a whole lot (but had benefits), so I installed a wood stove in the basement and bought a chainsaw (Homelite Super 2). My first father in law was a tree guy, so he taught me how to use it safely and how to fell trees.

Cutting 6 cord a year with the Super 2 became a chore, so I purchased a Homelite 330 and used that for several more years. Then in Dec 1992 I saw an ad for Stihl Saws on sale, the place was not going to be selling/renting Stihl any more, they were switching to Homelite (no wonder they went out of business).

So I went in to buy the 044 that was on sale and they did not want to sell it to me. I asked "why", and they said this is a professional saw, and you are just a homeowner. I just had 8 cords of logs delivered to the house, so I asked why can't I have a professional saw, and he responded "because it cuts too fast", to which I responded "that's exactly what I need". So they sold me the 10 mm 044 (which I still have), I never used the Homelites again, and all my saws are Stihl. The Stihl was faster, smoother, and more reliable than the Homelites, every year I had the recoils apart on them. My 044 recoil has never been repaired (other than a new rope + handle).

Then my nephew hounded me for over a year to join a website, and I went to the Upstate NY GTG and ran the Smittybilt 660s and I never wanted to run a stock saw again. First is was muff mods, and an HD-2 filter, than timing advance, then base gasket delete, then the 362 was sent to Randy …

Then one of the local Tree Guys who I knew a little complained to me that the local shop did not fix his saw right. So I told him to bring it over, and I fixed it, did a muffler mod, and pulled the carb limiters. He was thrilled that I fixed it and got it to run better, and he brought me more saws, and told other Tree Guys about me. Some of them had lots of broken saws, and started exchanging broken saws for fixed ones, etc.

Then came the Asian saw kits ...

So now I have over 20 runners, some OEM, some Asian, and some a mix of both. I often sell a few to local tree guys or friends for great prices, and the tree guys return the favor with wood, tree work (climbing I don't do) and/or dead saws to fix up.

I don't machine jugs or anything, but have recently started doing some port work. It is fun to learn, and to see how well you can make things run. Play with them for a while, make sure they are reliable, then move them along. I have several "core saws" that I will not sell, but then sometimes you end up with better saws and you rethink these things.

It is a fun hobby, I enjoy it, and my doing it makes a lot of other people happy, so it's all good. I also cut some firewood for my daughter and some others, and do some chainsaw milling and making furniture for family members (and soon, for myself).

That's it, I've rambled long enough!

 

[sunfish]

I started in 1977 with a Poulan 245A, then added a Poulan 3400. In 2000 my back started acting up, bought a 346xp, big smile on the face!