Builder Review JMSSaws - 5 saws

[Definitive Dave]

Please do not comment in this thread unless you are giving a review of your own JMSSaw.
I am a long-winded gasbag and it make take me a bit to make this complete and accurate.

I was an early proponent of Jason Stratton ie. JMSSaws. I considered him a good friend for a long time.
I will be as dispassionate as I can be in this review.

I like/love ported saws and at some point a couple/few years ago I had a few of them from Brad and Randy and decided to try out some other flavors. I sell chainsaw parts online and its always great to meet like minded saw maniacs and ported saws are a great way to meet new people at get-togethers.

Saw #1
I don't remember how I stumbled across Jason but I think it was on Arboristsite and we struck up a deal for him to port a brand new MS660 cylinder and put it on a running 064 I had purchased from Joe earlier that year.
The saw was a good strong runner and complete. I provided the new OEM cylinder kit as well.
The price was about in line with what I had paid to have other saws ported.
I don't remember anything particularly odd or bad about the transaction other than it taking eternity to get the saw. I have no real recollection of how long it took but I do know I had been invited to a GTG north of me with a bunch of fast saw guys and I was planning to take this saw to swing around like a mighty phallus and impress them all. Well it was way too late and probably a good thing because those guys would have eaten my cheese and taken my lunch money
Several of those guys had been reading his posts on the forums and told me he was a giant bag of squid scrotums, but I didn't listen because every man likes to think he knows it all and is a great judge of character. *f-wordin' Hubris makes us blind. I am not immune.
I don't think I complained about the slow shipping, I mean he lives on 700 acres in the middle of nowhere so mail service is slow.
Jason did post pictures of the cylinder on forums after telling me it was already ported and very nicely done. Turns out Joe had ported it but not enough that he felt it was worth charging me for and I didn't know it. I thought posting pics of someone else's work was uncool, but I didn't say anything because we didn't know who did the work at the time.
I didn't get back the original good piston and cylinder when the saw came back, but I didn't say anything, figured it didn't matter that much.
The first time I ran it other than a few test cuts at home was at the spring NY GTG 2016.
It ran fantastic and in fact it was faster than the 066 that Bret and Josh ran.
I was had over heels in love with the saw at that point. Several guys ran it and it was impressive.
It ran out of gas and I re-fuelled it for Mustang Mike to give it a try and it wouldn't restart.
I teased him about breaking my saw but started looking and found one of the packing peanuts underneath the kill switch (that's how it got it's name) and I was able to get it to start but again when Mike tried to fire it, it wouldn't start. I put it away and went on to do more goofing around with the hundreds of saws that were there.

Once back at home I looked inside and the piston was scored big time. So I pulled the cylinder and there was no wrist pin bearing. None... but the entire bottom end was covered in fine black dust almost like graphite.
The cylinder looked fine.
Thinking back I seem to remember that there were also a few bits of ground metal and little globs in the case.
It turns out that he had used an aftermarket piston pin bearing and it had disintegrated.
I remember flushing the case out with fuel many times and straining through cloth till it was clean, but I honestly don't remember if I split the case and changed the bearings or not.
At the time there was a thread and guys were going both ways on how to deal with it.
I figured "*s-word-happens" and I replaced with a new OEM piston and lightly cleaned the cylinder even though it was virtually unmarked. I re-assembled the saw and ran it in wood, all seemed good. I think it went to several GTG with me since and has run maybe another tank or two of gas since the new piston and OEM piston bearing I installed.
With all of the controversy swirling around, I decided to pull the top end on Peanut today to make sure everything was good to go so I can sell the saw. Not because of how it runs, which is fantastic but because I don't do ANY work with chainsaws and I am thinning the herd to just the shelf queens and race saws.

Despite all the grumbling and moaning by other customers I guess I was hoping that my saws were all good.






that doesn't look good
there are light vertical lines in the cylinder, the inside of the crankcase is clean
This may be my fault, i may not have split the case and there may have been something left down in there, the pattern to the intake and exhaust scoring is odd to me.
And again this saw is a runner.
At this point I guess I will check the threads in the case and put an 066 cylinder kit on it after splitting the bottom end and doing new bearings and seals.
I will also fix the stripped threads on one of the tp cover holes, which ma or may not have been there originally.
I am curious how true this base is as well, it didn't matter to me before because the saw kicked ass but now...


looks like a non-lathe jobber to me

the marks in the top of the cylinder were probably from the early failure and I cleaned the jug in ultrasonic but maybe I should have replaced it?

 

[Definitive Dave]

I never mentioned wanting Jason to pay for the piston and bearing and I am pretty sure he offered.

Text in red are places I should have done something differently.
I ran the saw at a couple other GTG and told guys what a great builder Jason was.


Saw #2 -
A guy offered a 288xp lite never fueled for sale on Arborist site and a lot of guys didn't make a deal for it but I did.
I asked Jason to get it for me and I actually sent him the money through paypal along with extra for his time and shipping the saw to me.
About a third of the price of the saw is what i sent for pickup and shipping.
He got the saw and sent me pics, it was beautiful.
It was a little slow but he shipped me the power head without the bars and chains (all new) that I bought with the saw.
Later he sent me the larger bar, but no chains and I think he asked for the smaller bar and I let him have it but that's a fuzzy recollection.
I appreciate him getting the saw for me (drove about an hour each way to meet the guy in the middle).
At this point I thoroughly trusted him.



Saw #3
I was so happy with "peanut" that when Jason said he had figured out a new way to make an 064/MS660 hybrid even faster, I jumped at the chance.
Nothing is better than faster, right?
Again I provided him the running saw but this time it was an ugly older saw and I kept the picton and cylinder that were on it.
Also sent him a new OEM cylinder kit and a Meteor 288 piston.
During all of the builds he did for me I sent him whatever additional parts he needed without question, but again I sell parts and have everything for these saws on hand nearly all the time, so i never questioned if it really needed something, I just sent it.
Ugly Betty was faster than Peanut when it arrived and again I took it to GTG and showed it off and let guys run it. I was thrilled to have a saw faster than Peanut. It's not night and day faster but it is faster and that is what counts.
About 6 months after I got it, well it got really hard to start, sometimes it would cough on choke and other days it wouldn't even cough. I stuck it on a shelf with other saw and figured I would mess with it in the future at some point. I didn't tell Jason.
We tried to run Ugly Betty last friday when the guys came over to make saw-chips, but it wouldn't start even though it coughed like it was going to. We pulled it like a ton and no dice.
So today I decided to pull it apart and see if there was anything obvious and check the piston and cylinder.


I noticed a broken off muffler bolt, hmmm, I never looked, might have broken off after i got it back. Missing a top cover screw, hole is stripped, might have been like that when i sent it.
I pulled the muffler and saw vertical marks, not deep and pretty faint but not right.




So off comes the cylinder for further inspection......Oh, wait
One of the cylinder bolts is not like the others, Fuggin Sesame street in here.
The trigger clutch corner bolt appears to be a larger hex head bolt and to be completely rounded off in the head of the bolt. Oh Joy is me, I couldn't be any happier.
It was hard to see and dang near impossible to photograph.
I am pretty sure that if I take off the tank I will be able to get on it with tight reach channel locks and get it out, but what a pain in the...
i paid him on 4/28/16

 

[Definitive Dave]

Saw #4
at the first NY GTG I attended I met Canadian Farm Boy (aka the golden falcon, aka Mike the Mighty, etc.) and he gave me a Pioneer 620.
I had sold a pair of pretty cool Pioneer 600 or 650s (damn memory) and regretted it.
I asked Jason if he would be interested in doing a full repair and restoration on the saw, I would pay him for all the mechanical stuff and have Mikey B. do the powder coating and I would pay for that separately. We agreed that I would send it to him and he would take a good looksee and decide if it was mechanically sound enough to repair or if it should just become a parts saw.
I would pay him a small amount of money regardless of how the inspection turned out.
It probably took a while for me to ship it to Jason , we were both busy and I am as lazy as a government worker sometimes.
I removed the top handle and spikes for shipping and sent it to Jason.
Maybe a week later he told me he got it running really easily and thought it would be a fun project to break the monotony of all the 1122 saws he was porting.
He named a price which is significantly more than a port job but this is alot more work and the price seemed very fair to me.
He asked for payment and I paid him via paypal.
I arranged with Mike to go two-tone grey on this big vintage beast and had a sweet, holographic surfaced custom bar made by Shawn for it.
Jason was supposed to send all of the parts to be powdered to Mike, all i needed was the weight of the box and I could e-mail him a prepaid label (as I did for all the saws he built for me after Peanut).
I figured if I made it easier for him to ship it would be more timely.
I gotta quit thinking.
A little time went by and I really didn't bother him about it. At one point early on he asked if i was in a hurry and I told him no, to do it whenever he had time.
At one point he told me it was torn down and he just needed to weight the box. I never got the weight....
He called me somewhat recently to say he was sorry it had taken so long to get to my Pioneer and he felt terrible etc., I told him no big deal even though I knew alot of accusations were flying by then.
The story ends there except that he set me a picture of it sitting fully assemble on his bench next to another guys saw, recently who thought Jason might be stealing them.
I don't want the saw back, it would just be constant reminder of a situation and guy I no longer will make time for.
I might have a picture of this one somewhere, I will look later.
I paid him on 5/24/16

 

[Definitive Dave]

Saw #4.5
This is a saw that Doc Al built for me.
He had a beautiful NOS 10mm 044 jug and said he wanted to port it for me.
That was awesome and I had a 10mm bottom end with no jug, so I said I could assemble it and do a review.
Al asked about finger ports and boost ports and I said yes please, I had no idea if they were good or bad.
Once Al sent the beautiful finished cylinder to me I bolted it together and of course, air leak.
I tracked it down to seals and installed them new and it still asked wonky.
I used a new OEM carb and was swapping out pieces to no avail, I could get it to run and idle but it ran pretty unimpressively.
I didn't have the time to do a full teardown, and Al said to return the whole saw to him.
Al and Jason and I were in a group text with Deets for over a year which is why the three of us were slow to believe him capable of the kind of bullshittery we are finding out about now.
Jason said to send him the saw and he would chase down the gremlin and Al wouldn't have to mess with it.
Unfortunately He decided to change the porting Al had done, I am not sure if it ran better or not.
I didn't make a big deal about it, and he said he thought Al and I knew he was gonna fix the jug.
He didn't charge me but I paid for the return shipping.
This saw sits on my shelf, I cant sell it because Al built it for me and I don't run it because I don't need one anymore and it reminds me of that guy...

I will add a picture here as well.


SAW #5
This is Scarlett and is now owned by another forum member who knew the score when he traded for it.
Jason insisted on porting a third saw for me for free because I had bought two before (and maybe because of my positive reviews of them).
It started out as a box of parts to build an 064 Arctic to fit between my Precious (new in box 044 arctic) and my Mastermind 084 arctic I got from John King.
I boxed up everything I thought it needed and sent it off. As always , I told him I could send anything else I needed.
Well, I had about half 064 Arctic, half 066 arctic, half MS660 arctic and 2/5 066 redlight parts.
We slowly got sorted out what was needed and he asked to build me an 066 redlight saw instead since we had 98% of the right parts on hand.
I told him it had to be fast, no horseshit long bar saw, something i could push on in a cant.
I got him whatever parts he needed and he built it. It is a running somebeeeesh.
In fact with all saws running the same bar and stock square chain his three saws he built me were second through fourth in my 13 saw 6 cube showdown awhile back on Youtube, only the Copsey saw took them and Scarlett was the fastest of those three.
Time moved on and I started buying more crazy race saws and such.
When I decided to part with many stock and ported saws recently, a member asked about Scarlett and I gave him a fair price in trade for a saw he had that I wanted and told him I would warranty it for as long as he thought reasonable for cant use only. That is literally what it was built for.
I pulled the muffler ahead of him coming over to get it and the piston and cylinder are flawless. We ran it in wood before the trade and he has run it in cants and even in big wood since then.

I will add pictures and I invite the new owner to talk about the saw as well.

I wont be dealing with JMSSaws in the future.
I wont let him be a focal point in my existence.
He is a gifted salesman.
I honestly tried to help him improve the things that piss people off but I don't think I reached him.
I don't need help getting my saws fixed, I will likely sell them once I can do so with a clear conscience and with full disclosure of the saws' history and an appropriate price.
Dave

 

[dustinwilt68]

Scarlet is a fast saw, I wanted a saw for going to GTG's and traded Dave for it. I pulled the muffler last week and the piston and cylinder are still very nice, no rub marks or anything, I also recently tried a 32"bar on it at Daves house and it pulled it very well imo, that was the 1st and last time it will see a long bar, I have other saws for that, just wanted to see how it would pull it. I look forward to making it faster in the future with Dave's help, it is a fun saw for doing cants with.

 

[hseII]

Fine.


At the Upstate NY GTG of 2016, I met a lot of people I'd traded Banter with over the Intertube.

Diamond Dallas Dave
Cobby
The Dolmar Dudes, Steve & Scott.
Dan Man
Uncle Lee

Mista Smooth Arms, aka Brett Smith, just to name a few.

DDD had his JMS 1122 there, & it was a Hoss.

I talked with Brett & he said that JMS saw was stronger than his.

I'd wanted a "395 Killa" for some time, & after a few months, got in touch with JMS himself.

We originally agreed on him building me an 056/66 Hybrid.

I'd talked to Randy, & he said that Brett has sent Brett's Hybrid to Randy, & it was a very strong Saw.

Jason & I agreed on:

1. me providing the 1122 base Saw
2. Jason would Supply a Mint 056M II top end for $200
3. He would do all the fit up, Port Work, & also replace all worn rubber bits for $400.


I traded a few saws to an Upstanding Member here, & he sent the Short Case 066 to Jason.

During that time, I also had a Mastermind 2100 that had given me trouble.

I sent it to Randy, & Randy determined the Stihl Master Lever Operator didn't speak old Swedish Backwards On/Off switches. What can I say, I have a short attention span sometimes. (Plus, I have another Saw laying around if the Saw in my hand starts acting funny.)

I had Randy send JMS the 2100 to "run against" that "395 Killa" JMS was building.

I also purchased a new Cannon 50" .404" Stihl Large Mount bar, & had Piltz send it directly to JMS Inc, to use for Testing, because I wanted a Hoss, & the biggest bar JMS had was a 32".

I purchased 056MII rings, because JMS had a hard time locating, & sent them to him along with 3- 143dl chain to use for testing the "395 Killa."

Flash forward, & JMS is "needing an 088 carb to Modify so he could get enough flow."

Then he tried a WB carb & just didn't like the results: he felt he could build a stronger 91.6cc 066.

So then he starts porting my original cylinder, you know, the 1st generation decomp Mahle that everybody says are the best 1122 cylinders.

He gets really close to being done, & "the playing starts flaking." "He would run it on a Saw he had, but not a customers saw."

He had a RL 066 cylinder, & agreed to supply if we traded for the MagII cylinder. (Red Flag)

So he ported it, made the Video... top 3 strongest Saw he's ever built, Bla Bla Bla.

I noticed the plastic was rough on the Saw, & he offered to sell me some covers: the real nice winter cover with the black on it: like new. I bit.

I like Wrap handles on bigger saws, so I asked if he had a wrap: he did.

Another $125 for the covers & the Wrap with a tach.

So he goes on an elk hunt out west.

I don't get the Saw.

He messaged back & forth for 2 weeks, & about how somebody on the East coast beat him out of a $1,000 Saw, & how that's broken him.

He has his wife borrow money from his dad, & he supposedly ships the 066.

Mean While, I sold the 2100 to a guy in England, & he is supposed to be arranging a currier.

He says he will Port another Saw for me for free due to all that went on with this Saw...

We finally agree that JMS will ship the 2100 to me, & I'll ship it to England.

I waited forever on that Saw.

I finally got them & took care of that.

He kept forgetting to send my $500 worth of Bars & Chains back for almost 2 months.

I finally get to run the 066 & it is strong, but the brake doesn't disengage with the wrap Handle JMS says would work.

He tells me I've got to have a different flag- $50.00 later it works.


Oh, one of the Brake flag screw holes was stripped, & I had to have that fixed as I didn't have time to fool with it.

Flash forward, & I decide to sell the Saw to buy a 661 from another trusted Member.

The 066 moves around like a 1970's Buick with worn to death shocks, so I buy $75 worth of AVs.

During the replacement of the AVs, it's realized the Impulse line is harder that $9.00 worth of Jaw Breakers, & it has a crack in it.

A new one is installed, along with all the AVs, & then Pressure & Vac tested.

That was a Miserable Failure: leaking like a sieve.

Cylinder is removed & the Belt Sander Bandit has struck again.

I text Jason, tell him what's going on, & he initially says that cylinder could be 0.100" out of level, side to side, & still pass a pressure test: he hints that I'm a part of some agenda, but he rolls that back a bit.

I tell him I had to swap out a lot of stuff we agreed he would fix if needed, & he states I sent him a non-running Saw, & that he ported it, he didn't build it.

I then shared screen shots of our text,( I've never actually talked to him to this day), and he sees that he ran the saw in the state my Southern friend sent him.

He looks at the pictures more & admits he made a mistake by " not clearance for the case on the FW front corner. His Fault, a 30 second fix, & he apologizes."

He ask me what I want to do to fix, & I tell him I want a new cylinder, or my original cylinder, & $500.

We go back & forth, & he promises to do just that.

 

[hseII]

 

[hseII]

 

[blackjack99574]

I had similar issues with Jason about 2 years ago. sent him a good 460 ive owned since new and never had anyone work on it since I bought it. he took forever to get it back to me and if it wasn't for members on here helping me out I might have never received it. I ran a tank through the saw and it started to act up. just randomly shut off mid cut. let it cool and it would fire back up. does this a couple times so I let it cool down and pull the spark plug. I can see deep scratches up and down my cylinder. further looking I noticed he swapped my air filter for some cheapy instead of the stihl hd2 I always run on my saws. looking at the cylinder I noticed it didn't look original. ive heard others complain they receive their saws back with aftermarket parts instead of the originals. I still have the saw but I refuse to deal with Jason anymore. he does *s-word work and I believe hes parting good saws out for junk parts and selling the good parts to others. now im stuck with a great saw that is useless and going to have to send it out again to get it repaired. might even have to buy a new oem piston and cylinder just to get it back to oem status then decide if I want to spend the money for another port job. thankfully ive met some great people on here and have a handful of good choices for porters. sorry to hear im not the only one who has bad dealings with him.

 

[sawmikaze]

I'll play.

He ported a NOS 660 for me and stole parts off of it and lied about what he did and did not do.

I'm not much of a story teller..I don't have the patience.

The guy is a scumbag POS.

 

[drf256]

Jason did a saw for me.

After months of being “friends” and Jason’s debt balance to me, he asked me if I wanted an 064 towards what he owed me (around $1300). I said that would be great, I mean who worries about money with friends, eventually it all evens out (what an ass I was).

I get this dirty ass 064 at some point. Jason tells me “the muffler needs another outlet” so I open the can. Muffler had 2 stripped bottom case to muff attachment bolts. One upper small bolt held, the other was stripped. Then I look at the piston and see the ex gasket hanging obliquely across the port with only one bolt in the head, he “forgot one” and knew I’d be opening anyway. The piston was also completely rubbed every place below its position at BDC. He tells me to run as is and it may buff itself out (I’m not joking). Then tells me he will mail me a piston, did any of you guys see it because I still have not. Oh, I also get told that the lower muff bolts are common and I should just install M6 bolts and there was no need to tap the holes, just use an impact and screws them in-I didn’t listen.

Then the whole 64/66 hybrid begins on OPE. He tells me he found a unicorn jug, one with an exceptionally low ex roof from the factory. Tells me that Scott (TM) and Julian are hot for the jug and offered him $350 for it, but he decided to “give it to me” out of spite (a big clue he was FOS). I ask him how much to swap the rubbed 064 over, he says “nothing”. Not being able to let a friend do work for free and after him telling me his dad needs a saw (has 50+ but needs another), I port a cherry 026 pro I’d been saving for me and send it to him as payment. Hence the “unicorn” was born. He was to ship it to me with a 36” Stihl bar he was “giving me”. That bar never came. A month post agreement I got a pic of it behind his wife’s truck seat. She hadn’t noticed the 3 foot long bar was in her car. Wow.

So the “unicorn” came. It ran well for the time it did. After the first runs I checked the piston and it was scored. The lower muff bolts were Allen and like 3/8 sized. An M6 bolt was like any normal guy in Tracy Lords. I pull the jug finally and I find out why he never sold it, the plating was largely cracked and there was giant chip of plating missing above the ex roof. Disassembly produced an full cadre of issues on every single part of the saw.

I’ve tried to help fix the things he did for others and I am fully done now. If you have a saw from JMS that’s not right, throw it in the garbage because that’s where it belongs. Between labor and parts costs, I will be cheaper to buy another saw.

I’m part of the problem, as I did defend the guy for way too long. I got taken as well.