Dreaded cordless saws in a wild land conservation setting

[Al Smith]

My neighbor has two battery saws .I forgot the brand but I used it and for what it is it does pretty good . I don't think it would be a good choice for perhaps the oak in my avatar pic but then again that monster old Homelite is not a good choice to buzz up firewood .

 

[ZERO]

After seeing them in action by August Hunicke, Reg Coates, Cotontop3, and Patkarlsson I could not resists. What these guys put these little puppies through is unbelievable.

They do have their place, for the brush clearing and sub 4" branches, unbeatable instead of having a saw idling, or constant re-starting.

Now getting into the fire season, I have lots of dry brush with dry leafs, the gas powered you have to be more careful, one roll with the hot exhaust and ...

In the end, it is all in the sharpening and understanding the limitations they have.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Philbert]

I have used battery-powered chainsaws for 11 years now, including some storm cleanup work. The saws, and the batteries, just keep getting better.

As with contractor tools, we will be seeing more of them, and using more of them.

Philbert

 

[Al Smith]

On the batteries ,the millwrights at work had 18 volt DeWalt impact wrenches .I was very impressed on what they could do .I've got the drills plus an impact drill which actually do pretty good .Plus a battery "Sawzall " .Alas though my supply of batteries are getting limited as time marchs on .Perhaps this winter I'll rebuild a couple .I think I have 8 or 10 that needs attention .

 

[ChuckPinTX]

Thanks for all of the info folks. I have a new bar and chain on the way for the "big" electric. We'll see how they do. I also ordered the 18V x2 power head, extension and pole saw attachment. I'll let y'all know how it goes. I'll also grab some photos I've taken of the stuff I see and will share them for sure. Some cave photos will definitely be included.

 

[Woodpecker]

Thanks for all of the info folks. I have a new bar and chain on the way for the "big" electric. We'll see how they do. I also ordered the 18V x2 power head, extension and pole saw attachment. I'll let y'all know how it goes. I'll also grab some photos I've taken of the stuff I see and will share them for sure. Some cave photos will definitely be included.

congrats! I’ve been using mine today

 

[JugHead27]

I would love to have a good electric saw for cutting along the road. Haven't tried one that impressed me yet...maybe that full chisel would do it.

I want one just so I can go do work early or late in the day without disturbing neighbours. I’m wondering if I could find one powerful enough to fall 2ft sawlog trees if so I’ll just log at night mount some LEDs on the tractor lol

 

[Maintenance Chief]

Funny enough I've found the battery sawzall to be very useful for plumbing in the parks, root removal from pipes is alot better with a pruning blade.
The pruning blades from manufacturers are alot better than they used to be ,I fly through 2"-3" roots with no damage from the dirt.
The drum sprocket on that makita looks like the old mini mac style.

 

[ChuckPinTX]

@Maintenance Chief I love the battery sawzalls. They are clutch in construction, out here in conservation lands, and while driving off-road.

This week I'm on the same preserve, but heading north instead of south cleaning up the boundary. I ordered a couple of the 14" Tsumura bars and some Stihl chain. Still waiting for the chain to come in, but I found a loop of old Carlton semi-chisel to hold me over. This bar on the Makita is definitely better. I think the original bar and chain cut slightly faster, but that might just be because of how I filed this Carlton chain. It's real grabby even though I didn't mean for it to be.

The pole saw came in, and I really like it. It's much lighter than I thought it would be, and the short sections are easy to drag through the thick understory. I have encountered an issue though. When cutting larger branches, 6-8", it'll just stop for no reason. I'm not putting any pressure on it at all; just letting it do it's thing. The branches aren't binding, and doing what I expect, but the saw will just stop after about 10-15sec into the cut, the 3 speed lights will flash for a few seconds, or I can turn it off then on, and finish the cut just fine. This happens even when cold. Maybe it is overheating? I don't know. I'll play with it when I'm not neck deep in the canyonlands. I'll just live with it for the rest of the day.

These Ashe Juniper really like killing expensive fences.

 

[Woodpecker]

@Maintenance Chief I love the battery sawzalls. They are clutch in construction, out here in conservation lands, and while driving off-road.

This week I'm on the same preserve, but heading north instead of south cleaning up the boundary. I ordered a couple of the 14" Tsumura bars and some Stihl chain. Still waiting for the chain to come in, but I found a loop of old Carlton semi-chisel to hold me over. This bar on the Makita is definitely better. I think the original bar and chain cut slightly faster, but that might just be because of how I filed this Carlton chain. It's real grabby even though I didn't mean for it to be.

The pole saw came in, and I really like it. It's much lighter than I thought it would be, and the short sections are easy to drag through the thick understory. I have encountered an issue though. When cutting larger branches, 6-8", it'll just stop for no reason. I'm not putting any pressure on it at all; just letting it do it's thing. The branches aren't binding, and doing what I expect, but the saw will just stop after about 10-15sec into the cut, the 3 speed lights will flash for a few seconds, or I can turn it off then on, and finish the cut just fine. This happens even when cold. Maybe it is overheating? I don't know. I'll play with it when I'm not neck deep in the canyonlands. I'll just live with it for the rest of the day.

These Ashe Juniper really like killing expensive fences.

My pole saw occasionally does the same thing on longer cuts. I’ve been told by Makita it’s a built in protection so you don’t fry the pricey batteries. Sorry it happens so rarely anymore I completely forgot about it. I learned to just roll with it. Although I typically just climb and cut branches of that size.

 

[tek9tim]

Long time land management guy, though on the wildfire side of things up in the Pacific Northwest.

When my wife first saw the XCU06, she got all giddy about how cute it was and wanted one. I obliged. That saw gets grabbed off the rack more often than any of the other saws. Limbs, little jobs, etc. It's great next to the chipper.

I bought her an XCU03 to complement the smaller saw. Wanted the barnut version as well, but there was a promo where it came with 4 5.0ah batteries for about the cost of the 4 batteries. It's been great, she's getting pretty good at double cutting trees when knocking them over for firewood.

I bought a 25' roll of Archer 3/8lp full chisel for the 2 little saws, it does well. Rakers are a little aggressive out of the box, but it settles down once you sharpen it a few times. I dressed up a wheel for the Simington to square grind the small chain, and that was another big performance improvement. You can bore a lot better with the full chisel chain, but if the rakers are aggressive, it'll stall the saw out pretty easy.

At work, I have an XCU08 that rides in the saw compartment along with my ported hybrid 440. I'll bust it out for the silly small stuff in the road or while we're in IFPL restrictions. (An explainer for folks not on the west coast: industrial fire precaution levels determine what you can do out in the woods during high fire danger)

They've all been great saws for their intended purpose. I've climbed a few trees with both top handles, cordless is really nice up in the tree. Makes communicaton with my ground person a lot easier - since I only occasionally climb either on my own time or at work I don't have the fancy helmet communication setup.

 

[ChuckPinTX]

@Woodpecker right on. I figured it might be something like that. What I was working on last week was some unstable stuff caught up in a fence, solo. Trying to stay on the ground in a good position. Hopefully I only need the pole for small stuff going forward.

@tek9tim most of my saw work here is cutting control line for prescribed fire. The work I'm doing now is supposed to be done by another work group or contractors, but nothing has been completed since 2019 unless a ranger gets out to do it. Interesting dynamic we have here. Haha.

The Stihl 63PS came in, so I figured I would give it a go. My 260 is in another county, and the 044 is down. Put a 20" Tsumura on the 590 Joe ported for me with an archer 3/8 full chisel chain.

The 590, for whatever reason just does not want to get over 12k rpm. It's running rich for sure, likeost do.

This saw with a 24" bar is what was used to reduce the oak I got this spar from at work. The archer chains are kind of disappointing out of the box. They definitely need a good going over to cut well.

The 501p is box stock with the factory bar and chain. First cuts made with it. It's definitely going to be sent out to be ported. .325 .050 chisel.

The Makita has the 14" Tsumura with 63PS 3/8"lp .050. obviously significantly slower, but you don't notice it when in the field walking, and doing all of the physical things that you don't do playing with cookies.

Let's see if this works. I haven't messed with YouTube in years.

 

[Nutball]

It could be the hot weather if the 590 was last tuned to run in cold weather. It may just need to warm up for a couple minutes, that's how mine is, but still not quite that rich.

 

[MERR6267]

Regarding the 590 running rich and not tuning above 12k:

I've been disconnected from my saws and this forum for a few months and a lot is still kind of fuzzy, but I read a thread that Red97 about a year ago made which I think was regarding the 590 (I have a 620, which I think has the same carburetor situation) and I think I recall that the nozzle on the main jet overfuels intentionally in a kind of rev-limiter. I may be wrong on the intention, but I couldn't get the 620 to tune either.

I swapped in the nozzle that Joe posted in the thread below and now I can tune it like any normal carb.

https://opeforum.com/threads/mastermind-meets-the-echo-800p.2360/page-10

If the link is broken for whatever reason, it's Post #185 in the "Mastermind Meets the Echo 800P" thread.
Swapping the nozzle was fairly straightforward, though I needed the correct size punch and a careful hand/vise/chunk of wood to hold the carb properly.

Thanks for the insight on the battery saws.