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Milwaukee M18 Chainsaw throwing chain.

fearofpavement

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I have pulled out the few remaining hairs I had trying to figure out why my $500 Milwaukee M18 chainsaw keeps throwing the chain? It's not a lack of knowledge as I've been using chainsaws for 49 years and have run most brands and sizes of saws. I have never experienced a saw that insists on throwing off the chain with such regularity. I have even tried a different brand bar and chain. It does it most frequently with small stuff but even when cutting wood as big as 4" diameter it tends to throw it off. This saw has a ton of torque and I'm wondering if that's part of the problem? I may try yet another bar/chain combo on it if I have something in the shop that will fit it. It has done this from the beginning but figuring there might be a learning curve I just bumbled along with it but today I was ready to toss it in a dumpster. Any solutions? (I'm looking for advice from someone that actually has one of these saws and found something that helped)
 

bogieboy

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How tight are you setting the chain... i ask because i have had quite a few people latwly that have set thier chains to droop a bit, and every one of them comes back as throwing the chain...

Proper chain tension (in my opinion, as well as stihl training manuals) would be to tighten the chain til the chain comes up and touches the underside if the bar

Also if you bounce the chain off stuff, i lt can throw it, especially a higher torque saw like a battery saw... chains dont like fast changes in speed or direction... you may be suprised how much the chain stretches when operating vs static... check out how much air time the chain gets on my 661, even with it set tight to the bar...

 

Sloughfoot

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Do you have to reset the chain tension when it comes off?
 
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