New to Holzff., was about to get a 660 but 'hit a wall' (2 actually) and hoping for help:

[Cerberus]

tl;dr -- If only looking to power a 36", is the 660 "best bet" or should I go with the G070? Also, I'm confused at how there's such a burgeoning re-sellers market of these saws, on amazon&ebay, with such large mark-ups over MSRP on Farmertec, am now uncertain whether I'm better off going with expedited shipping via Farmertec, or just amazon prime from a US-based seller with good feedback! Really hope to place the order for saw, 36" bar and 2-3 chains ASAP!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I love my new, ported 590 but it's not enough, I want something that can pull a 36" with authority....the G660, I *thought*, was the best offering but then saw the G070....would love to hear thoughts on whether it's fair to look at the 070 and think "that's 1/4th more displacement, and these Holzff stihl-clones are probably linear-enough in their power-per-displacement" (because the Farmertec site's #'s/specs are dogshit, there's mistakes and some that make no sense like *literally* don't add-up!)

Don't want to get a more expensive, heavier saw than necessary, am in FL and getting it for occasional use, not gonna be using it daily!! Not even *that* much actually, although that leads to my next question because I realllly wanted to get it before next Mon or Tues at latest and saw plenty of ebay/amazon re-sellers, moving TONS of these units, with great feedback....despite VERY inflated prices, way over farmertec MSRP, why is that? Is the ebay/amazon 'middleman' effectively quality-control against DOA units? Can't just be 'quicker shipping' as the price-increase is more than you'd spend on expedited shipping from China!

Really hoping to order asap, the powerhead with 36" bar and 2-3 chains, actually have amazon prime right now so may get advantage there IF the re-sellers have advantage, anyway thanks for any / all insight, am real eager to get (and port and enjoy!) one of these beasts, I'm not a big guy so if the g660 is "gonna pull a 36" with authority" then I don't need bigger in fact it'd become detrimental, also love that the 660 revs 13k while the 070 and even 440 all rev far lower, but again am having trouble relying on the farmertec site specs after seeing the inconsistencies in power-ratings (Eg., they say the 372xp and 660 both have same kW output )

Again thanks a ton, hoping to order quickly as I can but really wanna ensure the 660 is the right model, and want to order from teh right place (heck, farmertec's website has multiple URL's for the 660, with slightly-varied prices, very weird!)

 

[LoneOak]

The 660 is more than enough to fiercely pull on a 36"chain even running an 8 pin rim! I also run a 52" on my 660 with a 7 pin rim and it pulls it well!

I buy directly from FT and just pay the shipping and deal with the wait, that way I get recently packaged kits instead of kits that have been "possibly" sitting in a warehouse for who knows how long getting kicked and shuffled around.

 

[Mastermind]

I honestly wouldn't pay 10.00 for a junk Chinese saw.

 

[Nutball]

(Eg., they say the 372xp and 660 both have same kW output )

Could be true considering the quality. 660 should be stronger than the 070 as far as I know.

I wouldn't trust the quality of chinese bars though.

I don't know that there's much porting to do on the 660 except for a lot of machine work, epoxy, and a lot of transfer work. The Echo 590 is a piece of cake in comparison, like the easiest saw to port I know is the 590.

 

[Cerberus]

The 660 is more than enough to fiercely pull on a 36"chain even running an 8 pin rim! I also run a 52" on my 660 with a 7 pin rim and it pulls it well!

I buy directly from FT and just pay the shipping and deal with the wait, that way I get recently packaged kits instead of kits that have been "possibly" sitting in a warehouse for who knows how long getting kicked and shuffled around.

Great to hear Re the G660, and since it appears that one is the most-popular (maybe 2nd or 3rd, certainly moreso than the 070 though!) it should mean more online resources, more plentiful&affordable replacement parts, etc...

How bad is the wait? To be clear do you mean just waiting on ground type shipping from china (IE lowest-fee S&H) or that even paying some $30 or $50 up-charge for premium S&H is still slow? Will say I'm not that worried of units sitting that long, considering that resellers are probably not buying that much excess stock lest they eat-into their margins....literally just got back from loading my cash-card (only use 1 card for online-buys) with several hundred so I could choose either option, am GG to check-out on Farmertec now to compare prices&times, would love to hear if anyone's gone through the re-sellers!

I honestly wouldn't pay 10.00 for a junk Chinese saw.

You're so many light-years ahead of me though, you're basically honing state-of-the-art powersaws as your modus operandi -- we all know these are beneath you ;D Don't get me wrong, the echo 7310 eats at me, I wish I could justify it, but the G660 should be out-performing it and costing half the price....obviously build-quality is far lower but I hear plenty of anecdotes of people using-and-liking theirs and I don't just mean outta the box!
Kind of reminds me of my "scheppach CSP2540", a $135 clonesaw (shipped), clone of zenoah g2500 platform, anyway I'm past 2.5yrs with it and still love the thing, it's still the 1st saw I grab when climbing a tree...It's hard to think I got a total fluke and all the others are total junk, the scheppach I got looks identical to Farmertec's Jon Cutter 'prowler puppy' am gonna guess it's just re-badged it's hard to imagine multiple factories making identical clones

Could be true considering the quality. 660 should be stronger than the 070 as far as I know.

I wouldn't trust the quality of chinese bars though.

I don't know that there's much porting to do on the 660 except for a lot of machine work, epoxy, and a lot of transfer work. The Echo 590 is a piece of cake in comparison, like the easiest saw to port I know is the 590.

Weird to me that the 660 would be stronger than the 070, wonder why anyone would bother with a heavier saw, that went through more gas, if it were weaker (and cost more!) Well, I'll say the support behind the 660 series is so strong that that makes the model far more appealing to me....would GREATLY appreciate knowing if any of their other models can pull a 36" B&C properly (IE their 372xp reallllly catches my eye, but it just seems I'm getting more power-per-dollar with the 660, also better power//weight..)

Good to know Re the porting BTW, honestly would prefer to just have a powerhead that I can tune-and-run, no real mods necessary, have just found that I"m always wanting more power than I can afford ergo am porting or being obsessive about chain-sharpness and fuel/air quality etc to get whatever advantages I can, if the 660 can pull a 36" with authority I wouldn't bother risking "running hot" by porting I'd simply swap-up the parts to OEM over-time and treat it gently.... To be clear I would not be using this a ton, heck I don't even need my 590 a ton, but there's jobs that I can avoid bringing-in another person if I'm able to do the trunk, can't do it sometimes when it's >4' wide and I've just got a 20"

 

[Mastermind]

You're so many light-years ahead of me though, you're basically honing state-of-the-art powersaws as your modus operandi -- we all know these are beneath you

Beneath me? No.....that ain't the issue. The Chinese are ripping off everyone, all over the world. They steal other people's ideas, and then use damn near slave labor to beat anyone else's price.

That's a no from me.

 

[Cerberus]

@Mastermind (at anyone, really!), are these considered worse than "average clonesaws" like is farmertec "a bad clonesaw maker"? Or you simply wouldn't deal w/ clones because, by their nature, they're almost always inferior in almost all ways (from materials used, precision of assembly, and final quality-control)

Thanks, I mean it's obviously a false-economy to buy one of these if you have to spend $500 on OEM stihl 660 parts to actually use it w/o expecting a 50/50 chance of failure, but that's not what I'm seeing anecdotally, am seeing that quality-control is weak but that generally they're just low-quality 90cc saws, not something to compete w/ a 660 of course but also something you can be confident enough in its functionality (IE I have a hard time picturing these G660's are on-the-bench more often than in-field, surely not as-good as a real 660 of course but still something people get and use w/o much issue in general...put another way, you'd probably regard these G660's the same way you'd regard this 25cc climbsaw:
https://www.ebay.com/p/13031087088
[Yes its front-bumper is obnoxious but comes off with 2 phillips screws, then the hand-brake can be cut to reasonable size, at which point it is an AWESOME lil saw, I bring 3 climbsaws to work and use my scheppach like 80%+ of the time, swapping to the 355t only when I need its power, length or fuel-capacity!] Would be getting this G660 "as my 2nd groundsaw", to complement the 590, so i can use the 590 most of the time on-ground but bust-out the G660 to help as-needed for instance the reason for me having said "hoping to get it by Mon/Tues next week" is because, w/ or w/o it, I'll be needing to finish this guy:

Gotta beaver-cut with my 20" ported 590 (gonna update that build-thread as my 2nd/final round went well!!) unless I get my hands on something else sooner...could order an oversize bar for my 590, knowing how slow it'll be -- but still work -- but really hoping I can make this 36" G660 work before Mon/Tues next week (heck if the 590 failed during trunk dismantle, I'd be down to my 355t (36cc/18")

 

[Cerberus]

Beneath me? No.....that ain't the issue. The Chinese are ripping off everyone, all over the world. They steal other people's ideas, and then use damn near slave labor to beat anyone else's price.

That's a no from me.

I cannot disagree in fact I emphatically agree, I majored econ and had a long crypto anarchist phase so am eager to get-into this but suffice to say I know I'm in the wrong supporting them, in being a part of it....I can swallow / accept it /am at peace with it in this context, though certainly acknowledge you're right (but I'd sooner have the abilities I need in the field, than stick to my guns and be poor...am a 1 man operation trying to grow and getting from prunings to more removals is critical to my life, just getting the 590 has already gotten me more 'big work' so am very eager to have my facebook banner being some big 3' powersaw, sick of local clowns getting removals while I'm making less doing far more complex/risky limb removals...
In life I think some of the biggest impact we have, is how we spend our money....I hope to be able to say/do things precisely as you do here, sooner than later....am still new and working-away from being real poor though, am still poor by any of you guys' standards..

 

[Ronie]

I've got two of the 660 clones, not a blue one, and my take on them is that they are not durable enough for professional use and their performance doesn't even come close to the real deal. If I had to rely on a saw for my income it wouldn't be Chinese. That said, they are cheap and fun to play around with.

 

[Mastermind]

I cannot disagree in fact I emphatically agree, I majored econ and had a long crypto anarchist phase so am eager to get-into this but suffice to say I know I'm in the wrong supporting them, in being a part of it....I can swallow / accept it /am at peace with it in this context, though certainly acknowledge you're right (but I'd sooner have the abilities I need in the field, than stick to my guns and be poor...am a 1 man operation trying to grow and getting from prunings to more removals is critical to my life, just getting the 590 has already gotten me more 'big work' so am very eager to have my facebook banner being some big 3' powersaw, sick of local clowns getting removals while I'm making less doing far more complex/risky limb removals...
In life I think some of the biggest impact we have, is how we spend our money....I hope to be able to say/do things precisely as you do here, sooner than later....am still new and working-away from being real poor though, am still poor by any of you guys' standards..

You need a 660? I'll give you a 660 clone. Just send me your address.

 

[Czed]

Here's nos
https://chainsawforum.com/threads/nos-ms660.97/

 

[Cerberus]

You need a 660? I'll give you a 660 clone. Just send me your address.

I....just...what??? Was just going-through my tabs of new G660's, whittling-down the list, and came back here....man I must be misunderstanding you there's no way I'm that lucky but sending a PM right now!!!

 

[Nutball]

I recommend getting the high output oil pump for it. Maybe even get an affordable 42" Oregon bar with full skip chain.

 

[Mastermind]

Got the saw out. Found a good Walbro for it.....

 

[LoneOak]

Junk or not, they're very fun to put together.

If it weren't for the Asian aftermarket parts, these saws; that are no longer available from the manufacturer, would disappear into obscurity.

I don't blame the Chinese for the current situation in manufacturing of other peoples ideas. I blame Greedy OEMs who outsource manufacturing to other countries to skirt taxes and labor costs of their home countries. The way I see it, China is up 38 points to the rest of the modern world with 3 minutes left in the game. And I doubt it will change in my life time.

Maybe Stihl, Echo and Husqvarna should start putting a complete set of saw parts in a box to sell at market for a reduced price and little to no warranty!

 

[smokey7]

Wow @Mastermind very good move on your part. So nice to see.

 

[LoneOak]

Wow @Mastermind very good move on your part. So nice to see.

Absolutely!

Gratz on the saw @Cerberus!

 

[Mastermind]

Wow @Mastermind very good move on your part. So nice to see.

I wasn't ever going to use it. Hopefully he gets some good service from it.

 

[Cerberus]

Wow @Mastermind very good move on your part. So nice to see.

Absolutely!

Gratz on the saw @Cerberus!

I wasn't ever going to use it. Hopefully he gets some good service from it.

MM-- even still, just frickin' WOW man, inspirational gesture even w/ all practical considerations aside!!!! But...Re getting good service from it...I know that you know how much of a difference / game-changer this is, I mean my first (and only - I blew the coil! New one lands tomorrow, will bring it to local shop Mon AM if I'm unable to rectify but seems clear it's just ignition coil not throwing-spark) first usage of this was literally a humboldt notching, then bore-cutting, on a sizeable Oak and jeeeeebus what a pleasure!!! Once landed, I kept alternating between it and my 590, which I had backup 20"'s for, but once the 660('660') 's chain became dulled from my initial sharpening, client went to Ace and got it a new yellow box 33 RS Stihl chain, 1st time ever using an outta-box Stihl chain, but never had so much fun with a saw in my life!!!!!

@smokey7 your phrasing of 'good move' is interesting, is this like crack? "The first hit is free"? Because, no joke at all, my brain always kinda goes to "what's next?" and, having this saw now*, my next saw's model is still unknown but its source isn't!!!!
(*not only does this 92cc ported beast "round out" the 'top end' of my arsenal, allowing me to properly do the larger jobs I'm seeking, but the extra $$ from larger jobs + the fact I'm no longer needing any particular saw, means the next one will effectively be something to "lighten the load" when the 92cc isn't necessary, but the 60cc isn't quite enough....something for ~28-30" B&C that can cut super fast like at least 12k reliable cut-speed...no question where I'll be getting it, just how long to get the $$ and justify next-saw to myself

@LoneOak Thank you, thing is the coolest toy I've had in a while....it's funny because guns used to interest me, now I couldn't imagine buying a gun when there's so many saws I still don't own!!!

I recommend getting the high output oil pump for it. Maybe even get an affordable 42" Oregon bar with full skip chain.

Got the saw out. Found a good Walbro for it.....

Felt terrible, was like not even a whole 24hrs before "oh here's 2 tracking #'s, sent you a B&C for it too", only for FedEx to be 3d late on their delivery ((and new-tip on a great long-bar, a nice Oregon, w/ good chain, frickin' A man!!!!)

The walbro carb -- and the Stihl OEM flywheel cover & starter-assembly -- oh and that air filter looks like Stihl not Holzff.... And the OEM 7-hole rim-drive sprocket w/ Stihl stamping...every time I touched the saw for the first day or two I would notice something extra!!!

Nutball (and anyone of course!!) besides high output oil pump*, what would you recommend? MM took-care of the B&C, new nosed Oregon longbar and chain (and my client grabbed a Stihl 33 RS for it so he could keep me sawing w/o break!) Mastermind seems to have effectively taken care of every last bit on this thing, the one thing and I feel ridiculous but I wander about those larger pull-handles ("D-handles") for starting....I wish I had good film of it but I just destroyed my hands with starting-up the unit, it was VERY interesting because the moment I blew the coil, from there you could pull that cord and it felt 'like a normal saw', like my 590 if it were bigger, but when it was giving spark it was SO hard to start (I'm 135lbs...I'm strong and understand acceleration of the pull, and not doing that at the initiation of the pull, but what kept happening was I'd be 20%, 40% into a pull and it'd just "go stiff" and my hand would fly-off the Stihl Elastostart handle (yup, even OEM elastostart ), have gigantic blisters lol, I think I was getting better at it by the end of that big Oak -- needing 1-2 failed-attempts before a start, instead of 2-3 -- but suddenly understood why people put those ginormous starter-handles on!!

Well.....yeah I'm just on cloud9 with this, or more specifically this plus its little brother 590, because I've always had the mindset of "2 is 1, 1 is none" meaning you don't go do a job that requires a top-handle, if you're down to 1 top-handle....because you need a backup. You don't drop a fat Oak trunk if you don't have 2 saws you can buck it up with.... With this saw I'm now confidently moving to bigger wood, it is great my next purchase may not be a saw but a basic lil winch to make-use of my truck's "trailer-ramps"(ford OEM nice ones) and log-skid-cones so I can actually move what I cut, shoulda seen me w/ my log-dolly moving this Oak!!

Kinda embarrassed to post video with myself but nothing shows the saw doing its thing remotely as well....also yes I am small relative to the saw, and as previously mentioned this notch was like literally the first time burying the bar on this saw (I don't just have tree trunks laying around ;P ) and was able to 'meet my corners' on the notch flawlessly, kicked the notch-wood out, then bore-cut to maybe a 6" backstrap and then let it go (aiming for as slow a pull-over as possible, was ideally going to pull it by hand but didn't want to risk rocking it as it was real straight up/down!)
[[errr video is in MOV format am trying to figure-out but google-drive is only showing half the upload (useless on a felling-video!) so here are pictures until I figure out uploading this....or give-up and link the TikTok that went viral got >1300 views in hours! "mini viral" lol but crazy when you're used to a half dozen / few dozen organic views!]]]
Hungry machines:
Setting pull-line before coming-down for the felling cut:
Glamour shot of the coolest hardware I own, my new prized possession (lol that must sound ridiculous to you guys )


Me holding it, *s-word-eating grin, figured it's funny showing the big saw // lil guy juxtaposition ;D

 

[Mastermind]

MM-- even still, just frickin' WOW man, inspirational gesture even w/ all practical considerations aside!!!! But...Re getting good service from it...I know that you know how much of a difference / game-changer this is, I mean my first (and only - I blew the coil! New one lands tomorrow, will bring it to local shop Mon AM if I'm unable to rectify but seems clear it's just ignition coil not throwing-spark) first usage of this was literally a humboldt notching, then bore-cutting, on a sizeable Oak and jeeeeebus what a pleasure!!! Once landed, I kept alternating between it and my 590, which I had backup 20"'s for, but once the 660('660') 's chain became dulled from my initial sharpening, client went to Ace and got it a new yellow box 33 RS Stihl chain, 1st time ever using an outta-box Stihl chain, but never had so much fun with a saw in my life!!!!!

@smokey7 your phrasing of 'good move' is interesting, is this like crack? "The first hit is free"? Because, no joke at all, my brain always kinda goes to "what's next?" and, having this saw now*, my next saw's model is still unknown but its source isn't!!!!
(*not only does this 92cc ported beast "round out" the 'top end' of my arsenal, allowing me to properly do the larger jobs I'm seeking, but the extra $$ from larger jobs + the fact I'm no longer needing any particular saw, means the next one will effectively be something to "lighten the load" when the 92cc isn't necessary, but the 60cc isn't quite enough....something for ~28-30" B&C that can cut super fast like at least 12k reliable cut-speed...no question where I'll be getting it, just how long to get the $$ and justify next-saw to myself

@LoneOak Thank you, thing is the coolest toy I've had in a while....it's funny because guns used to interest me, now I couldn't imagine buying a gun when there's so many saws I still don't own!!!



Felt terrible, was like not even a whole 24hrs before "oh here's 2 tracking #'s, sent you a B&C for it too", only for FedEx to be 3d late on their delivery ((and new-tip on a great long-bar, a nice Oregon, w/ good chain, frickin' A man!!!!)

The walbro carb -- and the Stihl OEM flywheel cover & starter-assembly -- oh and that air filter looks like Stihl not Holzff.... And the OEM 7-hole rim-drive sprocket w/ Stihl stamping...every time I touched the saw for the first day or two I would notice something extra!!!

Nutball (and anyone of course!!) besides high output oil pump*, what would you recommend? MM took-care of the B&C, new nosed Oregon longbar and chain (and my client grabbed a Stihl 33 RS for it so he could keep me sawing w/o break!) Mastermind seems to have effectively taken care of every last bit on this thing, the one thing and I feel ridiculous but I wander about those larger pull-handles ("D-handles") for starting....I wish I had good film of it but I just destroyed my hands with starting-up the unit, it was VERY interesting because the moment I blew the coil, from there you could pull that cord and it felt 'like a normal saw', like my 590 if it were bigger, but when it was giving spark it was SO hard to start (I'm 135lbs...I'm strong and understand acceleration of the pull, and not doing that at the initiation of the pull, but what kept happening was I'd be 20%, 40% into a pull and it'd just "go stiff" and my hand would fly-off the Stihl Elastostart handle (yup, even OEM elastostart ), have gigantic blisters lol, I think I was getting better at it by the end of that big Oak -- needing 1-2 failed-attempts before a start, instead of 2-3 -- but suddenly understood why people put those ginormous starter-handles on!!

Well.....yeah I'm just on cloud9 with this, or more specifically this plus its little brother 590, because I've always had the mindset of "2 is 1, 1 is none" meaning you don't go do a job that requires a top-handle, if you're down to 1 top-handle....because you need a backup. You don't drop a fat Oak trunk if you don't have 2 saws you can buck it up with.... With this saw I'm now confidently moving to bigger wood, it is great my next purchase may not be a saw but a basic lil winch to make-use of my truck's "trailer-ramps"(ford OEM nice ones) and log-skid-cones so I can actually move what I cut, shoulda seen me w/ my log-dolly moving this Oak!!

Kinda embarrassed to post video with myself but nothing shows the saw doing its thing remotely as well....also yes I am small relative to the saw, and as previously mentioned this notch was like literally the first time burying the bar on this saw (I don't just have tree trunks laying around ;P ) and was able to 'meet my corners' on the notch flawlessly, kicked the notch-wood out, then bore-cut to maybe a 6" backstrap and then let it go (aiming for as slow a pull-over as possible, was ideally going to pull it by hand but didn't want to risk rocking it as it was real straight up/down!)
[[errr video is in MOV format am trying to figure-out but google-drive is only showing half the upload (useless on a felling-video!) so here are pictures until I figure out uploading this....or give-up and link the TikTok that went viral got >1300 views in hours! "mini viral" lol but crazy when you're used to a half dozen / few dozen organic views!]]]
Hungry machines:
View attachment 312651 View attachment 312652 Setting pull-line before coming-down for the felling cut:View attachment 312654
Glamour shot of the coolest hardware I own, my new prized possession (lol that must sound ridiculous to you guys )
View attachment 312656

Me holding it, *s-word-eating grin, figured it's funny showing the big saw // lil guy juxtaposition ;D
View attachment 312655

You might not be big.....but you are strong as a bull.

If starting issues continue, get an OEM coil. Ask about one in the Swap Meet thread. One from an 046/460 will work too. Or.....I can send one from a 461. The 461 coil has a 13,500 RPM limit.....but that's great for a 92cc saw. Let me know what you need.