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Last, I hope you are not felling these trees yourself if you are not experienced.
No, not at all, although I did watch a video or two on YouTube, explaining the process. There's a guy that lives 2 lots over from me who's a tree surgeon. He's gonna fell 'em for me.
OT: I took down some dead red oak in Gapland Md that turned out to be full of civil war bullets. These were monster trees. Just sayin thinking you might find things in most any 100 year old tree too.
When you slice and dice look hard in tree crotches first. I turned up a nice sized hunk of rose quarts once 20 feet off the ground when the tree was standing. It was concealed. A kid had to have placed that there a very long time ago.
It totalled a brand new chain. I mean totalled to no fix all junk, and I am very good at hand filing.
In general when i buy a saw i buy 2 more chains, and any files if i don't have that size on hand.
Can't say for you, but my local Husky dealer sells me chains for less than the big box stores too.
That 70ccs to 36 inch bars means 70cc's and up, there is a lot of up in cc's, and 70 is bottom dog on the power head that can run 36 inch bars.
I tend to not like real long bars. 24 inch is plenty for most anything in New Hampster and would do your oaks easy, so would 18".
The longer the bar that harder they kick, and on occasions they will kick.
Another reason is with a long bar some folks will get sloppy, and cut limbs far from the bucking dawgs. This can cause the wood to grab the chain and ride into the saw and bash the saw, or jump and hit the operator some hard mista'! (yankee tawk )
A few hard wood wedges could be handy to have just the same in the event, while learning you pinch the chain. The wood wedges are in general cheaper than the plastic felling wedges. The idea for either is they can be cut, where as metal can't.
These are not steel splitting wedges.
Every once in a while I make a poor judgement, well my wife says so, and I pinch a chain, and so either a 2nd saw is handy of wooden wedges.
Whatcha gonna do with the oak?
When i bring down any tree for what ever I have a look at the limbs to see what they look like.
For example many oaks have a Y type limb that make great rustic boot jacks as they are pretty much. I cut that Y and then with a smaller straight piece belt sand 2 sides flat, and mate the 2 peices where ever i want and drill for pegs made of the same wood, so the main of Y sits up enough to haul off my boots.
I sand the ends where needed, and trim the pegs, leaving the bark on mostly.
Sometimes a knarley limb is a natural hook, or shed door handle, for not much effort.
Got loose rolls of TP all over the wash room floor? Ha Ha Ha
No, not at all, although I did watch a video or two on YouTube, explaining the process. There's a guy that lives 2 lots over from me who's a tree surgeon. He's gonna fell 'em for me.
Well if your neighbour has the saw and expertise to drop 'em, then get him to spend a few extra minutes and buck the larger parts of the trunks for you.......saves you buying a larger saw you may not need.
I just remembered the main reason to buy a quality saw.....parts availability.
My first saw was a Homelite that I bought new in 1999. After 8 months of clearing my property on weekends, I was ready for a new drive gear. It was obsolete, and unavailable. None of the numbers would cross to anything new. That's when I bought my Stihl. I'm on my 3rd drive gear, and I know that I will be able to get them for a long time to come.
The Homelite is still under my workbench waiting for a new gear that will never come.
Hey, keep an eye on ebay. I see Homelite parts for the older saws all the time. I know cause I have an older Homelite in the lineup.
Just bought myself a Stihl MS-250c for Christmas... I believe it is their largest Home Owner type saw... so far so good. Storms toppled some medium Oaks that were no match for the 18" bar.
My saw of choice is my top handle Echo cs-341 for a 14" bar... that saw has never let me down and I keep it in the truck.
Once, a large tree fell across a friends drive. He was getting frustrated trying to get any tree guy to come out because they were all doing storm work.
I asked him if he wanted me to make a couple cuts so he could get out... that little saw was able to slice a 40" pine with angle cuts...
I use a 18" Husky to cut ~4-5 chords every year. Nice saw and a nice length to work with. I have my saw chains made in town with a more aggressive cut, not off the shelf.....
Had a Poulan Pro 20" for 1 tank of gas and the oiler stopped working...took it back.....
Invest in the proper protective equipment also.....
Almost identical comment, except I use my Dad's Echo. Not as good as a Husky, but half the price and works fine. We also learned to get aggressive chains made at the local hardware store. It makes a world of difference. I also cut about 4-5 cords this year. (last year maybe one cord, but we had a terrible "homeowner" type chain on it). My dad has had this Echo for 5 years or more and he loves it. He uses it to cut up trees that fall down in his yard and some of them are huge.
I looked at some bigger ones, but you have to be built like the Hulk to use a big one for any length of time. I can use the 18" Echo for a two or three hours on a weekend day and only get a little bushed (mostly from moving the logs around), but a big 24" saw with a bigger engine, will wear me out in about an hour.
Almost identical comment, except I use my Dad's Echo. Not as good as a Husky, but half the price and works fine. We also learned to get aggressive chains made at the local hardware store. It makes a world of difference. I also cut about 4-5 cords this year. (last year maybe one cord, but we had a terrible "homeowner" type chain on it). My dad has had this Echo for 5 years or more and he loves it. He uses it to cut up trees that fall down in his yard and some of them are huge.
I looked at some bigger ones, but you have to be built like the Hulk to use a big one for any length of time. I can use the 18" Echo for a two or three hours on a weekend day and only get a little bushed (mostly from moving the logs around), but a big 24" saw with a bigger engine, will wear me out in about an hour.
Bigger is not always better..... The homeowner chains "Do" have less kick-back, but the made up ones are far superior for cutting and have to be sharpened less.... With the cold winter we're having this year, I might have to get into next winters supply....
Almost identical comment, except I use my Dad's Echo. Not as good as a Husky, but half the price and works fine. We also learned to get aggressive chains made at the local hardware store. It makes a world of difference. I also cut about 4-5 cords this year. (last year maybe one cord, but we had a terrible "homeowner" type chain on it). My dad has had this Echo for 5 years or more and he loves it. He uses it to cut up trees that fall down in his yard and some of them are huge.
I looked at some bigger ones, but you have to be built like the Hulk to use a big one for any length of time. I can use the 18" Echo for a two or three hours on a weekend day and only get a little bushed (mostly from moving the logs around), but a big 24" saw with a bigger engine, will wear me out in about an hour.
Something to think about - I recently bought a Husky 272 used for $250 from a pawn shop. It's a very good saw, not new of course but all the parts are available no problemo.
Another thing to think about is you have the more recent saws that are EPA compliant, and the older ones like the 272 - the newer ones probably do run cleaner, I am not positive what all is different besides plastic limiters on the mixture adjustment screws.
One other dividing line is the 18" and smaller "non-professional" saws with anti-kickback chain and/or bars, vs the typically 20" and bigger "professional" saws that don't have this. The pro style saw will cut harder and faster, but you have to know what you are doing, it's not as forgiving. CJ makes a good point that the bigger saws weigh more, particularly Echos, point being when you need a break, take one, the big pro saw is ready and able to "eat your lunch" if you get tired and sloppy with it. By the time you need a break, using a pro saw, you have done enough work that you have earned it.
Recently Oregon, one of the biggest makers of bars, made a couple of improvements - an integral tensioner and a lower drag nose sprocket. I have been using one of these on an old Poulan, and the low-drag yet anti-kickback bar is a very useful improvement on this relatively low-powered saw.
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There's a guy that lives 2 lots over from me who's a tree surgeon. He's gonna fell 'em for me.
)
. The homeowner chains "Do" have less kick-back, but the made up ones are far superior for cutting and have to be sharpened less...
. With the cold winter we're having this year, I might have to get into next winters supply....
