Those damn flies drive me nuts. We've got a billion and a half of them here, bouncing of my head while mowing at any speed. I just called them horseflies, because that's what they look like to me.
Did some logging of my own here the past couple days. That's a job that'll tell you real quick what kind of shape your body is in. I've got pain in just about every joint - some I never knew I had.
Started off with my 10 year old Husqvarna 141. That didn't last long. Was shooting sparks out the bar after 5 minutes. Note to self - NOBODY borrows the chainsaw AGAIN!!
So, out came dad's trusty ol '85 Echo CS-280E. Threw gas in it, and it started right up with NO carb clean and sitting for years! Gotta love it! All metal - no chintzy plastic, except for a hand guard. Starts right up and runs mint .... unless you let it sit hot. Then it boils the fuel and creates so much pressure that the needle valve can't open. Besides that, and the missing check valve in the bar oil cap that puked a quart of oil all over my shirt and pants, it still cuts like a dream. ORIGINAL bar, maybe the second chain, in 28 years!
Before I learned the quirks of the 280 (don't shut it down until it runs out of gas - no breaks!), I got my buddy's '06 Echo CS-330T running. That needed a carb clean, and many adjustments, after prying those damn EPA *censored* caps off the mixture screws.
Thing still ran like *censored*. No balls at all. So I yank the exhaust and find this thing has a CAT!! WTF??? In a damn chainsaw that burns a whopping 4 pints of fuel in 2 years!! Drilled that abortion out of there, hogged out the outlet plate, tossed the stupid screen, and flipped the plate around 180° so the exhaust wasn't directed into my face, and BAM! Thing runs mint! So mint that I had the bar on that one shooting sparks after an hour of heavy use.
2 bars, 2 chains, 10 trees. Can't complain. Yeah, both had bar oil ... but thank the EPA for setting the damn thing to a trickle. That 28 year old 280 has the ORIGINAL BAR!! This thing was designed as a limber - I was cutting TREES with the thing all day long and it never missed a beat!
My other 2 fall back saws - the ones big enough to actually cut a tree (over 16" bar length) have issues all their own. I have a pile of *censored* '99 Poulan Pro 2450, that has so much flex in the handle that you think your cutting a rubber tree! That one has a bum carb. Got a bit crazy with the compressed air on that one and blew out a check valve into the progressive dimension ... and then the other Echo, also was my dad's, is about a '90 or so CS-4600. The ignition on that decided to take a dump this year. In '11 it ran great - could hear the piston slap a mile away.
This year, bum coil. $85 for the damn thing too. Still cheaper than a new saw though.
All told this tree excavation extravaganza has cost me over $200, but I'll have 5 nearly new saws to juggle! Yard is lookin bigger. Now I'll have room to pull in with the trailer and make a loop. Anything that saves a minute of time is well worth it. Plus I have a wood stockpile for when coal is banned next ...
And HOLY *censored* Fred is over 10k posts!!!
and please post a pic of you wearing the darn thing
