Difficulty starting Stihl chainsaw

[oldclaypaws]

you dont end up with the headaches and generally feeling unwell as you do with petrol.

I'm generally very intolerant of any pollutants- I virtually come out in a rash if someone lights up a fag next to me, and keep a safe distance from anyone wearing overpowering perfumes. However, have to say I've never noticed any ill effects from petrol fumes, which must be there (?)..... Although its carcinogenic, I also find the smell of diesel and many mineral oils not unpleasant, even mildly attractive. Must be a personal thing, we all have varying sensitivities to different stimuli.

Always said if I launched a gentleman's fragrance it would have mellow undertones of moss, sawdust, beer and wet dog. (just like me).

[davetb]

Hi,
You've all inspired me.
I had fuel fit in shed, but never used it, it came with a recent mower.
My wife, kids & dog are away for a few days.
What to do......
I've oiled my oak bench.
Then got new fuel, added fuel fit and 2 stroke oil.
Then spent a couple of hours cleaning the 3 chainsaws and brushcutter.
New fuel added to all four.
They now all start first time and sound good.
I'd forgotten how scary the Husky is, it moves in your hands as it revs.
Thank you all for the inspiration.
Dave

[oldclaypaws]

Like the bench. Your own handywork?

[davetb]

Like the bench. Your own handywork?

Unfortunately not, I bought it from Celtic Forestry at last year's Royal Welsh show.
Their prices have just about doubled in the past year.
Now well out of my price range.
My wife keeps nagging me to try some planking, I bought an Alaskan Mini mill a couple of years ago.
I also have a ripping chain for the Husky.
I never seem to have enough time, however.
Maybe over the summer....

[Wendelspanswick]

What size is the Husky, I have a Husky 61 with an 18" bar in my collection but the general consensus is that you need a 70cc plus saw for milling.

[davetb]

What size is the Husky, I have a Husky 61 with an 18" bar in my collection but the general consensus is that you need a 70cc plus saw for milling.

Hi,
It's a 357xp with a 15" bar. ( it was my first saw - recommended as a good all round first saw for a woodland owner, by several dealers ). After my first LANTRA course and a few months in the woods, I realised I needed something smaller.
I was going to try it on a reasonably small log with an Alaskan mini mill.
The 'general consensus' is also that the mini mill is pretty small.
I hardly use this saw as although I'm happy cross cutting bigger stuff with it, I find it too heavy to do any felling, and all the trees that I need to fell are pretty small or hazel coppice.
I prefer the Stihl MS201 for the majority of my work.
I'm usually alone with a patchy mobile signal and much prefer the smallest saw that can do the job, even if it takes longer.
It has been suggested, by a friend, that I sell the Husky & buy a bigger planking saw.
I think I need to 'have a go' before I go down that road.
I suspect I'm going to 'hate' planking - which is probably why I haven't tried it, yet.
I could end up with a big saw that I never use.

[oldclaypaws]

Going slightly off topic here, having been stimulated by the attractive oak bench. I looked up their website wanting a closer look at them, and sure enough found them at £400+ odd. Ouch.

What surprised me is on close inspection of the photos, the nice curvy edges, while debarked, seem to incorporate the sapwood. I'd have thought while oak heartwood is within reason indestructible, observing the fallen oaks in my wood the sapwood seems to rot and peel off after a few years, so if making outside furniture I'd have thought its common practice to just use heartwood. Any comments on durability of oak sapwood ? I guess its left on for wany edge cladding boards and the weather would run off, but I'd only expect it to hold up on furniture if preserved or kept in during the winter. (??)

Not exactly short of it, so if debarked oak will hold up OK outdoors, it offers quite a few possibilities......

Also, anyone care to comment on cleanest and easiest way to debark?

[davetb]

Going slightly off topic here, having been stimulated by the attractive oak bench. I looked up their website wanting a closer look at them, and sure enough found them at £400+ odd. Ouch.

What surprised me is on close inspection of the photos, the nice curvy edges, while debarked, seem to incorporate the sapwood. I'd have thought while oak heartwood is within reason indestructible, observing the fallen oaks in my wood the sapwood seems to rot and peel off after a few years, so if making outside furniture I'd have thought its common practice to just use heartwood. Any comments on durability of oak sapwood ? I guess its left on for wany edge cladding boards and the weather would run off, but I'd only expect it to hold up on furniture if preserved or kept in during the winter. (??)

Not exactly short of it, so if debarked oak will hold up OK outdoors, it offers quite a few possibilities......

Also, anyone care to comment on cleanest and easiest way to debark?

Here's what it looked like a year ago - on arrival.
Beautiful colour.
We were given an 'oil mixture' to put on, once a year.
I have just applied it - it's in a milk carton so no idea of ingredients.
I will be cross if the sapwood only lasts a few years.
Only time will tell.
I have taken photos and screenshots of their claims.

Our furniture is made of heavy and very strong Welsh oak wood. Even if untreated, this dense wood will have a lifespan of over 40 years (for Oak and 30 years for Larch). So with an application of preservative seasonally your family and friends will be able to enjoy your Celtic Forest furniture for many decades to come.

[oldclaypaws]

If you have a fallen oak bough in a wood, after some 5-10 years the sapwood starts to rot off, leaving just the rock hard durable heartwood (the remaining smaller widths of heartwood are sometimes called 'stag oak' due to the textural resemblance to antlers). SEE BELOW. The sapwood is usually sawn off in the milling process when making oak beams or planks. I've fresh cut oak where you can see fungi discolouring the sapwood (going black), even though its only been off the tree since this winter -its the start of the decaying process, often accompanied by spalting, or lighter/darker stripes. The heartwood contains loads of tannin and is very strong and fungi and weather resistant, but the sapwood is the growing part of the tree which is softer; exposed to weather it becomes spongy then crumbles off. That's why its cut off when making oak roof shingles.

Don't like to be a prophet of doom, but looking at the pictures of the bench, there is clearly sapwood on the edges, and whats more it looks as if its already going black and spalting, eg decaying. It aint gonna last 40 years. The oil may help, but left out all year oak sapwood will usually rot off in less than a decade. Shame if I'm correct, looks splendid. Maybe the makers are new to the game and haven't twigged this yet, in which case they might have quite a few disgruntled customers coming out of the woodwork before too long.....?

[Terry]

Have to agree with paws re the sapwood. The 'preservative' might help stretch things, but it wont last 40 years.
Be interesting to know what is in their preservative???

Davetb, if you need a home for the 357, I might be interested and not far from you (or from your woodland that is).
It will definitely be disappointing milling with the 357 at only 56cc as you need a bit more power and bigger bar to mill anything of a decent size.
The mini mill I think is also generally used for splitting big logs down to more managable sizes for the alaskan, rather than planking on its own, although I suppose you could get some decent slabs out, but would have thought it would be difficult to get consistent straight cuts?
I have an old stihl 076 (110cc) that is going to be used for some milling at some point. Just need to fix it up a bit and find a decomp lever as it is a bit tricky to start without one