Today is a bit below freezing. I used a chainsaw a bit again.
What kind of chainsaw do you have?
I have two.
One is an eighteen inch smallish, homeowner quality Stihl, nothing great, about twenty years old, which I did not use for over five years. It just sat there because it would not start. Finally I gave up on all the over the counter replacement parts I could buy to replace quickly, gaskets, seals, spark plug, etc. I just parked it and let it collect dust.
A couple of years ago, about this time of year, I pulled it down and sent it over to our neighbor's shop who had just done a bang up job of reviving our Toro mower that my son had completely trashed in two years of use on a very small yard. The service guy found that the carburetor on the Stihl was cracked inside and replaced it.
Now, it starts on the second pull, almost every time, regardless of the air temperature. Age of the thing does not seem to be a factor. It works great and it came in very handy while I was taking down a half grown maple, which I had stupidly allowed to grow in a stupid place twenty five years ago. That tree was too close to the power lines and it was never a problem, until it began to be such a beast of a tree.
BUT, this year I have not even put gas in the Stihl. I also have a (go ahead and laugh, Mr. Northwestern Woods forester guy) twelve inch cordless B&D battery powered little thingy.
It has no trouble cutting through the twelve to fifteen inch trunks I have used it for lately. It comes down to saw smarts and how you use your equipment. I seem to get through the main trunk, felling the trees and five or six more smaller side branches on one charge before I have to replace the battery.
Fortunately, I have a large number of B&D batteries to keep ready. I also have two cordless blowers, a weed whacker, two different size hedge trimmers, a small reciprocating saw, an orbital sander, two drills and a portable vacuum which all use the same 20V battery system.
I do have two larger amp/hour batteries, double the size of the standard ones, that came with the drills and the increase in usable power and time with the chainsaw is more than double.
Anyway, this little chainsaw continues to impress me and switching out batteries after twenty minutes or so is a small price to pay for getting to use such a light and maneuverable, yet powerful little tool.
When I get closer to finishing knocking all these down, I will have to get out "the real chainsaw" though. These fruit trees I have been cutting are shaped like an upside down funnel near the ground. At about knee high, where I fell them, they are twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, but at the ground they are twenty five or something as the roots spring out of the ball. That task will be easier with gas power.
