Discussion
I can't compete with you on saws with my old Makita I inherited, it has proven to be reliable though.
Anyhow, I arrived to find this by the road:
That will test the new log splitter
This will have been the reason it was felled:
That was about 2m higher than the road.
I guessed the tree had previously been cut back as there wasn't a full trees worth there, a quick look on Google streetview confirmed this. A bit more than a van full though so lucky I took the trailer.
I'll process it tomorrow weather permitting. Last week some IBC cages came up for sale locally for £10 ea so I took 8 for putting the split logs in. The main reason for this is because I'm moving house (hopefully!) soon, but want to get the wood on it's way through the drying process ASAP.
It'll be stacked in the cages, then taken to the new place, lifted off and left as I'll be busy with other things for a while. I have a little time on my hands now waiting for the Solicitors to sort themselves out....
Hopefully I'll get my money back on the cages if I have no further use for them, they're usually £15+ each.
Edited by Evoluzione on Saturday 5th September 14:10
S6PNJ said:
Has to be said, taking your firewood to a new house in cages does show a serious level of commitment to the cause.
rxe said:
Big pile is nearly done now.
Just a little more to fill in on the left hand side.
To counter all this talk of battery powered chainsaws, let me introduce my new favourite firewood saw - the mighty Stihl MS880. I’ve had it for a while and never really got on with it, too big, too heavy. 120cc, 8HP, 10 kilos.
However the youngest wanted to use a saw, and I needed to use a modern saw with a chain brake. He’s fine on small saws, but with the big stuff we were slicing up, it was a bit dangerous as the bar was shorter than the wood was wide. So I slapped a 36” bar on the 880 and tried it out. It’s immense and unstoppable, utterly brilliant. It’s crap for anything where you need to carry it more than 100 yards, but for fixed slabbing of tons of wood, it is hard to beat.
Here’s an example of Stihl longevity. It’s an 075, from the serial number it rolled off the production line in 1976.
The oil pump was leaking and not oiling well, so I stripped it down and found a bunch of dodgy looking 45 year old seals. They’re still available, £3.50 each delivered. (If you need Stihl bits online, I can recommend L&S Engineers). All sorted now and back in action.
G'day RXE, that is very similar to my stack. I lay the pallets on bricks/ paving stones to keep the pallets off the ground & rotting, thoughJust a little more to fill in on the left hand side.
To counter all this talk of battery powered chainsaws, let me introduce my new favourite firewood saw - the mighty Stihl MS880. I’ve had it for a while and never really got on with it, too big, too heavy. 120cc, 8HP, 10 kilos.
However the youngest wanted to use a saw, and I needed to use a modern saw with a chain brake. He’s fine on small saws, but with the big stuff we were slicing up, it was a bit dangerous as the bar was shorter than the wood was wide. So I slapped a 36” bar on the 880 and tried it out. It’s immense and unstoppable, utterly brilliant. It’s crap for anything where you need to carry it more than 100 yards, but for fixed slabbing of tons of wood, it is hard to beat.
Here’s an example of Stihl longevity. It’s an 075, from the serial number it rolled off the production line in 1976.
The oil pump was leaking and not oiling well, so I stripped it down and found a bunch of dodgy looking 45 year old seals. They’re still available, £3.50 each delivered. (If you need Stihl bits online, I can recommend L&S Engineers). All sorted now and back in action.
jet_noise said:
Another log-related-tool consumer report:
Slide hammer type splitter - crap.
Took the £36 punt. Lost.
Pros: Accuracy of impact point. You're not relying on aim of an axe swing.
Different action to swinging an axe if your body objects to that.
Cons. Slower. Needs many slide bashes to work through compared to an axe.
Much less powerful. Axe goes through much chunkier pieces.
I've an X25 won for a little less than list on 3bay in the courier. Which I should have done from the start. Others here have reported that it's the daddy of splitting means.
X25 delivered update.Slide hammer type splitter - crap.
Took the £36 punt. Lost.
Pros: Accuracy of impact point. You're not relying on aim of an axe swing.
Different action to swinging an axe if your body objects to that.
Cons. Slower. Needs many slide bashes to work through compared to an axe.
Much less powerful. Axe goes through much chunkier pieces.
I've an X25 won for a little less than list on 3bay in the courier. Which I should have done from the start. Others here have reported that it's the daddy of splitting means.
Slightly heavier than my axe but a shorter handle. Edge sharper than the axe (my fault, must sharpen it
) but the more obtuse blade angle and smaller blade width is obvious. It's a maul after all /aliteration.I sampled it on same wood type and size (eucalyptus, ~10" deep up to 12" diam, about 2 weeks down). Definitely splits rather than cuts. Which has its pros and cons.
Pros: Split even those forked bits I've been saving as the axe bounces off. Still some bouncing but persistence pays. Still hard work, fortunately few forks! Doesn't stick in the split.
Cons: Even when the split goes right through there's a lot of fibres still connecting, needing to pull the bits apart. Whereas the wider axe blade would have cut through these. Maybe partly a feature of green eucalyptus, I've ash & beech to go.
Doesn't stick in the split (yes it's a con as well!) so for those cuts which don't go right through in one go the flip-the-axe/log-combo-over-landing-on-the-reverse-of-the-axe is much harder to do.
Despite those differences I did seem to have an unexpectedly large quantity of logs around the chopping block for a moderate amount of time spent!
rxe said:
To counter all this talk of battery powered chainsaws, let me introduce my new favourite firewood saw - the mighty Stihl MS880. I’ve had it for a while and never really got on with it, too big, too heavy. 120cc, 8HP, 10 kilos.
I have an MS 880 with the heated handle. It came second hand from Alaska, which took 3 months - but I do like the warm handle.I also have a garage coming down with old Stihls, enough so that the magnesium cases alone would be a bigger concern than the petrol if my garage went up in flames.
Love my 041s, AV, Farm Boss and all. They'll run as long a skip tooth chain as you have a bar to hang it on. I did once put an 18" bar on the 880 - it didn't even bog down at all cutting logs so I couldn't set the high mixture right - it would probably have cut them at idle speed if I jammed the clutch open.
But as you say, cutting up logs with a 10kg+ saw tires you out more than anything.
I want a firewood processor - I mean they aren't cheap, but man maths might stretch to one in the future.
guindilias said:
rxe said:
To counter all this talk of battery powered chainsaws, let me introduce my new favourite firewood saw - the mighty Stihl MS880. I’ve had it for a while and never really got on with it, too big, too heavy. 120cc, 8HP, 10 kilos.
I have an MS 880 with the heated handle. It came second hand from Alaska, which took 3 months - but I do like the warm handle.I also have a garage coming down with old Stihls, enough so that the magnesium cases alone would be a bigger concern than the petrol if my garage went up in flames.
Love my 041s, AV, Farm Boss and all. They'll run as long a skip tooth chain as you have a bar to hang it on. I did once put an 18" bar on the 880 - it didn't even bog down at all cutting logs so I couldn't set the high mixture right - it would probably have cut them at idle speed if I jammed the clutch open.
But as you say, cutting up logs with a 10kg+ saw tires you out more than anything.
I want a firewood processor - I mean they aren't cheap, but man maths might stretch to one in the future.
paua said:
You need a 2nd saw, I have an MS 461 running either 20 or 25 inch bar & a 211 for small stuff.
It's Ok, I have plenty of second saws - 200ts, 020s, a 009, and a myriad of others. I do like the ones with the on/off toggle switch where you can't actually see it, so you spend 15 minutes yanking the pull start and swearing at it before remembering you need to switch it to "on" before it will start.
And if there is anyone watching, you can take out a screwdriver, pretend to adjust a screw inside the exhaust or something, then fire it up the next pull while saying "That should have fixed it - just a tweak to the exhaust setting".
paua said:
G'day RXE, that is very similar to my stack. I lay the pallets on bricks/ paving stones to keep the pallets off the ground & rotting, though
I view the pallets as consumable - the farm next door has millions of the things. They still rot even when I put them on an old concrete base... That bit of the garden is bone dry, so they will survive for long enough (I hope...)guindilias said:
I have an MS 880 with the heated handle. It came second hand from Alaska, which took 3 months - but I do like the warm handle.
I also have a garage coming down with old Stihls, enough so that the magnesium cases alone would be a bigger concern than the petrol if my garage went up in flames.
Love my 041s, AV, Farm Boss and all. They'll run as long a skip tooth chain as you have a bar to hang it on. I did once put an 18" bar on the 880 - it didn't even bog down at all cutting logs so I couldn't set the high mixture right - it would probably have cut them at idle speed if I jammed the clutch open.
But as you say, cutting up logs with a 10kg+ saw tires you out more than anything.
I want a firewood processor - I mean they aren't cheap, but man maths might stretch to one in the future.
If you want to try big saws and short bars - change the sprocket. I have an 046 with an 18” bar and a 9 pin sprocket. For those situations where you really need 30% more chain speed....I also have a garage coming down with old Stihls, enough so that the magnesium cases alone would be a bigger concern than the petrol if my garage went up in flames.
Love my 041s, AV, Farm Boss and all. They'll run as long a skip tooth chain as you have a bar to hang it on. I did once put an 18" bar on the 880 - it didn't even bog down at all cutting logs so I couldn't set the high mixture right - it would probably have cut them at idle speed if I jammed the clutch open.
But as you say, cutting up logs with a 10kg+ saw tires you out more than anything.
I want a firewood processor - I mean they aren't cheap, but man maths might stretch to one in the future.
jet_noise said:
Alaskan ebay?For me: Arse, chain oiling failure. It is maybe 20yrs old light use. Pump spare part on order. Worth a punt before I put out for a new saw.
He shipped it, it vanished, then appeared in Miami, then vanished again completely. So he refunded me in full. 2 months later it appeared at my door, totally out of the blue!
So I paid him again - the saw was still showing as MIA, presumed dead and stayed that way for a year or so before the tracking number expired.
Very well used, but also well maintained - the guy had actually used t to build his own log cabin - everything from felling the trees to milling the floorboards.
I mostly use it for cutting up dead hookers these days - you don't even need to use chain oil at all for that, as long as they are properly defrosted.
guindilias said:
jet_noise said:
Alaskan ebay?For me: Arse, chain oiling failure. It is maybe 20yrs old light use. Pump spare part on order. Worth a punt before I put out for a new saw.
He shipped it, it vanished, then appeared in Miami, then vanished again completely. So he refunded me in full. 2 months later it appeared at my door, totally out of the blue!
So I paid him again - the saw was still showing as MIA, presumed dead and stayed that way for a year or so before the tracking number expired.
Very well used, but also well maintained - the guy had actually used t to build his own log cabin - everything from felling the trees to milling the floorboards.
I mostly use it for cutting up dead hookers these days - you don't even need to use chain oil at all for that, as long as they are properly defrosted.
My little electric chainsaw has been doing sterling work today sectioning birch for splitting. Nice and quiet in a Sunday! But the battery running out is very annoying when it happens. Also this is no heavy duty tool - it stops operating if it overheats, which on bigger logs is not more than a few minutes.
So trick is to section, split, section, split etc. Still, took another bootful of logs home.
So trick is to section, split, section, split etc. Still, took another bootful of logs home.
Harry Flashman said:
My little electric chainsaw has been doing sterling work today sectioning birch for splitting. Nice and quiet in a Sunday! But the battery running out is very annoying when it happens. Also this is no heavy duty tool - it stops operating if it overheats, which on bigger logs is not more than a few minutes.
So trick is to section, split, section, split etc. Still, took another bootful of logs home.
If you do have access to power then a good quality mains powered saw has the same advantages over petrol but without the flat battery/overheating concerns.So trick is to section, split, section, split etc. Still, took another bootful of logs home.
My little corded husqvarna will run indefinitely and is so light, quiet and easy to use that I hardly ever bother with a petrol saw unless cutting bigger stuff.
Evoluzione said:
jet_noise said:
'twere the pump. Fitted and sawing
And chopped and stacked.
Don't tell anyone, but I use old engine oil in my chainsaw. I figured as all it does is lube the chain before being flung off onto the firewood it was ideal.And chopped and stacked.
)Snap.
jet_noise said:
Evoluzione said:
jet_noise said:
'twere the pump. Fitted and sawing
And chopped and stacked.
Don't tell anyone, but I use old engine oil in my chainsaw. I figured as all it does is lube the chain before being flung off onto the firewood it was ideal.And chopped and stacked.
)Snap.
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