Chainsaw Tuneup

Personal Finances Building / Maintaining a Home
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I wanted to get my chainsaw tuned up because it is running rough. There are two shops near me that work on chainsaws. The first one said it would be 4 weeks and if they had to order parts it could be 5 weeks. The other shop told me it would be 8 weeks.

So either the shops are having a hard time hiring people to work on 2 cycle engines or electric chainsaws are biting into the market. My chainsaw is a Husqvarna with a 20 inch bar so not really heavy duty but most electric chainsaws (Battery operated) will not be able to do what this chainsaw can do when cutting down trees. But both of the shops could have done a full tune up in about 30 minutes and charged me 2 hour shop time plus parts for about 150 to 200 dollars.

Since it was going to take them that long I decided to go on Amazon and order a tune up kit. They send you a new carburetor, new fuel lines, new bulb, new gas filter, new air filter all for 18.95 plus tax. I can’t believe it is that cheap but if I could have taken it into a shop and received it back in a week I still probably would have taken it in. It seems that gas engines are on the way out.

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Yup-- just like corded drills and slide rules.

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I had a friend who had a TV repair shop. She and her workers made a decent living replacing tubes in people’s TVs, then replacing whole circuits or projection lamps when big screen TV’s first came out, then replacing boards when flat screens became popular.

Then the prices cratered, and she said “People just throw it away and buy another” and went out of business.

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I still have my Husky combo, string trimmer, hedge trimmer, but I haven’t ever had to do much more than change the plug, really strong, loud, need heavy high leather boots with the string trainer or the rocks it tosses will hurt ya! But I haven’t used it in a long time, instead write a check to the yard cleanup guys, instead… Gas pressure washer, DW went to a plug-in electric rather than mess with getting the old one started… Hedge trimmer, I keep a little 12" battery one for what little trimming I do… Yard guys have also gone to battery tools, blowers, trimmers… Shop tools, still a lot of corded drills, routers, sanders, but really only use a few DeWalt Li-Ion tools, but even those, rarely… All the old NiMh tools are useless, batteries failed, recycled.. Changing times! Hardware as well as us elder softies…

weco

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Nobody repairs TVs anymore. In fact, I don’t think I could find a TV repair shop anymore. But I did see a youtube video a while back where the guy claimed that flat screen TVs that become dim can be easily repaired with $20-30 of parts (apparently mainly LED strips) and a little elbow grease.

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You might find this interesting.

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This past fall I bought an 18" EGO chainsaw when a tree fell across my in-laws driveway next door. Would have bought the 20" that had just came out but they didn’t have any replacement chains at the big box store at the time. And it was a job that needed to be done ASAP. Since I had other EGO products, battery run time wasn’t an issue. It handled the 18-20" diameter ash tree with little problems. I also turned around and used it the help cut up a 24" black walnut that was blow over in a tornado a few months later.

I usually don’t do things of this magnitude, otherwise I would go gas. But this one did the trick and is plenty enough for the occasional downed limbs on my lot. Plus, don’t have to worry about maintenance other than sharpening the chain.

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I’ve an old Skil, 16", gas chainsaw, maybe from the '80s, still runs great, strong, used it to cut up old dead, dry oak, for firewood, to make it cut faster, I ground out the limiters between the teeth, so it took bigger bites… Haven’t bothered in later days, in fact the last time I wanted to use it, as I began up the ladder to cut the dead top off a creek alder, it would die as I climbed a few steps, I took it as a sign, called a tree company in, had them do the work… But the old noisy Skil is still out in the workshop, might need it someday… :slight_smile:

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That is what I like about the electric ones is that their is minimal maintenance, and you do not have to store gas that goes old even with staybil. But if you go and get your own firewood I think it is easier to transport gas than a bunch of batteries. I have the Greenwork lawnmower, weed trimmer, and blower. They do make a chainsaw although it isn’t highly rated. With 3 batteries I can blow out my whole yard and that is about 3 hours so I would probably need 3 more batteries to go out and get firewood. My wife asked me if I wanted an electric one and I told her that my gas one would probably last long enough for me to cut my last cord of wood. The last pine tree I cut down in my yard had a base of about 36 inches and now my neighbors are finding trees they need cut down. I said I don’t mind cutting down the trees but they are going to have to pull the stump themselves. It’s hard work pulling those and putting them in the back of a pickup to the ride to the dump.

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Hi @buynholdisdead,

I bought a new gas saw in 2004 and never put gas in it!

When the time came to use it in Aug 2004, I used my tractor with a front loader to do the job instead. I needed to clear a 30 foot wide line for electric and a water line through 1/4 mile of thick mesquite, blue-berry juniper and prickly pear cactus. It took me about 7 hours working time to do the above ground work and about 18 hours to remove most of the stumps.

This photo is 1/3 down my preliminary cut. I eye-balled (technical survey term) the line using the field across the road. Then I took the rest off the left side in this view

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In 2016, Bisquit told me that our driveway had grown some. It was like driving in a twisting maze of juniper, mesquite, agarita and prickly pear.

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So I decided to trim it back. I did not want to use the tractor since I had a use for the straighter juniper pieces as fence stiffeners. I looked at the chainsaw, took it out of the box and put it into the carry case then thought about gas and oil. Nope!

I drove to town and bought a 16 inch Echo 40 volt. Bisquit volunteered her full help. I would cut, load and haul for about 4 hours a day, weather and emergencies permitting. The battery would easily last 2 days of cutting since actual cutting was probably less that 1 hour/day.

Here is Bisquit in 2018 with a 2/3 load waiting for me to finish loading so we can dump the load! I tossed the stiffeners into piles next to the drive for later hauling to the house. Ended up with over 1,200 of them.

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This is about 1/2 done on one of the curves.

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Still a little left to go here.

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The saw worked exceptionally. The sizes were all less than 20 inches with the majority 8 inches and less. The chain is narrower than a gas chain. I had a few limbs twist and slip the chain. It was easy to get back on and adjust.

As long as I keep the chain sharp, fill the bar oil and charge the battery, it runs great.

I also feel safer. With the gas saw I had from 1975 to 1993, I tended to keep the saw running when repositioning. I slipped once on a slope and tossed the saw as a reflex. I could have, well, had a problem…

With the electric, when I finish a cut the finger comes off the trigger. Much safer!

Does that help you?

Gene
All holdings and some statistics on my Fool profile page
Profile - gdett2 - Motley Fool Community (Click Expand)

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For all my gasoline powered tools, I always bought new gas, finished the job, and then poured all the leftover gasoline into one of the car’s gas tanks. Now that we have no more gasoline cars, I can’t do that anymore! Well, I do have some local family that have gas cars, so I can give it to them now.

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Which chainsaws use straight gasoline - i.e. not a lube/gasoline mix?

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I moved to a new house late in 2020. I brought along a lawn mower, snow blower, and string trimmer. I never even tried to start the mower until 2024 when I was giving it away. It ran fine. There is probably STA-BIL in that gas, which is whatever was in the tank from 2020. The snow blower has been started twice each year without problems; in the fall moving it from shed to garage, in spring going the other way. Again, the gas is from 2020 and probably had STA-BIL. I have family with plows (and shovels) so I hasn’t actually been used here.

The two-cycle string trimmer has never even been tried to start so I really have no idea if it will run. The oil mixed in with that fuel claimed to include stabilizer.

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Made me look! :slight_smile:

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I have one that’s wayyyy worse. I had a small generator at the last house, 3500w or something, and I used it only once the whole time I was there. We moved into this house 6 years ago and I dragged that generator down the street with me, but quickly found a great deal on a larger one and bought it, and just relegated the old one to the corner and frankly, forgot about it.

Last year we had a whole house (Generac) installed, and I decided it was time to dump that early generator, but I just knew it wouldn’t work. Anyway, comes this spring, I look in the gas tank and there’s gas in it, I shrugged and gave a rip on the cord …l and it started up on the first pull.

Holy carp, I was about to list it as “probably doesn’t run, needs a carb clean out, etc”

Sidebar: I have stopped using any gas appliances and replaced them all with electrics, from weed shacker to lawn tractor, just because of the expense and hassle of getting them serviced and cleaned etc. I even have a 40v chain saw which is adequate to any of my needs. Got tired of handing tools to the repair shop and saying “just fix it and give it to some high school kid or something, or sell it, or whatever.” The repair cost was higher than just buying a new one.

Meanwhile: small generator for sale. Cheap. Works great!

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I never had a chainsaw! I’m referring to generators, pressure washers, lawn mowers, etc.

Also, even if you have to mix some oil into the gasoline, wouldn’t you do that in the device itself or in a smaller container and not in the large (5 gal?) container that you use to haul gasoline from the gas station to your house? I have 4 5 gallon gasoline containers that I would use in advance of a hurricane so we could have fuel for our cars (don’t use them anymore because don’t have any gas cars anymore) and they ONLY ever had gasoline inside of them.

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I usually put my 2 stroke oil (2 of them) into a 2.5 gallon container and then go down to the gas station and put 2 gallons of gas in it. Easier to measure that way but it wouldn’t be wrong to do it the way you suggest either. Although I would try to make the gas less than 2 gallons in the container because it is better to have not enough gas than to much because that is how the engine gets lubed and running it lean can severely shorten the engine life.

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I failed to mention that those twice yearly moves of the snowblower between shed and garage always followed the shut down procedure I used since I bought it. I would shut the valve to stop the flow of gas to the carb, and let it run till it died. I can’t guarantee it made a difference, but it couldn’t hurt.

Always, that is, except this last move to the shed. This time I forgot. I’m thinking of pulling it out, starting it, and shutting it down properly.

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As cheap as the small engine carbs are, it may be simpler to just replace it, maybe the filter, too, rather tan mess around… I have this one Saved for later, for my 8 HP generator that I haven’t run in ages, one of these days… :slight_smile:

I also keep a can of starter fluid around for those times when these small ICE’s get picky…But, long term, I need to clear out the old 3500W genset, sell or donate the Husquevarna weedeater/hedge trimmer, the old Skil chainsaw, too, really… Nobody in the family needs or is interested in messing with 'em.. My eldest brother used to get a kick out of working on thesis things, but he’s gone now, next generation is in a digital cloud, so even the tools I’ve collected over the years aren’t of interest… Changing times…

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Well the tree is down and the stump is pulled. I had to rebuild the carb. Now I just have to fill in the hole the tree was in and get some more chat.

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