How well do you maintain your saw?

[oldsaw-addict]

I was just wondering what your personal habits are as far as taking care of your saws. I would hope that its at least regularly done. Mine are taken care of like kings are because I cant afford to have lots of downtime and costly repairs.

[Stan]

Since I use mine sporadically, it gets serviced the same way. Check it over before, and clean it up after. No way to tell how many hours between major inspections, so that's once a year.  :-[

[Corley5]

What do you consider regular maintenance?

[oldsaw-addict]

I consider regular maintenance what gets done every so often and is done at or around the same time every day, month or year. In other words, I mean the same schedule plan as your vehicle service plan, such as oil changes, lube jobs, alignments, new tires and so on.

[Blue9R]

My saws are used for only cutting firewood, so the sprocket bearings only get cleaned & fresh grease once a year.

My favorite cleaning tools are a 1" putty knife for scraping out the bar guide rail, a plastic 1" putty knife & a chip brush for knocking oily sawdust off the sprocket/clutch & the painted surfaces under the chain spocket cover. WD-40 works as a good solvent/cleaner & leaves a nice shine even on the plastic surfaces.

But the blowgun on my air compressor cleans up a saw faster than anything!

[Oregon_Rob]

I pretty much fit in with the above responses. My saws get a lot of care, because I tend to have more time to maintain  them than I do actually running them, especially in winter. By the time I get home, it is dark so all my cutting is done on the weekends. I do often sneak out to the shop in the evenings and play with the saws, which mostly means clan up, filing chains, flushing the tank, touching up the bars...

[Frickman]

My saws are an important part of my livelihood, so they get their regular cleaning and sharpening after every use. When its cold out I set up a little bench in the basement to work on them in the evenings. I only run Stihl saws, and outside of sharpening and cleaning the only regular maintenance is periodically greasing the sprocket bearing. Any repairs are made as needed. We always carry extra saws with us so that we are not shut down because of saw problems.

[OneWithWood]

I checked daily because I thought that was the closest to what I do.  I service my saws immediately after use or if I am beat, the next morning.  I do not use the saws everyday but I service them every day I use them.
Servicing consists of cleaning the bar, sharpening the chain, cleaning the saw to remove sawdust and oil, inspecting the sprocket and cleaning the air filter.
I adopted this schedule a few years back because there are few things more frustrating than a chainsaw that will not perform when you need it - like when that tree down the road falls accross the road late at night just as your wife is returning from town!

[woodmills1]

I would side with one with wood, that is I service them daily when used.  The difference being I do it before I use them.  Clean filter, file teeth, check/file rakers, clean bar and oil hole, then blow off motor and case.

[Corley5]

I sharpen them as necessary and generally clean the air filter and scrape the oil and sawdust out of the side cover.  Every second or third sharpening I'll squirt some grease into the sprocket bearing.  I normally run three chains so that means a greasing after I've gone through nine chains.  Depending on how dusty the materials are that I'm cutting I blow the cooling fins off on occasion.  I always have some spare fuel filters around and change them when needed.  The bar gets flipped when I change chains and gets ground on the bench grinder when it needs it.  I used to grease the roller nose on the bar too but was told by an old logger one time that either you grease them religiously or not at and they'll last the same amount of time but don't grease them sometimes or they'll wear out faster.  Haven't greased one since and I get good mileage out of them.  At least one bar that I have now isn't even greaseable.  I've got spare plugs too and change them if needed but haven't HAD to change a plug in long time just do it because it seems like the thing to do.
Another tip from the same old logger who told me about the sprocket nose bars is that chainsaws shouldn't be kept where it's warm in the winter time.  They need to be stored where it's cold.  I was taking mine into the basement at night to thaw it out and clean it up.  It wasn't long and I developed problems with water in the gas.  The temperature change will create condensation in your gas tank.  My saws stay in the cold woodshed in the winter and only see heat for a short time when I sharpen them and then go right back to the cold.  Haven't had any moisture problems since.  

[tawilson]

At the end of every day that they are used they get a sharpening and cleaning. I want them ready for the next day.

[SasquatchMan]

I put gas in before I work, if that counts as maintenance... 8) 8) 8)

[OneWithWood]

Sasq, do not forget the oil  

[tony_marks]

 brag .. i consider myself an professional excellent user..
 i have a rep as a man that just does not wear stuff out.. sometimes even consumer equipment.. find what works do ..
 clean air alean everthing.., these things are made to last ..u just got to find the manufactures built in whammys .. put there so they can sell more.. i got a murry lawn mower that did 35-40 yds per week for 3yrs.. motor never wore out.. understand consumer stuff just requires more tlc.. so get quality fisr if u can

[SasquatchMan]

Oil?  I filled it up with oil the first time... should be good for 5,000 km now...

[Stan]

Ain't you supposed to drain out that startup oil at 800 kM just to get the particles out?

[SasquatchMan]

That's only on Subaru saws, Stan.

[DanG]

Well, I didn't vote, as there wasn't an appropriate answer among the choices. I maintain my saw pretty well, but I ain't a nut about it. My saw gets very light usage, mostly for a little limbing and trimming around the sawmill area, and occasionally bucking some logs I'm picking up. I fill up with gas & oil when I start to use it, and it's a hard day if I have to fill it again. :D  I sharpen when it seems to need it, or if I accidently dip it in the dirt. Most of my cleaning is done with the air hose.  The one thing I do religiously is point the bar at something and rev it up to be sure I'm getting some oil flow to the bar.

[Tom]

Sounds like "whenever I get around to it' fits pretty good, Dang. :D

[tshanefreeman]

Through spring, summer, and fall, my fleet of saws get used on a daily schedule.............that being a typical 6-day work week.  Every night when I get in the saw are blown off with my air compressor (this removes the majority of kerf stuck to the housing and in crevises), the chains are touched up and rakers filed (that is if they need to be), air filters are always blown out, chains tensioned, and gas and oil topped up.  This way I can get an early start the next morning without having to make my guys stand around and watch!

Once a week, my saws get a little better cleaning under and around the sproket housing and other harder to reach areas.

I will also be the first to admit that I'm not a maintenance maniac.  I believe that I do all that is necessary to keep my saws running at peek performance.  If anyone were to look closely at my fleet, they would see that I do the necessary to make them run as good as possible.  I am sometimes annoyed when I see a person starting up a shiny saw.................I believe that they are made to be used and when used they should have a little oil and chip buildup!

[Stan]

I didn't know you had an Acura saw Sasq.  :-/

[DanG]

 :D  Yeah, it do sound that way don't it, Tom.  :D :D
Actually, I was looking for a category that says, "when it needs it."  It would be silly to maintain a saw weekly if you only use it once every other week. Of course, that's what I seem to do with most of the wore out junk I use, so what's the diff? :D

[Tom]

Actually "whenever I get around to it" is a pretty good way to maintain a saw, I've found.  That's what I do and my saw runs like a bandit and cuts like a hot knife in butter.

You and I must have the same modis operandi, "Don't fixit if it ain't broke." :D

I like to tamper with stuff but I'd rather use it.  I like my sawmill best when I'm not turning wrenches on it. I like my chainsaw best when it cranks in 3 pulls and throws chips 10 feet.  I like my truck best when I'm not concerned about it getting me home.  It's neat when I can cruise with the AC on and the radio blaring too. ;D :D

[jokers]

Every saw or piece of equipment I use get`s taken care of and put away ready to use, every time I use it, unless it`s broken and then I try to fix things nitely. Maintenance at the end of the day is a good "cool down" and you don`t end up wasting time in the morning when you have the most energy trying to make everything right. About the only thing that I let slide is grinding chains. I hand file everything unless it gets buggered. I`ll let chains in need of grinding stack up until I have atleast a few.

How about this question? How many of you remove the recoil and muffler periodically and clean all of the grunge out from these areas? Blow down the saw dust away from the intake side of the cylinder? I`ve seen a few saws ruined by overheating from crud build up that looked clean from the outside. Simply blowing over the outside of the saw doesn`t seem to get these areas clean.

Russ

[Oregon_Rob]

Russ,
I'm with you on the recoil cover and even removing and re-oiling the spring, and yes I take the muffler and other cover off and make sure the entire cylinder is clean, including between the cooling fins. Since I do some milling, I try to do every thing I can to let the saw cool itself.