Anyone using a MS880?

[HolmenTree]

Beautiful work Steve. Have you ever run into any bird's eye maple? I heard out your way about 1 out of a thousand maple trees has it. May have been on Vancouver Island.
I hear the value of that wood is like gold .

[Coast Steve]

Well I run into it on many trees but it's usually mixed in with other types of figure and mostly around the edges.
I know what to look for on the outside of a tree for it, but sometimes I get a surprise.

Steve

[jon9sered]

I've had my 880 for 5 years, mostly on pine and a bit of gum. I rate the saw, great torque. Pro's : power,  it also tends to stay sharp, maybe its all those teeth, but its way better than my 660. Con's watch the clutch, was working on a big willow and a pile of sawdust built up on the clutch - next thing it was cooked, haven't ever had that problem ever, with any saw or with pine but watch it - if it starts to slow down and you have power on take the cover off and clean it. I live in New Zealand and envy you guy's getting them ported in the USA, but for me its a great saw. The weight is no problem as it spends its life buried in the tree. Tom Wanaka, NZ.

[TimT]

Yes I have an 880 with 47" bar. I don't understand the complaints from some about power , as mine has lots of power/ torque. Not as fast as my 461 but when you bury a 50" size bar you need torque and it sure has that. Very fine saw once you get used to using those long bars.They were never meant to be fast, lightweight saws. Some of these guys have ported them and they run like crazy with small bars. I don't know if I would want that in saw for big diameter work or milling and have it last as long as a stock saw.I run 404 full skip chain as it works well in the softer wood to pull the chips. I am still learning on the saw but I love it...Its heavy and does eat gas and oil very nicely!!

[Carson-saws]

Al_Smith...BINGO on the analogy Sir.

[Randy88]

Your much better off with the 880 running a long bar, I've been running a 660 for years with a 36 inch bar, 404 .063 and when doing hard wood, its too much for the saw in my opinion, once the new chain gets dull, we sharpen them so they are not so aggressive and it works much better, not enough power or torque with a 660.

Someone asked about 3/8 chain and the difference between .050 verses .063, for me there was no comparison in the chain.     The .063 would win hands down, it might not seem like a big difference, but with more power, it really matters.    I switched over to .063 on all my saws over a decade ago, you couldn't give me anything .050 pitch ever again.      When we run 404 chain on my 660 its also .063 pitch.

With .050 pitch chain on the higher hp saws, we'd never get to fully wear the teeth till they were worn out, the chain would always break long before the teeth were sharpened enough times to be worn out.    When we switched, it solved that issue completely, the added width of the chain also means more wear surface between the link and the bar, more width translates into longer wearing and more hours before the side plates of the chain wear through the rivets if that makes sense.