The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Chainsaws => Topic started by: puriri on June 14, 2019, 05:00:28 AM

Title: Help with my new old saw (395XP)
Post by: puriri on June 14, 2019, 05:00:28 AM
I've recently acquired my first big saw - a ~2000 395XP. It came wearing 24" full chisel full comp, and balances very nicely.

It also came filthy. So I stripped it down and degreased everything. Glad I did, because the fuel line was worn 99% of the way through.

It's all back together and running again, but I have a few questions.

First, the bar has some serious wear just back from the nose - I understand that this is caused by running insufficient chain tension. Seems that I'd need to remove material from the nose to fix the concave area, but that might be a bad thing in that it would expose more of the nose sprocket. Should I try to flatten this out, or not bother? Picture of the bar here. (http://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55953/guidebar.jpg)

Secondly, I didn't take the top end off when I cleaned it up, but looking through the various orifices, I can see that the top of the piston is black and coked looking. Belches a good bit of smoke on startup which seems to tell much the same story. It starts and runs nicely regardless. This is not the original top end evidently - there's evidence on the plastics of a LOT of heat at some point in the past, and the head has BR stencilled on it. Should I pull the top end and clean that piston as well, or is that asking for more trouble than it's worth in terms of getting things to seal up again?

Thirdly, I bought this saw to do a big job at my neighbors place (it's too much saw for 99% of the trees around these parts realistically). The professionals didn't want to touch the job because of the proximity to buildings, so quoted it at a price that would actually replace the buildings in question.The job is two trees around 2m across, and the trees and buildings around it mean that I can't just fell them. I've been taking it down piece by piece, dropping limbs from 25m up on a rope, but it's got to the stage now where the 16" bar on my little Echo just isn't enough. The 24" will be very capable of limbing the rest of it. The trunk though, is another story. I've picked up a 2nd hand Oregon 42" .404 bar, which seems like the top end of what the 395XP will run. I'll still have to cut full depth from both sides to meet in the middle. Once it's down, we're likely going to mill some of it, and I'm uncertain about which chain to get for the 42" if I want to both fell and mill with the same setup. With 42" on a 395, am I best to to go skip, or will full comp work? Seems like full comp makes for nicer milling, but will that be too many cutters for the 395 at full depth?

Lots of questions I know! Thanks for your thoughts.
Title: Re: Help with my new old saw (395XP)
Post by: lxskllr on June 15, 2019, 01:39:47 PM
I don't have the answers to your questions, but welcome to FF! Sounds like an interesting job you took on.

Oh, I will say what I'd do with the bar. I'd probably run it as-is if it works sufficiently well. Dress it, and see what you're left with. It looks to me about end of life. In your pic, the top looks better than the bottom. Maybe they never flipped the bar?
Title: Re: Help with my new old saw (395XP)
Post by: Riwaka on June 15, 2019, 09:18:13 PM
Have a look at some of the 395XP teardowns/ re-assemblies  on YouTube. Bar looks like scrap bin material from the picture.

Husqvarna 390xp vs. 395xp Bench Talk - YouTube (https://youtu.be/n6znopEbps8)
Title: Re: Help with my new old saw (395XP)
Post by: puriri on June 18, 2019, 06:01:56 PM
Thanks for the welcome guys.

The 24" bar has been vigorously dressed before I got it - to the point that it's more chamfered than dressed - it seems to work enough, so I'll just run it until it doesn't, and then look for a replacement I think. lxskllr - it had been flipped at some point, the top is better, but has still had a hard life by the look of it.

Having watched some teardown videos, it doesn't look super traumatic to pull the top end. Provided I can reuse the existing gasket, there's no reason I can't give that piston a good clean up this week.

I spent some more time up that tree over the weekend, and that little Echo of mine is a joy to use with a sharp chain. I eventually ran out of gas, and had the neighbor send up his ms250 as a quick fix. I had to climb down to show him how to sharpen it - I just couldn't bear the torture of having such a heavy saw (compared to my Echo at least) make so much dust, and so few chips. Was tempted to pull the 395 up just to get the job done, but it was already an awkward spot and the BIG saw wasn't going to make it any easier!
Title: Re: Help with my new old saw (395XP)
Post by: mad murdock on July 04, 2019, 12:07:13 PM
A properly tuned and good running 395 should be able to pull at least a 60" bar and chain. If you can go with 3/8" chain the saw will have more power than with .404 chain, unless there are issues with chip clearance or some such. Also with a longer bar a semi or full skip chain will work better than a full comp. my 395 is the main powerplant on my circle mill a Turbosawmill ultralightwieght warrior M8. The blade is about 25" dia. Running the bar I have a 42" bar and it pulls that with ease. Use good oil and to really see how the saw is running, you need to pull and check the color of the spark plug. Should be clean and just a tad light brown. Also if you acquired the saw used and it has had that much use, a carb kit can help with it running better as well as a clean air filter. Also don't overlook the pickup filter in the fuel tank.  Good to change those out as well from time to time. 
Title: Re: Help with my new old saw (395XP)
Post by: puriri on July 08, 2019, 05:58:04 AM
Quote from: mad murdock on July 04, 2019, 12:07:13 PM
A properly tuned and good running 395 should be able to pull at least a 60" bar and chain. If you can go with 3/8" chain the saw will have more power than with .404 chain, unless there are issues with chip clearance or some such. Also with a longer bar a semi or full skip chain will work better than a full comp. 
...
Use good oil and to really see how the saw is running, you need to pull and check the color of the spark plug. Should be clean and just a tad light brown. Also if you acquired the saw used and it has had that much use, a carb kit can help with it running better as well as a clean air filter. Also don't overlook the pickup filter in the fuel tank.  Good to change those out as well from time to time.
The saw is running great with the 24" 3/8 bar on it at the moment - once it gets loaded up and the revs come down a bit it just goes about blowing chips. The fluid filters are all nice and clean, but the air filter is definitely not 'new'. I'll pull the plug and have a look after it next does some proper work just to see how it's looking. The only part that's not 'regulation' on this machine is the fuel tank vent line that comes up into the airspace near the intake. It's not there. Looking at the tank though, it has a filter in the orifice, so I'm not worrying about that extra missing line too much at this point.

.404 was purely because that's what this 42" bar has a nose sprocket for already. I'm not sure that it makes sense to swap out the nose sprocket for a 3/8 costwise.

Good to know that it should be able to pull a 60" though - that makes me feel less like I'm pushing the boundaries.