Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[Hilltop366]

I never saw him cut wood ahead, he cuts mostly dead stuff for firewood

That's what I did for about 16 years except it was mostly dead spruce. I went to the bank for a mortgage renewal after 5 years and they asked me how much I spent on heat I replied $150 to $200, he said that's not bad per month... nope a year for saw gas/oil and a diesel fuel, I don't think he really believed me.

[SwampDonkey]

I cut mostly live or recent windfall here because I'm thinning out the ground the second time. First go was with a clearing saw. But I season it of course for a year, don't even need kindling wood, just news print and a match or set on coals. Worth more to me as firewood than logs or pulp pays. You don't pay, you don't get. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, I think I will go cruising for more dead standing when the weather gets just a bit nicer. That should offset some of the green stuff I have to get down and cut up this summer or earlier. Anyway, seems like I walked past a bunch of stuff during my harvest days, so I will retrace my steps.

 So today I had a client coming to pickup his last 50 logs and it was not a bad morning but I had to hang around anyway, so I fired up in the shop. As the day wore on it got damper, windier, and nastier. Downright unpleasant by the afternoon. It hit 48 but you would never know it. I jumped into another waiting project I have been walking past for months. I was given a 372 in a bucket, all parts scabbed off other broken saws but enough parts to make a saw that will hopefully be run-able. So as the shop wormed up I began dis-assembling and cleaning  everything. I didn't make it 'full restoration clean' but made it as clean as I could so I could see everything and I took out years of crud. Fortunately I had a 372 fuel line new and a filter in the drawer. There are just a couple of utility screws I am missing and will see what I can dig up in the shop tomorrow. By dinner time I had it all back together. It has spark and good compression (by feel). But dinner was ready and I had to quit. I won't say it was without it's challenges. I can fix and work on these things but have to figure them out each time and some things, like snaking the impulse line through the boot hole and getting the fuel filter to lay right in the bottom of the gas tank can be strangely unreasonable challenges for me.  My back is tired from standing at the bench all day but I am pretty happy wit with I've been given to work with and what it looks like so far. Tomorrow I will throw gas int it and see if I can get it running and adjusted. I only have a spare Chinese bar to test it with (it's brand new, but junk), but I did find a brand new Oregon chain I can use. If it turns into the runner I hope it will be, I'll get a proper, hopefully lightweight bar for it, something longer than 24" for sure, I think it can handle it.
 So it was a pretty good day and I feel like I accomplished something. Tomorrow will be more of a challenge making it work. Of course I could get lucky with that part also, but I generally don't.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well today was much like yesterday. The weather was icky with a high of 44, zero sun, average humidity of 80% white ground this morning and rain for several hours. I had a pickup coming today, first at 11am, then 1pm, then 3pm, and finally showed up at about 5pm.
 I did the same as yesterday and fired up the shop and worked on that 'new' saw. I had a hard time starting it until I saw that I had the fuel and impulse lines swapped. Once I fixed that it fired right up. I 'sort of' have it tuned but I suck at tuning. It idles nicely and revs up good, pumps oil like mad. I put a bar and chain on it for test and it cuts quite well with zero issues. I am tickled pink to have a real 372 in the stable. I still have a couple of pieces missing and made a run to town and got some bar nuts and a 10-32 x 2" screw I could make into a air filter post. Got that done and replaced the parts I scabbed off another saw. Only thing I need now is the screws to hold the inner felling dog on and the chain catch. I found those online and they are now on the way. Lastly I am trying to decide on a bar and chains. I think I have it figured out, but thinking on it a bit more before I spend the money. Looking very good now. As I said, I am tickled with it. I even have a tree to test it out on, but I think I may wait until I have the new bar on it. Yep, very pleased indeed.

 More snow coming in tonight, more lousy weather tomorrow. Not sure what I am doing, but I might take one more shot at getting that 372 clone saw running again. It's been nothing but one disappointment after another with that saw, just like Spike predicted. But I still think I should be able to make that thing reliable at some point. So maybe I'll mess with that a bit and see if I can figure out it's problem. I sure don't plan on working outside tomorrow. Not until that sunshine comes back or the temp goes up.
 I'll figure it out tomorrow.

[SawyerTed]

I have a 372 that is fit with a 28" inch bar and skip tooth chains.   It is a great setup for bucking bigger logs.  I keep a 20" bar and chains on hand which get used as much as the longer setup.  It is a great saw.  

The 372 was bought as a CSM saw.  It's great for bucking the bigger trees.  It sure isn't the go to saw for working up the tops.  At 15-16 pounds it is a workout for anything but bucking, although the long bar does reduce bending over.  One drawback is my temptation for overhead or reaching with that long bar.  That's more a personal thing I have to keep myself from doing. 

The only complaint I have is it's easy to flood .  A diligent starting procedure prevents it.  

[thecfarm]

My 372 starts great.
When cold, I set the choke, turn it on, press the decompression button. I pull the starter rope 3 times real slow, to allow gas to come up and then pull the rope hard and it fires. Put the choke in, press the compression button again and most times it is running.
Then on a warm start I press the compression button and push the choke in and then back out. 

[Old Greenhorn]

......... I set the choke, turn it on, press the decompression button. I pull the starter rope 3 times real slow.........

It's that one little thing that gets me almost every time.  "Turn it on". I keep forgetting about that kill switch. It's the only saw I have with one so when I use it, I have to re-learn it. The other night when I was still putting it together I tried checking the spark. I pulled it a few times and my heart sank, no spark. But I had gotten the dinner call so I walked away, thinking I had a longer road to make this work than I thought. After 3 steps, I remembered the switch, turned around, tried it again with the switch ON and it sparked like mad.  Did that same thing when I test fired it for the first time. When I shut it off I try to flip the switch back to ON, but don't always remember. 
 This particular saw seems to start like a charm. When it's warm I don't set the choke to high, I just yank and it starts back up. But I need more time to really dial it in it's preferences better, only having run a few test/load cuts. I also have to turn that oil pump down, it's hemorrhaging oil down the length of the bar. I am not too familiar with how sensitive that adjustment is or how it functions.
 Ted, I agree, it's not the saw you grab for pruning the fruit trees. At my age it's the last saw I want to swing around, and with a 32" bar it will be dead last, but when you need it, you need it. Sure, you can easily buck 24-30" logs with a 24 inch bar and a 50 or 60cc saw, but a saw like this, with the grunt it carries will make that work go faster and easier. My first task with this one is to drop an EWP stem that lost it's top over a year ago and could fall in a bad spot if left. It's about 30" on the stump and still sound but the birds are ripping it up.
I have wanted a 372 in the stable since before I retired. It just seems like the completion of the saw compliment. I have constantly looked for repair saws, project saws, or other stuff, but the folks around these parts think they have gold and want $500 for a partial carcass of a 372. I just can't justify that for a saw that gets used a few times a year after I put a couple hundred bucks into restoring it.
 All I can say is that having this saw makes me smile just looking at it. Maybe I am weird, but I don't care.

[thecfarm]

I'm weird too.  
The small saw,50cc can feel like a toy

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah Ray, but someday that 50cc is gonna feel like more than, or the most that yo can work with. I hope that's a long time off for al of us. My Dad started asking me to pull start the motors, and saws he was fixing when he got to be about 92, a year later it was 'check the tightness on all those bolts for me', the year after that he would put all the screws in and just have me tighten everything. When he was 95 he started working on smaller stuff. At 96 he couldn't see well enough and he kind of gave up. He never saw 97. But Pop was a tough guy all his life. Kind of like Teddy Roosevelt he was named after. He spent many months in bed with rheumatic fever that nearly killed him and left him with a heart murmur. He worked his way back and built himself up. The Navy wouldn't take him because of the heart issue, but the Coast Guard did. Eventually he got his unit assigned to a Navy contingent chasing subs in the Philippines and served that way.
 I wish I were half the man he was. 

[SawyerTed]

Oh mine starts fine, just have to stick to the steps.  Never has failed.  The first few times I flooded it.   Since then it's fired right off.  

[Nebraska]

372 was my favorite saw. Someday maybe I will have another. 

[Peter Drouin]

I have 2 love them, do everything with them.
I also make my own chains and buy them by the role.

[Old Greenhorn]

The first job I started on this morning around 8am wasn't going so hot, so I changed gears and decided to make something I have wanted to make for about 8 years now. A shelf that will get ALL my working saws off the floor, organized, and also a place to hang/stack chains and bars, as well as other supplies. I had an offcut 8/4 pine slab with one live edge. The wood was not good enough for lumber but I took it and dried for a quick a dirty shelf.
Ta-da!


 As you can see my wall is cluttered already, but this deal hangs all the saws, loops, spare bars, and new boxed chains nicely. Also my felling belt and climbing spikes each have a hook.

 Now I am going back out to get back on the original task of this morning.

[trimguy]

I like it. Are those the screw in hooks that you hung the saws on ?

[doc henderson]

I only see one problem. what do you do when you get more saws?

[GRANITEstateMP]

Doc, thats easy...ADDITION!!!

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, I call those bicycle hooks. They work well for this.

If I get more saws I guess I'll need another shelf some place. But it's not in the plan. Now having just typed that I realize I'd like to add a battery top handle saw. Dang, now I gotta think about it again.

[Old Greenhorn]

No shop work yesterday except for that roller guide debacle clarification. I headed to the mill for the first time in a long time late int he morning. I know full well that every time I restart at the mill after a long layoff, the first day is going to be a wash. Things have been moved, relocated, or removed, stuff is missing, there is a mess left by 'someone else', and I generally lose that first session getting things cleaned up.
 Right now, the boss is about 2/3's of the way through running a proper electrical service down to the mill. He has finished the run going to the pole about 50' from the mill, has the boxes and conduit runs going along the wall parallel to the mill, the wire trench dug and the pipe run down over the hill and the wires pulled. It all just needs hooking up with outlets switches and covers to finish.
 But all that means there is  bunch of scraps and supplies laying around, excess stubs of pipe not yet fitted and things like that. SO I cleaned all that up and got it off the mill bed which had served as a work bench for the electrician. I also had to work on freeing up the lubemizer clogs and getting that working again. (clogged tip and filter screen, as usual). I also had to climb up the cliff and re-plug in my extension cord to run the blower that was unplugged during the work process.
 All in all, I was up and running faster than expected. However, the logs I had on deck did not fit the order requirements I had in hand. It's hard to make 6/4 x 12's from a log that will only make a 10" cant. Not knowing what or if I can make any allowances in the order sizes, I was kind of stuck and took a guess. That stuff may wind up being used for something else much later down the road and I will have to re-cut it. Anyway, I just did 2 logs and called it. I couldn't read the setworks screen with the sun directly on it and messed up a board because of that. Today I will continue to work through lousy logs just to get them cut up and out of the way including a very spalted maple that is either going to be beautiful slabs or total junk. We have no orders for it, but I can make 'stuff' out of it, assuming it's not junk. But I am wasting a lot of time on all these junk logs and it's frustrating. I have to replace the full slab rack today and that is more wasted time.
 The weather is warming up in general so that's good, and today is partly cloudy with scattered showers, so that is workable. 
 Time to get at it, it's another day.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   I noticed your comment about the sun on the screen causing a mistake. I seem to be running into more cases of the sun causing me similar problems my screen. I am wondering if there is screen I could put over it to make it easier to read. I have not tried, but suspect, the right sun shades would help but I almost never wear them.

   Maybe another viewer out here has the answer for both of us.

[Hilltop366]

Time to get at it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIOIe96dElo

[Old Greenhorn]

The only thing that will fix it for me Howard is a roof extension to keep the direct sun off the control panel. I have tried a lot of things, but it's hard to fight direct sunlight. Maybe an umbrella. But I don't want anything in my way. I deal with it the best I can. The direct light and ambient light are just too much to overcome.

[aigheadish]

I can't visualize what the box with the screen looks like but could you tape a baseball cap bill above it to provide shade?

[doc henderson]

I think they make non-glare screen overlays for computers screens, but not sure if they work.  Is it possible to know what the display is called technically and then research accessories?  LED?  red or green?

[Old Greenhorn]

Well thanks guys, but none of that stuff will work and most has been tried. It already has a non-glare screen on it. The issue is that there is just too much ambient light around the entire control panel when tat sun is at the right (wrong?) angle. I have put a box over the entire control head and it just does help. The screen is pointed right at the sun. It's just something I have to deal with and come up with something easy to extend that roof out and lower the light around the mill head area.
 It's one of those 'you'd have to be there" things. 

[Hilltop366]

Other than adjusting the screen contrast which you probably already did the only other thing I can think of is the old radar screen shade my uncle had on his boat in the 70's. It was a box that tapered up to a U shaped hole about 3" x 6" that you put your face against to block out all of the sun. Not very convenient but you would be able to see the screen.