372XP clone: Your experiences?

[Old Greenhorn]

Well sometime late last evening it cleared customs and UPS got it, it went through 2 more transfers then made it to the local depot here in town at 5:50am today. Hopefully it will make the delivery truck as they plan. It should be here when I get home from work. Steady rain here until at least noon, then more rain. Don't expect to do more than test it in a log tonight if I can get it that far. Here's hoping.
 I pretty much have the bars dressed up, but boy do I have a pile of steel shavings on the floor! Looks like the gauge grooves may be oversize too, might have to hammer them in. More work, but that's the game with these things.

[motzingg]

Do you have any pics or explaination of 'dressing the bars'

i think you mean making it so either side of the groove, i.e. the two laminated sides, are even with each other and perpendicular. 

never something i've measured or considered, my first china bar should be showing up any day here, be interested to check it out. 

[Pine Ridge]

Good , your making forward pogress then.

[Old Greenhorn]

Do you have any pics or explaination of 'dressing the bars'

i think you mean making it so either side of the groove, i.e. the two laminated sides, are even with each other and perpendicular.

never something i've measured or considered, my first china bar should be showing up any day here, be interested to check it out.

No, sorry I don't have photos. Normally it's routine maintenance I do from time to time, just a few swipes to even and flatten them out. I also file the faces when they wear. In this case they are so mismatched I have little hope of any kind of decent cut without fixing them. Yes, it is leveling off the top edges. a good bar should stand straight up on edge if it is dressed properly. These bars won't even stand crooked, they won't stand at all without an hour of filing. I probably should have skipped using the bar dresser file and went right to the belt grinder.

[Allar]

I dress my bar once a week, rails on my bars get uneven real fast.
I use bar dresser that i ordered  from china for 5$ and i absolutely love it.

Old Greenhorn, hope you receive the clone soon. Kinda curious to hear your opinion on that particular saw.

[Old Greenhorn]

Allar, what kind of bars do you use? These that I bought were just so I could try the different lengths on the saw and decide which is the best fit for my work, then buy a good one. I can see these probably won't last, the steel looks like it has porosity pockets here and there and is fairly soft. The 28" bar was just to slap on for that rare large tree once or twice a year.

[Allar]

I use the basic Husqvarna bars. Not completely sure why rails wear uneven, perhaps because of felling spike.. and probably because of the angled face cut.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well the saw showed up today at 4:30 in the afternoon. I arrived home at 4:50, not that I was watching the UPS tracking or anything like that. ;D Packed very well. Came with a little kit and they threw the screws in the kit bag loose for putting on the felling dogs and chain brake handle. No instructions on that stuff at all I figured it our fairly easily but was missing the screw that goes though the recoil cover and the chain brake bar as a pivot point. It's a weird screw (not standard). That pithed me off a bit. Took my time putting the 24" bar on, messed around a bit with fits and stuff. The bar tension adjustment screw is horrible tight to move (with no load). I will have to pull that apart and figure it out. It can't stay that way, I won't have it, because you have no feel as you adjust the chain. The chain brake works as it should but has an awful lot of freeplay in it, maybe 15 degrees, that I find annoying. I threw a little gas in it and filled the oil. No primer on this saw so it took a few pulls to get it to pop. Then it fired right up. Carb adjustments sound pretty close. It's raining pretty steady here tonight, so I walked over to a log and did a few plunge test cuts. Sounded good, cut good, but when I started the 3rd plunge it stalled right out. It took a few pulls to restart then cut fine again. The chain (theirs also) stretched out pretty good at that point and I was wet enough, so I went back in the shop, re-tightened the chain, and called it a night. Tomorrow the clouds will clear and I will try it out on some logs, maybe a tree or two if I am in the mood.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I put in in service this morning and cut a little over a half cord. The wood was kind of dirty (mud season, right?) but it zipped on through. It did keep stalling when I would go from a high cutting load down to idle quickly. After restarting it about 10 times, I adjusted the idle up just a bit. Now it seems to idle way too fast when it is cold. These are tweaks and the saw has to run in a bit anyway. I used their chains and bars too just to see how they would do. I think I made a comment above about all the dressing I needed to do on the bar before I used it, anyway it cut well, but after that half cord the chain is quite dull. Likely the condition of the wood contributed to that, but still the chain did seem to give up quickly. I will sharpen it tonight or tomorrow morning more likely.  So far, so good. No additional complaints.
 It is interesting, I have never had a 24" bar before, so getting used to the length requires me to pay attention. I don't have to bend over as much, but I found I got a lot closer to hitting the dirt than I normally do. I've been working with an 18" bar so long that I always know where the tip is even if I can't see it. SO I gotta work on that. Wonder how it will feel when I put the 28" on? ;D ;D


 

[Pine Ridge]

Glad to see you finally got it and it's working for you. The fiasco you had to go through to get it is about how it is for me in everything I do these days, always a hang up or glitch of some kind or another, I really need an "easy button" these days.

[motzingg]

un-seated rings (or badly worn) can act like an air leak, i've seen that before

might be worth taking the time to pop the cover off and just make sure all the rubber intake manifold clamps and everything are seated-down nice and tight

any time a two stroke wont idle down, i get paranoid and look for an air leak. 

[Old Greenhorn]

I still have break-in tweaking to do, the idle issue is coming along, just getting used to it. I do like the power this saw has, but am getting used to the weight and length of that 24" bar. I am so used to that 50cc 18" that I have to re-think a lot of small stuff and be more careful. For bucking it cuts really quickly compared to the smaller saw. Last night I think I noticed the chain oiler is not working as it should, so if I have time today i will sneak a look at it. I have the oiler wide open. I hear this happens from time to time on these saws new out of the box. Its not something I didn't expect to have to deal with.
 All in all, so far, so good.

[Air Lad]

Since you went this way on the strength of my good experience , Old Greenhorn ,I hope that you get as much success out of your " China doll " as I have enjoyed for coming on ten years out of mine.
I also hope you don't blame me if things go south. 
In the event of issues that may arise they can all be sorted out one way or another.
Some of the aftermarket stuff says to run 25:1
What were you,re instructions on fuel mix ?
Cheers

[Old Greenhorn]

The saw is running well. I use 50:1 in all my equipment and that is what is reccomended for this saw. I dropped a 20" ash with it Friday evening and it worked very nicely. I am just working on getting myself used to the physical size of it and where the bar tip and edges are when I can't see them. Nearly cut through my hinge the other night. It cuts pretty fast. Happy with it so far.

[Air Lad]

How is she doin ?

[Old Greenhorn]

Thanks for asking. I have been on the mill a lot lately, but I did drop a nice maple with this the other day. It is working well. The power is good and it is nice to not have to bore cut from both sides on bigger wood.  I only have about 4 tanks through it. I am trying to get the low idle tweaked a bit, She stalls if it's warm and I go from high rev to idle quickly, Also, I think the high speed is a tad low. This has been changing in the last 2 tanks, so I am waiting until it settles in. Nothing problematic. I feel like it is not using as much bar oil as it should, but it does leak a little bar oil when it sits. All in all, I am happy with it. It was never intended as a full time saw and it is doing the job very well. I have yet to try the 28" bar on it. But I have a job coming up, if the ground ever stiffens up.

[Air Lad]

Good to hear mate
Mine leaked bar oil until I sourced a better quad ring for the oil pump(different to yours BTW)
Cheers

[Satamax]

Well, got mine today. 

Carrier lost the guide bar.  

Mine started right away.. Sounds good. 

But one of the studs retaining the guide bar was tucked in the aluminium body. Making it impossible to fit the bar and use the saw.  I sorted that redneck style. I couldn't fit the guide bar with the tensioner. I had to file the tensioner holes. 

Tried it, and it's nice and nervous. Will see how it goes when broken in. 

[Old Greenhorn]

SO you are a French redneck? That paints quite the picture in my head.  :D :D ;D
 Good luck with the saw, mine is still working well. Leaks some oil, but oh well. I will pull it apart over the winter.

[Satamax]

French redneck enough? 

VID 20190520 194103 - YouTube

[Old Greenhorn]

That looks like a French sawyer to me.  ;D The redneck comment paints a different picture in my head. Beautiful mill and setup. I am jealous!

[Satamax]

Don't be Jealous. It's a lot of sacrifice. And since i'm extremely lazy, it takes forever. 

No wife, no kids. A sawmill, and many other tools. Lotsa beer. A fat belly. And lots of swearing!  ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

No wife, no kids. A sawmill, and many other tools. Lotsa beer. A fat belly. And lots of swearing!  ;D

Sounds to me like you are doing it right.

[Riwaka]

Is it possible to upgrade/ update the CD4 sawmill so you do not have to ride on it?
Turn it more into a Mebor?
effificiency and safety?
http://www.lbl-brenta-cd.com/en/scie-cd.html

Horizontal BAND SAW MILL MEBOR HTZ 1000 - YouTube

[Satamax]

Riwaka, i quite like riding on it. You're close to the wood, you can see what the blade is doing. 

But there's plenty of CD saws which you don't have to ride on. 

Here's a big CD8 i think, at work. 

HORIZONTAL BANDSAW CD - YouTube