Jonsered's and Hanging out with friends

[weimedog]

Shifting saw's and clarifying where I want to take the saw hobby next....or BACK to the beginning. Started with Homelite & Jonsered's. Even here started with J-red 920's. 

And hanging out with some friends. 


Chainsaw "Hobby" A Blend Of Work & A Way To Spend Time With Those Important People In Your Life - YouTube

[Real1shepherd]

I agree and can so relate to the old Jonsereds. It's really the only used saw that interests me. It usually just takes a little bit to get them going like you said. Sometimes though, PO's get weirded out by points systems and do some strange things.

The old J'reds with points run a nice hot, blue spark and chipping them makes no sense. The points last forever, need almost no maintenance and the saws will start with three pulls or less. If not, then there's something wrong you need to attend to.....

I bought a little 621 to use in my fencing business and it supposedly didn't have any spark. Took the flywheel off to have a look-see and the PO had tried to rewire the coil. What a mess, but I'm poor with J'reds ignition stuff so that will be an easy fix.

Before J'reds were discovered by collectors, parts were all over eBay for cheap. I bought a lot, but in hindsight, I wished I had bought a lot more. I used to love those lots of screws/fasteners and various sundry parts.

The hobby has changed so much now....I think I'm going to thin down to just saws that I know I will complete and part bin the rest. I started out about 18 yrs ago with the goal to have two running Husky 2100's, two Jred's 80's and two J'reds 90's. Man, did that ever get derailed.

Kevin

[sawguy21]

I would like to find a large displacement J'red but they are scarce, the brand was never marketed in western Canada.

[Happysawer]

Really enjoyed the video gave me a lot of insight.

[Guydreads]

LOVE THEM J'Reds awesome awesome saws 2071 2171 all great.

[Real1shepherd]

I would like to find a large displacement J'red but they are scarce, the brand was never marketed in western Canada.

They used to be all over eBay cheap....those days are gone. I  bought a 90 from Arkansas that was so filthy I let it sit in its box for a yr while I did other saws. Got it cleaned up and discovered it was a low hr, completely stock saw with nothing missing.

PO had stripped out some holes which required some steel inserts and the gas tank required lacquer thinner and BB's to get it cleaned out. Smoothest running J'reds I have now, with a 32" .058 bar.

Lots of them were sold from Scotsco in Portland, OR....you'd think they would have made their way up there too......bummer. Jonsereds' marketing and distributing scheme was certainly not the best.

Guy in Maine I know said there were at one time 20 dealers within a half hr drive of him. That's hard for me to wrap my head around. Some states like TX never saw a dealership.

Kevin

[weimedog]

We had a pretty active Jonsered dealer around here in the "metal" saw years and there are still quite a few around. Just the smaller ones, not the big bores 910,920 as big as it gets around here. Lots of 49sp's and the like. When that dealer "changed hands" I was able to buy most of the metal Jonsered Bones. Of course up in the Adirondacks there also were a few active dealers so more are probably stuck rotting in barns and garages. Always keeping an eye on the Facebook market for the big ones for a decent price. AND saw seem to end up here as well so patience is the best approach as I certainly don't need any more project saws. Ejecting the Yellow plague and going back into the pile for more red projects now. Bob had sent a couple of 910 carcasses this way so that's what's probably next after the 80 I'm working on now. I go past a couple of Jonsered dealers from the past on my travels north, Sully's in Gouverneur NY one, stopped in and bought a bunch of Jonsered ball caps And there was the one east of there "Lyndakers" that I've been past just haven't stopped to see if there any trophy opportunities that aren't priced like gold. Funny thing is....these obsolete saws often end up in a scrap dumpster. BUT u show interest and might as well just buy a new saw for the money... I think it's a New York thing.

[Real1shepherd]

...it's not just a NY thing;take it to the dump, but if someone is interested, it's GOLD. Saw dealers all over the US and even Canada that dropped Jonsered have taken truckloads of NOS Jonsereds parts to the dump. You don't even wanna know. I'd say overall, only a fraction of the old NOS parts have wound up on eBay.:(

And 3D printing was gonna save us all as far as 'antique' parts were concerned. With a few exceptions, the cost of printing anything decent enough to hold up is insane. So for all its ballyhooing, I don't see that we are any better off.  

Best thing to do is exactly what you did;buy piles of junkers/parts and go through them when you need a part. Man, if I was in Jonsereds country, I'd have a storage building full of them on my property. Call it 'The Red House'....lol.  

Kevin

[Spike60]

Any old carcass is worth grabbing. Nearly every one will have something useful no matter how bad it looks. Something as simple as an oil cap could be what is needed. The combination of how well they were built and how many were sold in my area, there's a fair amount of these saws still in use around here. Mostly 49's and 70's. Perhaps rarer than the parts themselves, are shops that would even take them in to work on them. But I have some parts, know them inside and out, and I'm happy to keep them going for the locals. In most cases we turn down old stuff that we don't want to mess with. I guess I got a soft spot for these old Jonnys. But I certainly understand why shops that have no experience with these saws would turn them away. Like me turning away stihls. No parts and no familiarity with them. Had an 028 in several years back that i got talked into looking at. Needed an oil pump or gear or what not. Called a friend who is a very good stihl dealer, and all of a sudden it's "well, there's 3 different ones". OK, I'm done with that. Let him go to a stihl dealer.  lol

I do ration out the NLA parts though. Recently sold a starter spring to a guy and he tried to get the last one I had left as well. Wouldn't let him have it and he got a little PO'd. Better that it goes to someone who needs it than hanging on a nail as an extra that never gets used. It was funny cause the guy was trying to get me to sell it, and I'm telling him that the original spring lasted 35-40 years and when does he expect to need another one?

[Real1shepherd]

Good point! Many collectors are blindly hoarding parts that they will never use in their lifetime....doesn't make sense.

Good on you for not letting him have that extra recoil spring. Invariably, you'll have another guy come in just needing that spring and it's in a drawer or nail hook at the other guy's place. :

Kevin