Finally buying a decentsaw

[fishhuntcutwood]

OK, now I'm going to have to check my saws at home. I could swear that the instructions for the McCulloch I bought last year instructs me to mix at 40:1.  I thought the Sears saw was the same, and I think the oil mix bottles I have said 40:1.

They probably are 40:1.  Older saws did call for higher ratios.  Whether that was because of the older metallurgy, or the older tech oil, they called for it.  My 056's manual calls for 40:1, and I run it at that, and it runs fine.  Once I tried to keep only one ratio of gas (my new saws call for 50:1) and run 40 in all of my saws, it was obvious that my new saws like the 50 better.  They smoked, coked and got dirty.  Someone on another forum said that it was a matter of tuning, and you can tune that out of a saw.  I'm sure you can, but I'd prefer to just run the oil as it's called for, and I do.  50:1 runs fine in my new saws. 

Jeff

[StihlDoc]

fishhuntcutwood,
Just wanted to let you feel at ease that it is okay to run 50:1 mix ratio with STIHL oil in your STIHL 056. The oil formulation was changed in 1990 and has a higher percentage of lubricant additive and anti-scuff additive than the previous STIHL 40:1 oil. This was the reason for the change in the STIHL operater's manuals to now recommend a 50:1 fuel to oil ratio.

[fishhuntcutwood]

Sweet.  Thanks.

Jeff

[Scuba_Dave]

Thanks all, still raining in New England. So I'm still waiting to try the saw out. Supposed to be a good weekend, but I have a backhoe being delivered Sat to do a bunch of yard work.
But I want to cut the big trunks up while I have the back hoe, that way I can move them with the backhoe. Save me some work.

[Minnesota_boy]

Chainsaws work just fine in the rain.  ;D

[tony_marks]

if u will  be using it regular ,id go with the 357 xp. if just occasionally the 55 is fine. but the 357 is lite strong and a pro model. with your wife standing there ,im betting she would say get it. jmo. good luck.

[Scuba_Dave]

Finally got the saw going Saturday. Checked everything out Friday night, went & mixed 50:1 gas & made sure I was ready to go for Sat am.  Went out started it up, made 2 cuts (big trunk 28"+) & checked everything over.  I was back inside in about 10 minutes, the wife wanted to know what the problem was.
I said "Nothing, the 1st trunk is done!!!" It was like a hot knife thru butter. I only had maybe 8 cuts on the 1st trunk, clean wood. Perfect cuts.
The 2nd trunk was 52" across, hollow 10' up the trunk - on the ground. I knew this one was going to be a pain - big enough to crush you. I braced the trunk with logs on the opposite side to prevent it from rolling into the fence & started to cut. I made 2 partial cuts on one side, then went to the other side to finish up. I'm on the 2nd piece when all of a sudden fluid is spraying everywhere!!!  I thought I was going to cry.  Then I realized it wasn't gas or oil, it was water, the middle of the hollow had caught all the rain & filled up.  Took a while to drain, I made cuts on the top in the mean time.  Then problem #2 cropped up, due to the ants/damage to tree, the inside of this was like dirt - and was dulling the blade pretty quick.  So I started to practice my sharpening skills. I think test #1 & #2 didn't do too much.  The 3rd time I sharpened I noticed a big difference.  Can't think of how many chains I've simply tossed out over the years (Craftsman 18" chain saw)
So about 7 hours & a ton of wood cut up.  Back hoe was delivered about 6pm & I spent 2 hours with the backhoe moving the big logs up to an area to fully dry out for splitting this fall.  Some were too big for the backhoe to lift. I simply rolled those to one side
Then Sun & Monday I switched to digging. Dug a new trench & moved my pool backwash hose, the original installers (years ago) ran it right into the stream!!
I have new found respect for the guys that run these machines (and chainsaws) all day. This was a smaller version backhoe & I only put 8 hours on in 2 days.

Saw is ready to go again this weekend.  After the big stuff is done I'll switch from the 28" bar to the 20" bar.  It's not the chain saw in the rain I was worried about, it's slipping with a saw in my hand.I had to abandon the backhoe Sunday night & run for the house as lightning started flashing. The wife kinda thought that big metal claw/machine may have attracted a strike.... :

Thanks everyone