New Old Saw

[SwingOak]

My dad gave me his 1962 Homelite C5. He bought it new, and it has cut a lot of wood over the years. The aluminum is a little pitted and there's not much paint on it. The gas tank cracked (he forgets how) and was replaced sometime in the early 1970's. I remember the sparks that would fly out of the exhaust when I was a kid, and it was incredibly loud. 

Dad said it was the lightest, smallest saw he could buy at the time... The bar is a little longer than today's standard 20" - 21 or 22" I think.

And yes, it runs, or at least it did a couple of years ago which was the last time Dad started it. It should make for a fun restoration project if I decided to do that.

I'm looking forward to running it - it's going to need a new chain and I expect I'll have to make my own loops.

[sawguy21]

You had best be a big boy to pack that around for any length of time, it is heavy. I had one.

[Al_Smith]

From what i can remember I think the c series Homelites were about the same time period as the McCulloch 250 .About the only way to kill one is to feed it straight gasoline .
In this era of lighter faster saws you don't see them very often but they will still cut wood just not as fast .I think in one of my sheds I have a C5 where exactly I have no idea .

[SwingOak]

You had best be a big boy to pack that around for any length of time, it is heavy. I had one.

Well, it's definitely not light - I'm going to guess with the bar on it's around 18-20 pounds. I'll have to weigh it. 

[donbj]

Some nice nostalgia attached to that one. Cool old saw. Shine it up and enjoy it.

[SwingOak]

It's a dangerous machine, all right. Here's the story of a severe injury it caused: 

In the early 70's my dad had been slabbing a big piece of walnut in the garage, and when he went out to get something later that night, the light bulb blew out when he turned it on. He wasn't about to turn around and get a flashlight, and while walking across the garage in his bare feet, Dad kicked the saw in the dark and broke his big toe.

[DHansen]

Very cool that your dad kept is so long and kept it working.

[SwingOak]

I'll have to double check the gauge with a better mic, but the chain on it appears to be .404" pitch, 0.058" gauge, with 72 drive links. The OAL of the bar is 25", and so the usable length to the tip with chain installed is 21ish inches. 

A quick search is showing me that most .404 chain is 0.063" gauge, so I will re-measure tomorrow.

And, if I have time I'll see if I can get it going. 

[SwingOak]

Well, I couldn't stand the suspense so I went back out to the shop and measured a bunch of the drive links, and they range between 0.058-0.062.

So I'm going to guess it's a 0.063 gauge chain that is just worn out. The bar is probably worn out too, a quick check showed the rail gap measures around 0.080 and maybe a little more.