# Forum More Stuff At the end of the day  Collecting firewood...entry level chainsaw review.

## s900t8v

Well Ive been fixing up our old fireplace to take an insert wood heater.  
first removed all the old fire bricks and then added a lintel and an extra row of bricks at the top to make up the gap so the wood heater fascia sits nicely.  
Then as firewood season has opened in Vic I decided as a form of recreation and much needed exercise why cant I go and collect my own firewood.  
I ended up buying a cheap 250 chainsaw. Morrison brand From mitre10 Theyre owned by masport. Another China chainy with a few stand out differences or so I thought.  
first and foremost. A 4 year warranty. Thats nice. Not even eurosaws offer more than 2 years.   18 bar with Oregon chain. Walbro carb and chromed cylinder. 45cc. Compared to husqvarna same price they sell a 16 with 32cc engine and less warranty.  
anyway I gotta say I am very impressed. Ive cut 3.5 meters of mostly stringy and a bit of ? Maybe grey box and I am chuffed to say the least.  
has a choke. 3-4 pulls if not started in a while before first fire turn choke off then starts on next pull. 
hot starts first pull every time. If its a day later you can start with one or two pulls without using choke. Being walbro carb you can adjust the idle low and high fueling unlike most other Chinese saws. I am lead to believe the engine is based around a Stihl.  
only drawback was air filter seal and Ive added some o rings to solve that.  
admittedly I have nothing to compare it to but going out with a mate who has a big old Stihl or husqy and will see what he thinks.  
its already paid for itself with 3.5 meters so far and about 3-4 hours on the clock in total. Ive learnt a lot about cutting and tension and compression cuts on timber so Im getting quicker.  
I bought a pair of clogger trousers and husqvarna gloves for safety and am glad I did but the saw does also have an inertia brake which will trip in event of a vicious kickback. The skinny bar also reduces kickback potential.  
Bunnings Competitor homelite at 169 with 16 bar doesnt have inertia brake and from
the reviews Ive read theyre a bit of a dog to start. So I think the extra 80 bucks for Oregon chain 18bar and inertia brake is very fair. Not to mention the warranty.

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## s900t8v

The only major issue is the air filter seal. the wing nut was loose from the factory but I tightened it thinking it would vibrate off. That resulted in the seal getting cocked and letting sawdust in. After first day out in the forest I pulled off the filter to clean it to find the carb throat full of sawdust. . I did a cold compression test after that and got 140psi so I think the motors fine. I also put a boroscope in. Bit of above ring scuffing on the exhaust side which could have been either me breaking it in too hard and not letting it warm up enough or a bit of contamination or maybe when it was running out of fuel and I was running it hard. Either way I’ll be keeping an eye on the cylinder for interests sake to see how it holds up.  
the port work is pretty nice. Very symmetrical carbon on the crown which shows flow symmetry.  
ive been running full synthetic castor 25:1 and canola oil on the oil pump and that seems to be going well. I didn’t realise I needed to grease the nose sprocket so was getting a few hot jams but now that seems to be largely resolved.

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## s900t8v

Quick shot of the air filter mod. A bit of grease as well as double assurance probably can’t hurt.  
man did I learn quick you cannot hit dirt with a chainsaw. Blunted the chain so bad so I tried my hand at hand filing. The result was a very grabby chain must have got the angles wrong.  
So I invested in a Stihl 2 in 1 sharpener and man what an improvement even I think over a brand new chain that was.  
the result is a very good cutting unit in my humble opinion.  
Well see how long it lasts! But it’s been worth it for the fun and getting into the outdoors factor alone.

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## Marc

Some observations:
Learn to sharpen by hand, all you need is a vice and a sharp file. This gadget will help and will address the always forgotten depth gauge. https://www.amazon.com.au/Stihl-file...30241225&psc=1 
The oil mixture rate depends of the oil you use and not the instructions by the chainsaw manufacturer. When I was a kid I had a Macculloch 200 that called for 16:1 SAE 30 oil. There was no 2 stroke oil and two stroke motors were seen as a curiosity. I run my vintage 1960ties Homelite chainsaws that call for 16:1 with good quality chainsaw oil at 32:1 . less carbon build up. Stihl oil goes as far as 50:1  
Bar oil, forget cooking oil for the chain, buy good quality bar oil if you want your chain and bar to last. Any other oil will swing off the chain when it is hot as soon as it goes over the nose of the bar. Bar oil has a high viscosity additive that makes it cling to the chain. Same additive used in vintage motorcycles that call for SAE 70 ...  turn the bar around every time you sharpen the chain, and file away the burr that develops on the underside of the bar with a flat file.  
Buy fuel storage additive to stop petrol from degrading in as quick as 30 days. I keep petrol in a drum as old as a year and use it with no problems. My neighbour is always complaining about his petrol going off. (Too stingy to buy additive  :Smilie:  ) ... and don't even go close to ethanol fuel of any description. 
And if anyone tells you to run the motor dry when you store the motor for the summer, don't take any notice. Running a 2 stroke motor out of petrol is like running a 4 stroke with no oil in the sump. Also the carburetor reed valves need to be wet. If they stay dry they bend and stop sealing and you need to fit a kit to your carby.

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## METRIX

> Bunnings Competitor homelite at 169 with 16” bar doesn’t have inertia brake and from
> the reviews I’ve read they’re a bit of a dog to start. So I think the extra 80 bucks for Oregon chain 18”bar and inertia brake is very fair. Not to mention the warranty.

  Every chainsaw has an inertia brake, it's mandatory on them, and the Homelite cheapy does have one. 
A cheap chainsaw offered to home users purchased from a hardware store with no inertia brake is like offering a free trip to the hospital, it would be like selling a car with no brake pedal.

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## s900t8v

Metrix you don’t mean the standard chain brake that is activated by your hand in event of kickback.   An inertia brake is when the sudden gforce of a kickback activates the brake. I read the homelite literature and it doesn’t have one. To test an inertia brake you drop the nose of the bar on a log and it engages the brake. The sudden jolt or inertia trips the brake. It means if you get a vicious fast moving kickback jerk at full rpm it’ll activate the brake even if your hand is nowhere near the manual brake lever r  
Marc I’ve read some of the European research on canola oil and plenty of arborists use it without problems. I guess the other side to the coin is that the tack additives also collect dirt and dust and keep it in contact with the chain which can cause heat and wear on the bar too.for now it seems to work excellent and my chain is perfectly clean. I might buy some enviro bar oil which is canola with tack additive but I don’t like the idea of tipping liters of oil into the state forests.  
I have a stihl 2 in 1 file. it works so well I’m glad I bought it!  
good fun!

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## David.Elliott

For my first season many years ago I was lucky enough to be invited along with a local who had been doing it for many years and whose father was a feller in Jarrahdale.
What I learnt in that trip was that the smaller stuff was mostly taken by everyone else. 
When we went we pretty much parked next to a large Jarrah log, took 500mm long slices off, dropped and split, and straight into the trailer.  
Here in WA we are not allowed to load unsplit timber. Many do and don't get caught. 
 Now two of us can collect probably about a tonne, split, in 4 hours, door to door, depending on how long it takes to find a decent log. We do go three or 4 times per year.  
I did buy an Oregon copy electric sharpener, and have a couple of doodads for hand filing. The Electric sharpener is great for every 5-6th sharpen to get the teeth all back to the same size.
Chainsaw shop guy and I agree that's its difficult to hand file teeth the same on both sides. Especially as I only do it a couple of months a year. So in the field I don't sharpen anymore, just swap the chain over.
Only ever use the Huski bar oil and two stroke oil.

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## METRIX

> Metrix you don’t mean the standard chain brake that is activated by your hand in event of kickback.   An inertia brake is when the sudden gforce of a kickback activates the brake. I read the homelite literature and it doesn’t have one.

  
That's crazy, I haven't seen a chainsaw that didn't have inertia brake, but then I don't look at anything other than Stihl, Husqvarna or ECHO.
It's funny because the US version of the Homelite 16" gas powered saw does have inertia, even the 14" version has it, I guess we just get the cheaper cheapy version.

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## s900t8v

yeah I was looking at homelite usa metrix and noticed that they even have sprocket nose kickback arrestors... thats why when I was looking here for one with all the safety features the husqy for $250 was the cheapest entry level saw with it, but 32cc and a 16" bar the (stihl seemed even less value) didnt seem good enough thats why I went with morrison... for the price point the inertia brake is a nice feature to have on an entry level saw

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## Marc

Modern chainsaw have a brake to stop the chain in event of kick back. THere is only one brake.
However that brake can be triggered by either the back of the left hand if the kickback makes the chainsaw rotate, or a sudden load on the running chain, yet both mechanism trigger the same brake, a belt around the clutch.  
Not every chainsaw has a brake. 
The motorized chainsaw was patented by Stihl, a two person electric chainsaw, in 1926 and a petrol one in 1929. From those days to 1973 when Husqvarna invents the automatic chain brake, millions of chainsaw where sold without a brake. 
I myself own 3 Homelite vintage that have no brake of any description. By the way I have a little Makita modern electric chainsaw that also has no brake at all. 
Kickback happens when the nose of the saw touches something solid that is unmovable. A blunt chain that hits a big log whilst the operator is tired, distracted, has slippery hands or a soft grip, and the bar will kick up, rotate using the left hand handle as a pivot point and run for your face or chest. 
The brake prevents this. Awareness and experience also prevent this, and a strong right hand grip. 
In almost 60 years of operating chainsaws, with and without a brake, I have never accidentally triggered the brake in those that have one. Lucky I suppose. 
There are also anti kickback chains.  When the running chain hits a log in the kickback zone, the nose, the normal chain will dig in the wood as per normal. A safety chain as it turns around the tight radius of the bar nose, has a link between the teeth that rises above the cutting link and prevents the chain from digging in and kick.
Of course this design make the chain useless for plunge cuts

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## s900t8v

thanks great info marc!  
I have been making a note to keep the chain sharp, the one time I filed it wrong it was quite bitey and I could feel as the rpms dropped as it bit in it wanted to eject itself from the cut so since then I've been pretty vigilant. 
I think the slim / low profile bar also helps does it not, it just means that 1/4 area on the nose is smaller so there is less contact area for it to generate kickback force?  
just been out sharpening it again, i've freed up a sticky nose sprocket and cleaned the oiler as it seems to get blocked by the stringy ive been cutting... 
 its way more satisfying when you get big chips  from a sharp chain and it effortlessly chews into the wood.  
next time im out in the woods now the saw is broken in i'll focus on tuning it a little to try find the sweet spot... I think its been on the quite rich side set from the factory as when you run a saw at 25:1 as the book calls for for break in the oil volume actually leans out the mixture slightly and I think they've allowed for that with the tuning. I've learnt this from tuning small 2 stroke motorcycles over the years. I might drop back to 40: 1  before tuning it as thats what is recommended after break in

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