Ideal saw for small volume firewood

I would recommend a home owners stihl model. They have a couple in the 179.99 price range that are 16" bar, very light, and will hold up great. don't let the hp rating discourage you, these little things can cut. http://chainsaws.homeowl.com/l/50/Stihl-MS-170

Babaganoosh said:

A 461 is lighter than a 290?

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Never said it was mi amigo.

The ms251 will save you some weight and has plenty of power to pull a 16 or 18" bar. I have cut a few trees that were in the 22-24" range with my 251 and 18" bar and a couple that were 30". But, if the majority of your wood is 18" or less all you really need is a ms170 with a 16" bar. They are only $180. Buy an extra chain and 2 in 1 file to go with it and you will be set for quite a while.
No need to buy a saw because of a warranty as someone said above. A 5 year warranty is totally useless on a chainsaw. The odds you will have a manufacturers defect after a year are slim to none. Warranty is not going to cover a worn chain, worn clutch, worn bar, clogged up carb, pull cord, fuel hose, or blown up saw if you don't change the air filter or cut with it wide open and burn it up. There aren't many occasions when a saw fails that it's the manufacturers fault. The most common failures I see are due to a lack of maintenance like running a dull chain, running chain too tight or too loose, storing saw for long periods, not replacing air filter and the main cause I see is loaning a saw to a friend (this will ruin a saw almost every time because they won't sharpen the chain, they only run it wide open and they put straight gas in it).

Repeat advice to buy a smaller saw like an MS-170 and keep your 290, which is the quintessential rancher saw. You may be surprised how much you can accomplish with a 40cc 14" bar and a good sharp chain. It might take a little longer to cut bigger diameter stuff, but you're not going to get fatigued nearly as fast.

Just to address the other issue you brought up: extended chainsaw operation does require one to be strong and have stamina, particularly core muscles, which help you remain rigid while cutting and support your back while leaning over. So yes, probably the best thing you can do is get back in shape. In the meantime, kneeling while operating a chainsaw is usually not recommended, but there are techniques for it, such as kneeling on just one knee and staying off to the side of the chain's cutting plain, that make it a safer practice than bending over if you're someone with a bad back that might possibly go out and create a very dangerous situation while cutting. You might find this a good technique for bucking logs on the ground rather than bending over.

If you are adamant about only owning one saw I would base my decision on the usual type of score. My primary firewood saw was a MS170 for many years before I found a need for a saw with more power but I mainly had access to densely forested wood lots where trees tend to have small crowns and trunks and smaller than my 14 inch bar. To this day I continue to split by hand so I do much prefer scoring pole wood tops and the smaller rounds that are easily lifted. My guess in Louisiana you probably don't have much competition in obtaining firewood so you likely can become selective in what size and wood type you decide to target..

However, I prefer using the 2 saw system because it allows for greater efficiency and allows for more wood sizes and when one saw starts to show minor issues like hard starting after it is warmed up and a beginning sign of the carb needing replacement the other can take its place and not impede on your cutting progress while the other saw cools off.

Everyone knocks the light low powered saws but operator fatigue is nearly non existent with them (the MS170 is more than 6lbs lighter than the 290) and likelihood of being careless like hitting the chain into the dirt much lower.


In addition, I can cut 2 cords of wood using less than a half a gallon of fuel with the MS170.

As for reliability my 170 lasted 9 years before it needed a carburetor repair. I would make sure you use fresh gas 89 octane or higher and what appears infrequent use of your saw I would probably invest in a 25 ml graduated cylinder and prefer to mix ethanol free gas in quarts and make sure to winterize your equipment when not in use for 60 days.

I recommend a smaller saw. I am in very good shape and I can tell you that my big saw will fatigue me much sooner than my small one. I always go for the small saw even if it will take a little longer to get the job done. I could use them both but one is more pleasant than the other so the big one hardly ever gets used.

stihl 170.

I have a 036/20" bar which is about the same weight as your 029. Shortly after getting into firewood I went out and bought a smaller, lighter MS180 with a 12" bar to use for limbing. It is super light and a pleasure to use and hardly burns any gas. It was fun for a while but hasn't been started in probably a year... the power/speed of the 036 just makes things go so much faster that it's always the saw I reach for first. Also even if I'm out cutting all afternoon I can only do maybe 1/2 hour at a time before I need to stop and refuel, so I use that time to take a little break, touch up the chain, eat a snack, roll some rounds over to the truck, etc

One benefit to having two saws is you can cut one loose with the other if it gets pinched in a tree.

jeffesonm said:

One benefit to having two saws is you can cut one loose with the other if it gets pinched in a tree.

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Very true. Or you can have an extra bar and chain and remove the power head from the tree and just cut the bar/chain loose. That would keep from damaging the power head of the tree happened to fall on it.

A graduated cylinder is used to measure the volume of liquids.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gra...hXDOSYKHRG6AFoQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=K21TMQum7qmcUM:

All my life I've felt that a 026 Stihl was a great general purpose saw but the past few years even it seems a little large to toss around, ever since I tried a 024.......

I think my 334T only weighs 3.5 lbs minus bar and fluids. But I could have that spec wrong.
My dream is the Stihl 201T.
Weight is everything to me, I lose steam very rapidly with the heavy saws. Its so true that fatigue gets you in trouble. And shorter bars keep the chains out of the dirt.
I didnt know they had 12" bars.
Does anyone know anything about picco chain set ups? My cousin had a Stihl saw set up with a picco bar and would like like to know some more.

X3 or 4- Keep the 290 get a sharp chain or sharpen yours, get a 170 and use the hell out of it of it like I have. I cut a crapload of wood with my 170 and if it blew up tomorrow I'd spend $180 and buy another one

D8Chumley said:

X3 or 4- Keep the 290 get a sharp chain or sharpen yours, get a 170 and use the hell out of it of it like I have. I cut a crapload of wood with my 170 and if it blew up tomorrow I'd spend $180 and buy another one

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X2

3 hours, 2.5 tanks of fuel with my MS170, cut just about a cord of tulip / yellow poplar, took one water break.

Where's the obligatory saw on the stack pic?

Damn it.....in the back of the polaris!

You, sir, are a terrible salesman

Make me go out in the garage, good time to grab a beer anyway and celebrate the firing of the Browns head coach and GM !

Maybe you will get our recently departed Chip Kelly, he's in need of some employment

We probably already have a deal with him, browns wanted him when he left Oregon

I cut 4+ cords of logs, some 24 inches + this fall with my 170