Another reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving.

My brother is moving and was going through stuff he didn't want to take with him. Which included a gently used Echo CS 3450. He said it runs a little rough, so I figured I would buy an tuneup kit for it. Figured it would be a nice light duty back up saw.

Anyone have any experience with this saw?

My brother said he had problems keeping it running when he gave it to me.

Threw a new spark plug in and a fresh batch of 50:1 gas and she took off like a champ. I took it out and bucked a coupled of pieces of popular and noticed the chain was very dull. I looked at the chain and it looks more conservative than the one on my Poulan Pro.

There shouldn't be a problem in getting a more aggressive chain for it should there?

What should I look for in the chain?

I posted this suggestion in another thread. Seemed to go over well.

Seriously tho, any saw shop should be able to fix you up. You want yellow label (professional) chain. Chisel for clean wood, semi-chisel for the dirty work.

Do you know what pitch/size chain you need?

Pitch is 3/8" and gauge is 0.50" - didn't pull the chain to count drive links yet.

What makes a low kickback chain safer?

Stihl dealers carry the very best 3/8 Picco (Low-Pro) chain IMO. You even have a chisel chain available in 3/8P. I would ask for a chain to be made from 63PM3-xx or 63PS3-xx. xx = number of drive links, PM is semi-chisel and PD is chisel chain.

Unfortunately it looks like Stihl has discontinued it's yellow-label Picco chain.

As to what makes green-label chain "safer", it usually has 1 of 3 different devices (sometimes a combination of them) to reduce kickback. Basically it "lifts" the cutter off the wood while it travels around the nose of the bar, reducing the bite each cutter gets. Less bite = less kickback and a much slower cut with the nose of the bar buried. FWIW, "safety" chain cuts flesh and bone just fine.

Thanks for the info...lots to learn.

Oh, and thanks for keeping me from testing out that chain on my leg....saves me some guess work. LOL>