For cutting up the tops of trees and limbing, is it possible to run a big bar of around 26" on an MS260 type saw? An MS201 (not a T model) would be even better, but Bailey's doesn't sell bars that long for small saws.
Obviously, this wouldn't work very well if you tried to bury the bar in a 20" tree, but for limbing and cutting small branches of tree tops that don't require splitting, up to say 4" diameter, it would give you extended reach and save your back from having to bend down all the time.
Kickback is a bit of a concern, because it would involve a lot of cutting with the nose, rather than keeping the branch up against the dogs, but I don't think that would be a super huge issue, both because of the limited power of the saw, and the fact that people use pole pruners to do similar things. A pole pruner would also work, but the minimum reach on those is too long for what I'm trying to do, which is basically to trim and limb downed trees without developing a semi-simian posture, and keeping weight down.
Balance would be pretty nose heavy, but I think that the reduced weight of the powerhead would make up for this, especially if the saw is not a top handled saw and the bar was a reduced weight one.
Does anybody have any experience or feedback on this? The only performance downside I can see is that you would have more bar-chain friction, and possibly might run out of oiling, but again, it's still basically just cutting a 4" branch, with the remaining 20" of bar hanging in the air.
Alternatively, has anyone tried to cut down a pole pruner to the right length?
Obviously, this wouldn't work very well if you tried to bury the bar in a 20" tree, but for limbing and cutting small branches of tree tops that don't require splitting, up to say 4" diameter, it would give you extended reach and save your back from having to bend down all the time.
Kickback is a bit of a concern, because it would involve a lot of cutting with the nose, rather than keeping the branch up against the dogs, but I don't think that would be a super huge issue, both because of the limited power of the saw, and the fact that people use pole pruners to do similar things. A pole pruner would also work, but the minimum reach on those is too long for what I'm trying to do, which is basically to trim and limb downed trees without developing a semi-simian posture, and keeping weight down.
Balance would be pretty nose heavy, but I think that the reduced weight of the powerhead would make up for this, especially if the saw is not a top handled saw and the bar was a reduced weight one.
Does anybody have any experience or feedback on this? The only performance downside I can see is that you would have more bar-chain friction, and possibly might run out of oiling, but again, it's still basically just cutting a 4" branch, with the remaining 20" of bar hanging in the air.
Alternatively, has anyone tried to cut down a pole pruner to the right length?
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