Many years ago, when I first started using a chainsaw, I haphazardly would run the bar into the ground on a lot of cuts. Never thinking it was doing any harm, I was young and stupid.
Sometimes you don't have to be young to be stupid. When I moved into my house 6ish years ago we had a burning party. There were some overgrown shrubs, plenty of crap in the woods, plenty of saplings, and some small trees that needed to be taken down.
Well my father in law wanted to help so he borrowed his friends
brand new chain saw. After I cut down the trees (with my own chain saw) and moved the rounds out of the way....he wanted to show me an easy way to get rid of stumps.
He dug a little bit around each tree and fired up his buddies chain saw. Plunged it into the earth near the roots and begun cutting through the roots. Then he started cutting up saplings. It got to the point that he couldn't even cut a twig before he stopped and wondered what was wrong. Meanwhile my dad and I are shaking our heads.
He goes to his truck and brings out a cordless drill with a circular file in it and starts running it through what was left of the chain. Yup. And not the file you or I would use, but just a generic rat tail file. But wait...It gets worse.
He brought his own gas too. Filled her up and went back at it. 30 seconds later the saw quits. You guessed it. Gasoline straight from the pump.
Did I mention he never put any bar oil in the
brand new chainsaw???
So in about 30 minutes he destroyed a chain, burnt up a bar, and seized the engine of his buddies
brand new chain saw. I don't remember what model saw it was, but it was a
Stihl. He and his friend don't talk anymore.
You don't need to be young to be stupid.