chainsaw bar upgrading Q

[Stephen Hibbs]

My stepdad and I are looking into a chainsaw to cut up a big olive root, and we need a big chain (he wants 36"). Is it possible to buy a slightly smaller chainsaw, and put a big bar on it? The only saw i can find with a 36" bar is a husky, ~$800, has 6 horsepower, and is professional grade. We just want it for this one stump, and occasional bowl blank cutting. So, what is the least powerful engine we could pull this off with, and are there any suggestions?

-Thanks,
Stephen

[David Kauffman]

There is a good reason smaller chainsaws don't come with larger bars, it simply takes too much power to pull that much bar through wood. You can get away with stretching things in the short run, but eventually you will burn up a small saw not designed to be under that much of a load.

That said... I have run a 36" bar on my Husqvarna 365, which is a 60cc saw, and if you take it easy and have lots of patience, it will do in a pinch. That is about the minimum cc saw for a 36 inch bar even in that temproray situation though, and the saw manufacturers won't back a saw used in that way. You can get a good 60cc saw in the $5-600 range. Remember though, that saws that small just don't have the power to pull a bar that long through wood, and are not designed for it. You need to step up to a 75cc or larger saw for that kind of bar. Husqvarna 395 for ex. is around 100cc, but now you're looking at the $8-900 range.

sorry... thems the cold hard facts.

I would question why you need such a large bar in the first place. I was a logger for a pulpwood company in a former life, so I know a little about chainsaws. Give me a little more info on exactly what you want to do and I might be able to help you fine tune your decision.

[thomas prevost]

why a 36"? An 18" cut from left side then right will give you a two pass 36" cut. If there is a few inch bridge because of stump being 38-40 inches, it can be split apart with a few wedges. Any number of 18" huskys in an affordable range. Those big saws are also a beast to use, and maybe dangerous for first time users.

[Stephen Hibbs]

Thanks David,
I need to talk to him more about why we need to cut it in half, and try to talk him into a smaller saw. I was just testing the waters to see if my idea was at all feasible, I guess not really.

-Stephen

[Stephen Hibbs]

He doesn't want to have to come in from different sizes, but I think after seeing the prices on those huge ones he might reconsider.

[Jake Helmboldt]

David pretty much summed it up, but again, no need to use a 36" unless you have a stump that is huge. Get a couple wedges (you'll need them regardless of the bar you have) and walk that saw around the perimeter of the stump. A 20" bar will give you 40" of cut across the stump. The wedges will keep that stump from pinching the bar (and wedges are the plastic ones, not a metal splitting wedge).

Secondly, most smaller saws won't have a 36" bar that will fit it, so not only is it not a good idea, depending on the saw you may not even find a bar that will fit the mounts of that saw.

Finally, go rent a bigger saw and abuse it. Cutting stumps is hard on a saw; lots of dirt, grit, and watch out for rocks and embeded metal. That way you get a bigger saw and you don't tear up your chain.

Jake