I need some recommendations on which saw to buy. I have been looking at the Sears 18" (one year warranty) ~$100
Gerald
I would go with the Poulan. I have not read the specs. I do not think the Sears or the Poulan have an automatic oiler. As a starter these electric chain saw are good for light duty. They are OK for cross cutting small diameters logs. When you have to do some ripping the wood chips usually accumulate between the chain and it guard. If you are serious about woodturning you will end up with a gas operated chain saw later on. I have both electric and gas. When I work indoor, especially on Sunday morning I use the electric saw for small jobs.
I prefer gas, haven't yet found an electric that competes. Primarily my use isn't near power so I would need re-chargeable. Most battery operated are even weaker than corded. I can see the benefit for above ground tree trimming and indoor work, but I generally need more power for hardwoods and large diameter blanks. The larger blades available on gas equate to longer chain life, less sharpening needed, whether gas or electric. I need a larger blade, 36", for my chainsaw mill, haven't seen many electrics over 18" yet.
I bought a Remington a little over a year ago and use it exclusively in the garage. I've not had any problems at all with it. There are a couple of things I really would have liked better. Automatic oiler would have been nice. The chain throat tends to clog but is easily cleaned out. My gas saw sometimes clogs as well because of the long shavings that come out. I've cross cut through logs that are 16" long and had no problems. For $79 I thought it the better value. I figured to get 1 year out of it, 2 if lucky. Stihl sells a nice 18" electric saw that I've been told is very good, but I can't afford the $350 price tag. Besides, when you consider the price I can buy 4 of the Remingtons for the price of 1 stihl. Cutting bowl blanks from longs is hard on chainsaws, gas or electric. I figured the electric motor on most saws wouldn't last more than 2 years, regardless of brand or price paid for it. That was my justification for going with the Remington. Not been upset with it at all. No gas fumes in the garage. Will buy another one if the price remains lower than other brands when this one decides to quit working. Can't say anything about the Craftsman or Poulan. Haven't used either or spoke to anyone who has. Have used the Remington brand for several years. Bought a small Remington limb saw (14") some 15 years that stil runs great.
JD
~$100
Hello Gerald,
I've owned about a half dozen electric chain saws over the years. They are nice to use in the shop or just outside the shop. Each of them after about two years of moderate use just up and died. I commented on this to my son-in-law who uses chain saws a great deal in his work. He said that all electric chain saws are designed to last between 50 and
100 hours of normal use. Apparently, the manufacturers build in a self destruct capability for these saws that would cost more to repair than replace new. I'm sure that is done on many items these days. As a result, when I purchase one of these electric saws, I choose the least expensive that feels good in my hand. I will not purchase one that I can not handle.Fred Holder
I've had 2 Craftsman electrics, a 12" and a 14".. both were good deals for the money, IMO..
I used the 14" last week to cut an ironwood log in half, about a 16" log half, around 6" thick... It wasn't happy about it and the blade was smoking by the time I got through, but it did it..
I probably could have cut it faster with my gas saw, but I was working in the carport and didn't want to fill the house with fumes. Oh, and the electric has a new chain so I keep it away from ironwood.. ;-]
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
I went through 12 of the sears/poulan chainsaws in quick order - all replaced under warranty, all failed for exactly the same reason - a nylon gear stripped off of a badly engineered hex shaft and the chain quit moving - the best lasted about 1 hour, the wost was dead when I opened the box - the next worst worked for 5 seconds. I finally gave up in disgust, got a full refund and bought a Sthil - the 20 inch bar (vice 16 inch) is very helpful, and it has NEVER EVER even hinted at failing - and I've cut full bar lenght in rip mode for over an h our at a time.
so my recommendation is the Sthil - not cheap, but it works, the others are cheap (I got them for $50 to $75, but failing every cut just isn't up to even my low standards for cheap tools.
fred - you son is just plain wrong - he may be right about the cheap disposable homeowner ones, but the commercial ones do not suffer this problem - commercial loggers use the electric chain saws in some locations (run off a portable genset) because of the reduced noise, smoke, and vibration - they run 16 hours a day, 7 days per week -
Do you have a brand, model, blade size, horsepower, company location, weblink or phone number? Locally here, loggers use gas only. A web search for commercial electric chainsaw gave no relevant results. I know they and I would be interested in any available units 24"-36" blade that have equivalent horsepower of gas units. Are these being used to fell trees and cut logs or just to trim small branches? Thanks for any info on this.
Can you imagine trying to limb with an electric? Those times you weren't cutting your cord you'd be tripping over or hanging up on it.
My electric is 30 years old, so buy a new Mac, that's 30 years old... Do you want cheap or good (new Mac's, Sears, etc are cheap). BTW, according to the Sthil rep that talked at the Club's February meeting (at least their) electric chainsaw will NOT shut down when it tangles in a pair of chain-saw chaps
I have a Husky that I got a number of years ago, and it works fine. I did find out that you can't push these saws, you have to let them cut at their own pace. They don't have anywhere near the power that the gas saws do, but are quiet. Since I got my Laguna 16HD bandsaw, with
4.5 hp, and which cuts 16 inch, I never use the electric any more. robo hippyMar 31, 7:18 am, " snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com" wrote:
These two saws (Sears/Poulan electric) are the same saw, just a different color. I have had one (poulan) for >10 years and it works fine, however the nylon gear will strip (not the gear per se, but the joint between the metal shaft and the nylon body) every couple years and you have to replace it (to the tune of about $15 and half an hour of disassembly and reassembly). I buy the gears from Sears. The replacement gears for the two saws have different numbers, but they are the exact same part at the exact same price.
I bought a Remington at home depot and it's a piece of crap. It works OK for cutting small branches, but has seriously cheap sprocket cover/ chain tensioning assembly which is a pain, and is the part that will fail first. It also vibrates more and is much louder.
Because of the nylon gear stripping problem on the Poulan (still my favorite for trimming and working in the garage to circularize blanks which are unbalanced on the lathe, but I think it's when I'm ripping larger chunks from a very large blank that it gets overstressed), I bought a Husqvarna electric, which I intend to use for the more aggressive cutting that the Poulan can't handle, but which is too small to warrant whipping out the big Stihl 044. At almost half the price of the Stihl electric, I hope it will live up to the Husqvarna reputation, however Husky doesn't make it, they contract it out. We'll see. I haven't had time to try it yet. I was vacillating on this or the similar Makita electric chainsaw, as I have always loved every Makita tool I ever had, but the Husky has more power and more chain speed.
The Poulan will serve you well, but keep it sharp. I think the gear failure is related to the shock stress I can feel when cutting a thick section. The saw starts jumping as the blade bounces off and on the wood. I think that keeping it sharp minimizes this, but when a significant % of the bar is being used on a long cut, this still happens. I suspect the location where it is cutting moves around on a very long straight cut. Even with a sharp chain this is a problem, so I think it's not going to last if you intend to rip a lot, and you'll have to replace gears like I do. I minimize it also by changing the angle of cut so I'm cutting only a corner, or cut near the tip, but it still fails now and then. Hopefully the Husky will take this abuse better.
"snip------------ The Poulan will serve you well, but keep it sharp. I think the gear failure is related to the shock stress I can feel when cutting a thick section. The saw starts jumping as the blade bounces off and on the wood. I think that keeping it sharp minimizes this, but when a significant % of the bar is being used on a long cut, this still happens. I suspect the location where it is cutting moves around on a very long straight cut. Even with a sharp chain this is a problem, so I think it's not going to last if you intend to rip a lot, and you'll have to replace gears like I do. I minimize it also by changing the angle of cut so I'm cutting only a corner, or cut near the tip, but it still fails now and then. Hopefully the Husky will take this abuse better.
after studying my dozen failed chainsaws, I believe the failure is caused by heating - the stress on the gear causes the nylon to wiggle a little on the shaft, and to suffer varying stress - this causes the plastic to heat up and weaken - the impact load you mention also aggravates it, as does a really really really STUPID design - no engineer in their right mind would design a gear/shaft system like that if they wanted any longevity - there are other techniques, including a spline, that would work a lot better, but this was probably a compromize to make the cost low.
I don't know that I'd buy another electric, as I usually find myself wishing I had a gas one for the portability it offers, but if I were in the market for another one, I'd feel more than comfortable getting the same model again.
Didn't think to mention it in the previous post, as I thought they all had it, but the McCullough does have an automatic oiler.
I have a 16" Poulan. It was broken within two months. It was not their quality. It was my problem. I didn't know how to use it. They repaired it for me within the warranty terms and it last for many years till now.
I went through this decision process earlier this year and settled on the
18" Poulan electric. I am very happy with it. It isn't as powerful as my Stihl gas chainsaw but is perfectly adequate for trimming (even large) blanks. I like the automatic oiler it has and it works quite well.Chuck
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