Tornados, trees and Chainsaws UPDATE

[P0234]

Probably a better bet than a cheap chinese saw:

20" Craftsman S205 46cc 2-Cycle Gas Chainsaw $134.10 + Free Shipping

Update: This deal is still available. MTD Parts has 20" Craftsman S205 46cc 2-Cycle Gas Chainsaw (CMXGSAMY462S) for $149 - $14.90 when you apply promo code MTDTEN in cart = $134.10 ...

slickdeals.net

 

[jhendric]

My $.02. DO not buy a cheap chain saw. All of the cheap saws I've used have really bad oiling systems which means you will frustrate yourself badly with chains going dull and not taking an edge. I suggest you buy a Stihl 271 Farm boss. I'd get several chains with it. I'd use it until done and sell it on Facebook Marketplace listed exactly honestly..."Bought in May for storm cleanup, I used to cut up 5 trees, don't want it going forward" You will sell it for $100 less than you bought it for. I have a Farm Boss that I bought for the same reason as you, (only hurricane cleanup not tornado). I've had that saw for close to 20 years now, one of my favorite tools.

 

[Wamsutta]

 

[WWheeler]

First time I've ever seen a lefty actually use a saw left-handed, and that's a beast of a saw to do that with. Every left-handed person I've worked with would still run a saw with their right hand on the throttle in a normal right-handed orientation like it was designed to be used.

As far as the OP goes, fallen trees will have twisting tension forces on them in more than one direction that can make them not only tricky/dangerous to cut up but also make it very easy to get your saw stuck in a cut to where if that happens you will need another like-sized or larger saw to be able to get it out. Just be cognizant of that and watch for the kerf trying to close up behind you.

I always aim to size the saw I'm using up to what I'm cutting so that I don't bury the bar tip/sprocket in wood for very long. ie: I try to use a saw with a longer bar than the diameter of the wood I'm cutting. Trying to cut much wood with a bar that's not even close to the diameter of the wood I'm cutting is no beuno. Keeping that tip buried in a cut over and over will smoke a bar.

While I prefer pro-grade Stihls and Huskys, if you plan on selling them when you are done that Stihl name will pay for itself. Stihls put on Marketplace or Craigslist have always gotten me calls and sales within a day or two of listing. I've had people come from a half a day's drive away to get them. Husky's often sit there for weeks without a peep. Homeowner saws like Poulan and McCulloch can be almost impossible to sell until they are priced down to please-just-take-me. A Chinese saw? lol

 

[Michigan Mike]

Just a word of caution. It sounds like these trees are on the ground and have pulled the roots up. IF it is like usually happens part of the roots are still in the ground. Those roots are just like a giant spring waiting for the weight of the tree to be removed and then stand the stump back up. There are horror stories of little kids playing under the root ball Dad cuts the trunk off the stub and it stands up trapping the kids.

 

[cvairwerks]

Another thing to be extremely watchful for is downed power lines. Just had a 20 year old get electrocuted when his saw touched a downed line that was still hot. Killed him in an instant and now his on the way kid will grow up without her dad.....

 

[Steve_P]

PF did a comparison between the Stihl clone and a Stihl.

Stihl's business model may be "outdated" but they don't want to join the box store race to the bottom. Most places that sell Stihl, including my local Ace, also services them. If not for supporting this model, there would be even less small engine shops than the few left, and they would become a disposable product.

 

[Southernbuild]

A buddy bought a couple of the super cheap ebay chainsaws, and they worked ok.

Personally, I love my Sthil chainsaws, but they might not be 4x better for a one time use situation.

 

[Joemctag]

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I have several human powered ones standing by for when Publicly Greedy & Evil gets slammed by the next windstorm here.

Those old saws with the huge teeth sure cut wood fast compared to a regular handsaw. Amazing if you ever get to try one. You’d know how, in the old days, have two men on such saws, especially with the blade vertical: one above on the timber being ripped and one below in a pit..

 

[WWheeler]

Those old saws with the huge teeth sure cut wood fast compared to a regular handsaw. Amazing if you ever get to try one. You’d know how, in the old days, have two men on such saws, especially with the blade vertical: one above on the timber being ripped and one below in a pit..

My old boss, before he retired, used to have dozens pictures of him and the crew he worked on going all the way back to the 1930's all over his office where they had cut many many miles of transmission line right-of-ways for Virginia Power with those in the days before they were supplied any sort of chainsaw. him and a bunch of guys standing in front hundreds of cut logs some bigger than 6' diameter, and several those two-man cross cut saws leaned up against them. They were all big men dirty AF and smiling with beers in their hands in almost every pic.

The pictures of him on the same crew with the first chainsaws they managed to get looked like I'd rather still be cutting with one of those manual crosscuts. They were two-person saws with gigantic engines on one end and a handle on the other end of bars 4' to 6' long that no way not for any amount of money would I have held onto while one of those beasts was running.

edit: example pic of one of those early saws like they were using ...

 

[ATC]

The pictures of him on the same crew with the first chainsaws they managed to get looked like I'd rather still be cutting with one of those manual crosscuts. They were two-person saws with gigantic engines on one end and a handle on the other end of bars 4' to 6' long that no way not for any amount of money would I have held onto while one of those beasts was running.

edit: example pic of one of those early saws like they were using ...

A family member of mine is a logger in upstate NY, and he has 3-4 of those, and larger, all restored, hanging on the walls in his shop. They are awesome.

 

[jar944]

Imho just rent a home depot dolmar/makita. Preferably the 6400/6410. You should be able to cut it all in a day.

 

[Copymutt]

Yeah, I remember being on the tail end of a 2 man Mall, The early Strunks, the sharks tooth chains. Those saws weighed a ton. Smoked like the Marlboro man. Manual oilers.
Husky 346xp is my current go to. You make me envious of all that firewood.

 

[gungatim]

Another thing to be extremely watchful for is downed power lines. Just had a 20 year old get electrocuted when his saw touched a downed line that was still hot. Killed him in an instant and now his on the way kid will grow up without her dad.....

Good point. You should only use a chainsaw to cut down tree limbs, not power lines.

 

[WWheeler]

Good point. You should only use a chainsaw to cut down tree limbs, not power lines.

Yeah but tree limbs and bodies are conductors. And our bodies make a better conductor than a tree so anyone trimming near a power line who doesn't know what they are doing is liable to find themselves in the path to ground.

I've had to lower a dead trimmer from a different company to the ground who found that out the hard way. Burnt to a crisp and sat there like that for more than an hour while they watched until I arrived. VA Beach fire dept had already had what was then VA Power kill the line, but by that time the kid was long gone. They just needed someone to climb up there, cut him free, so we could lower him down. I believe he was in his 20s. Never knew his name or anything else about him but I'll never forget him.

On another incident well before that one I arrived to find a guy who had cut a limb he was straddling with his back to the trunk right down onto a 14.5KV primary line and he was getting electrocuted from his groin to his ankle every time he couldn't hold his foot away from the trunk any longer and we had to just sit there and watch the poor guy like that for what seemed like forever. Police and Fire were on the scene but the power company (lied and) said they couldn't kill the entire circuit for him. We all sat there waiting for a lift too arrive so I could get up there to cut him free and lower him down. I believe I wrote about this in more detail on this forum before somewhere a few years back. EDIT: Here it is.

 

[cvairwerks]

Good point. You should only use a chainsaw to cut down tree limbs, not power lines.

In his case, the line was apparently tangled in the downed tree and not visible to him. I've come across downed lines before that you couldn't see until you nearly stepped on them. Line dangers were constant reminders in the little VFD I was on for a number of years. PoCo help was always available to us, but it might take as long as an hour to arrive on scene.

 

[LopezBart]

Moving is not a problem. Neighbor has a tracked skid loader, I have a small tractor/loader. I've estimated the cost to hire it, likely reach into thousands as the trees are big, laying atop others and in hard to reach locations. Standing trees would be much easier to handle as one would only have to deal with one at a time. I plan to but into large sections, drag out to an accessible area to reduce the size of the pieces. Not new work for me, been there - done that, just not recently.

I've had good luck pivoting jumbled trees & logs enough with a loader or large 4wd truck & chains to see what is going on and to release a lot of stored whoop-***. It remains a somewhat risky process, but at least one is not standing right next to it. If there are still standing trees, those can be used as winch points, of course.

I've owned a Stihl Farm Boss w/ a 20" bar for some 30 years now; it still starts first or second pull.

I've watched a guy right next to me get tangled up in a 7kv line; he survived after a 200+ mile Medivac from the remote area. It was a near thing, and giving him comfort and dealing w/ shock while waiting 45 minutes for help to arrive was hard.

 

[Mandres]

Honestly man, just hire it out. Dealing with 24" wide downed trees is seriously hard, dangerous work unless you have heavy equipment available, which makes it a breeze. How are you going to roll the logs to finish bucking them? How are you going to lift the rounds to move them to the splitter? Have a plan for all the brush?

Rather than buying a saw, a set of chains, a sharpening system and all the PPE just to get started I'd suggest letting a crew handle it for you. If not at least plan to rent a skid steer or something to save your back

- edit - nvm, I see that you have access to equipment. You got this

 

[LopezBart]

Rolling logs, even large ones, is doable w/ a peavy. I have the 66" one from https://peaveymfg.com/ ; it's worked like a charm, even on 24"+ diameter fir logs.