New saw

[Flatbedford]

I'd like a yellow chain for my 180!

 

[oldogy]

Many thanks for these saw reports. The oldogy may just have a slightly smaller saw in his future.

 

[mecreature]

Heres a story for you regarding my 180. The first time I met Smokin' for a group firewood cut, I showed up with my 361 and 180. The 361 never got started due to 3 others having the same saw out and nobody with a dedicated limber. I grabbed the lil 180 and started limbing. He laughed at me all day.He said he was going to make a necklace out of it LMAO! Now mind you, he broke out the 880 to cut a single fencepost for access purposes, so I can see why he was laughing. Someone eventually ended up running my 361, but I stayed on the little 180. If I have to load a trailer full of rounds at the end of the day, why swing the big saw if uneccessary?

Mine runs well and gets used and abused. When it breaks, I will buy another one. (This time without the stupid tool-less chain adjuster)
I hear they have a yellow chain available for it now....can't wait to try it out!

that fence post ended up in the back of my truck.


for my small saw I got a refurb husqvarna 435, tips the scale at 9.2 lbs with 40.9 cc's. It seems to be a good saw for the price. I had the stihl dealer make a yellow stihl chain for it. Its fun to run. I probably ought to richen it up a bit but I like the way it runs now. Don't want to mess it up.

 

[rudysmallfry]

I'm so glad to hear an experienced user likes that saw cuz I just got the MS-180 with the easy start. It's my first chain saw. I wanted something light and easy to operate on smaller logs. I recently scored a lot of oak and some of the rounds are pushing 12"s. I was concerned that I didn't have enough saw for them, but it sounds like maybe I do. Stupid question. How much cutting can you do on one chain without having to sharpen or change it?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Rudy, don't worry a bit about cutting a 12" round. I cut a 14" ash and made a couple cuts on a 18" red oak and it did fine.

So far I've found every other tank of gas works out well for sharpening this little saw. Doesn't take long to sharpen it either.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Heres a story for you regarding my 180. The first time I met Smokin' for a group firewood cut, I showed up with my 361 and 180. The 361 never got started due to 3 others having the same saw out and nobody with a dedicated limber. I grabbed the lil 180 and started limbing. He laughed at me all day.He said he was going to make a necklace out of it LMAO! Now mind you, he broke out the 880 to cut a single fencepost for access purposes, so I can see why he was laughing. Someone eventually ended up running my 361, but I stayed on the little 180. If I have to load a trailer full of rounds at the end of the day, why swing the big saw if uneccessary?

Mine runs well and gets used and abused. When it breaks, I will buy another one. (This time without the stupid tool-less chain adjuster)
I hear they have a yellow chain available for it now....can't wait to try it out!

Speaking of Jay, can't help but notice he has not been on the forum much lately. Any reason why?

 

[fabsroman]

I'm so glad to hear an experienced user likes that saw cuz I just got the MS-180 with the easy start. It's my first chain saw. I wanted something light and easy to operate on smaller logs. I recently scored a lot of oak and some of the rounds are pushing 12"s. I was concerned that I didn't have enough saw for them, but it sounds like maybe I do. Stupid question. How much cutting can you do on one chain without having to sharpen or change it?

Yeah, I don't sharpen on the saw. I take the chain off and put a new one on when it is dull. How long a chain will last depends on whether you are cutting hard or soft wood. Generally, I find I can get a cord of hardwood out of a chain before it is cutting like poop. However, that is with an 18" full chisel chain on my MS261. With a smaller chain with less teeth, you might get less wood from a chain before it needs to be sharpened.

 

[Flatbedford]

When the cut takes longer and chips get small, out comes the file.

 

[Danno77]

Speaking of Jay, can't help but notice he has not been on the forum much lately. Any reason why?

He's around, he just posted in that 460 thread.

 

[smokinj]

Many know of our problem. That is, my body is not in very good shape and I am no longer a young man. To top it off, this past fall I took a really bad fall. My wife has bugged me for several years trying to talk me into a small saw for cutting the limbs and small trees. I resisted until this last fall where I came close to breaking my back.

So what to do? I don't have a big saw to start with; only a Stihl 290 but it is big enough to do all our wood with the trees we have here on our place. I had several options (I really thought hard about the 261 but it is not that much lighter) but finally took the advice of a man who works on Stihl saws. He said, " You need a 180."

My fear was that this is a really light saw and I just pictured a little whimpy thing that was not much more than a toy. In the meantime a neighbor brought a 250 for me to use and I was impressed with that little saw. However, in the end we bought the little 180. Shoot, if it doesn't work out we are not out a lot of money.

So now I've ran 5 or 6 tanks of gas through this little thing and have to report that it really does amaze me. I never expected it to do as well as it does. I started by cutting up tops from pin oak and ash. Then we also cut some dead elm. Today I cut more oak. The largest I've cut with it was a 14" ash and today I cut a couple logs from an 18" red oak.

Yes, it is a little slower but not by much. I think the super slim bar and chain have much to do with it. But overall I give a thumbs up to this saw.

It does not have the easy start which I sort of wanted but he had none in stock so I just bought the regular saw. It is over 7 pounds lighter than the 290 and my back does appreciate it. It has a 16" bar but one could run a shorter bar. It seems to handle the 16 bar nicely.

One thing many would appreciate is that it has screw on caps for the oil and gas tanks. That is nice!

So we don't know how long this little thing will last but right now we are not disappointed that we bought it.

I had a 180 nice little saw with a small kerf does well. Now I have the 192t its just a 180 with a top handle. I use it alot.

 

[smokinj]

He's around, he just posted in that 460 thread.

It my buzy time at work. + this firewood thing came full circle after putting in two epa stoves vs one wood furnace. I down 2 1/2 cords for the season. Lol (Last year and warmer I was down 6 cords by now) Hunting has been a big focus now. With my equiment it just does not take long to wrap up a wood season anymore.

 

[fabsroman]

It my buzy time at work. + this firewood thing came full circle after putting in two epa stoves vs one wood furnace. I down 2 1/2 cords for the season. Lol (Last year and warmer I was down 6 cords by now) Hunting has been a big focus now. With my equiment it just does not take long to wrap up a wood season anymore.

So, the wood stoves are giving you better heat than the wood furnace for less wood. Think I am down about 3 to 4 cords right now with the wood furnace and am debating putting a wood stove in the basement.

What kind of hunting are you doing? I used to be heavy into hunting before marriage, kids, and house. Did a ton of deer, dove, and waterfowl hunting from 1998 to about 2007. Actually went goose hunting yesterday, but cannot find a single buddy to go out with me tomorrow. Kind of insane.

 

[smokinj]

So, the wood stoves are giving you better heat than the wood furnace for less wood. Think I am down about 3 to 4 cords right now with the wood furnace and am debating putting a wood stove in the basement.

What kind of hunting are you doing? I used to be heavy into hunting before marriage, kids, and house. Did a ton of deer, dove, and waterfowl hunting from 1998 to about 2007. Actually went goose hunting yesterday, but cannot find a single buddy to go out with me tomorrow. Kind of insane.

It takes both of them to keep up with the old furnace, but only did that a couple days so far. Deer hunting. I traded for a small camper and 4 of us work the state parks.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Glad to have you back Jay.