New saw or not

[Engineer]

Been waffling on a new saw purchase for a while, now I might have more of a reason.  I have six large maple logs to quarter for milling, and my biggest saw is a MS390 with a 25" bar.  I don't think that saw can pull a rip chain through sugar maple with a 25" bar and I need all of it in the cut.   I am considering a Dolmar 7901 or a Stihl in the 440/460 class, and wonder if it's even worth it.  I can't imagine having to quarter big logs more than once a year, and that seems to be too much saw for firewood etc.  Even the local tree service only used a 440 to go through the stump of a 32" maple, they used much smaller Huskys for the limbing and aerial work. 

So would it be worth my looking into a new saw, knowing that it might sit idle for long periods of time, or try to use it for felling and bucking, or just try to rip those logs with the 390 and know that it's gonna be a long tedious process.  Any of you ever try to rip with a small saw and be successful?

[Urbicide]

"Any of you ever try to rip with a small saw and be successful?"

I would strongly recommend buying a larger saw. I would think that a saw of 90 cc or more would be the ticket. Drain the fuel mix out of the tank and then start and let idle until fuel lines and carb are dry for long term storage. EPA regs due to take effect in 2010 will mean the end of a lot of chainsaws that we have available to us today. Might turn out to be a good investment for the future. A smaller displacement saw will cut but it is going to be extremely hard on it. You should up the amount of oil in your mix. This wil help protect the crank & rod bearings. Make sure that the carb is properly adjusted and air filter is kept clean. This would not be a good time for an overly lean condition or to suck dirt into the crankcase. And, of course, a sharp chain is imperative. 

[Cut4fun]

Rip cutting takes more umph then the stump cross cutting. The Dolmar 7900 has more umph then the 440 and 460 stock.  Just make sure you have good dealer support for Dolmar parts if you ever need them.
I had a woods ported 7900 that would do rip cuts with a 32" bar buried and  ;D about it.
It was also used for milling softwood cants.
I have a stock 7900  in hand right now and it could  run a 24"-25" bar for ripping with a 7T sprocket. But that is the smallest saw I would go stock for ripping, but thats just me.
You might also take a look at the Solo 681, if you have dealer support. Its a basically a 7900 with 1mm longer stroke and a tad more power. Solo and Dolmar had a joint venture building the 7900 and they split. Now they both have a similar saw.

If you lived closer to me I would gladly show up with a 084 to rip them once a year for you for chit and  :D for  the fun.

[hazard]

I started out milling logs with my stihl 044.  I cut quite a bit with it.  One thing that helped alot was having an oil tank on the end of the bar for extra oil on the bar.  After say sawing 1000 bf I up graded to a stihl 066.  The big dog handles cutting alot better.  You can push on the saw alot more compared to the 044.

If you are going to cut a few time a year and want to save $300-$400 on the saw go with the stihl 044.  Sharpen your chain often and have an auxillary oiler since the saw doesn't throw out enough for this kind of cutting.

Chris

[Dave Shepard]

I don't know much about the Dolmars, but I like the 460's. Same weight as a 440 with more power. I've used small saws like that for firewood, but I like the 90+ cc saws for that. I even stopped using my 036 for brush work, too slow. But what do I know, I'm just a sasquatch.


Dave

[Al_Smith]

 If you going to mill get a big saw unless you want to spend a lot of time eating saw dust .

A rip chain is indeed smoother but a standard old chisel cuts a lot faster and the cut is smoother than a circle sawmill but not a bandsaw. If you are going to plane it any way a small amount of imperfection would not be a big deal .

[Cut4fun]

If you going to mill get a big saw unless you want to spend a lot of time eating saw dust .

Hey Al, I got the Stock 084 122cc partially buttoned up and shook down a little yesterday.  Just a short  run and idle with a few blips to see if the bugs are disappearing.
Waiting on the parts to come in from the ONLINE Stihl dealer, so I didn't have to pay for the gas to make the round trip of 40 miles, shipping was $4 so you got to love online sales in this day.
I am going to run it stock to make sure everything is fit for the transformation to the next level of play this winter I hope.

I wish I could rip these logs up for this guy when all the parts come in to shake the puppy down.

[Al_Smith]

 Well Kevin that's about the size I would choose if I were going to mill with a chainsaw .

I've tried it with a 60,not worth a hoot .An 80 is so so .The 125 Mac or the 2100 Homey get's er done but dang that is a lot of work to get a little bit of lumber .

Actually about all I've ever done was cut some heavy planks from marginal oak .It was quicker to saw them out with a saw as to take them to the mill . That deal wasn't too bad . However the thought of slicing several thousand board feet of 1 inch boards doesn't appeal to me in the least bit .

I need some more planks but I do believe I'll wait for cooler weather for that job .

[Engineer]

I'm not trying to "mill" these logs, in the sense that you might use a Granberg or Logosol mill with a big saw.  I just want to get them down to a manageable size for putting on my Woodmizer, which will probably mean halves or quarters.  No way I'm willing to cut boards - I used to have a Logosol with a Stihl 066, and even that was slow and a lot of work.

[Al_Smith]

 Well now ,that's a horse of a different color ,in a manner of speaking .

Fact is I have a big fat  4 foot red oak log I'll have to preform a little trim job on before it will fit in a bandsaw. That's a lot different than slicing a big log into boards and eating saw dust for hours on end .

I still think you need a saw with some grunt rather than a mid sized faller . I'm not so sure though that spending 1500  bucks or more on a new  MS 880 or 3120 would be smart .If a guy looks around you can find a decent used one for much less and will still do the job .

[leweee]

Jon....can you rent a large saw in your area?.......even if you had to buy a bar & ripping chain, it may be cheaper in the long run for 6 logs or less a year.

[Cut4fun]

I still wouldn't go any smaller then the Dolmar 7900 79cc stock for ripping logs with a 32-36 bar buried. Muffler modded she wakes up even more with dual ports using a husky deflector and removing the cage or opening the cage up.
You want a stock hotrod 81cc try a Solo 681, just like a 7900 only different in ways.

I can shoot you some online dealers info or give you a link to Solo dealers I know in PA and NY.