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Spark arresting screen

Started by aquacanis, May 16, 2012, 09:25:53 AM

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aquacanis

Ok I am all for not burning the woods down. BUT what tree huger invented
the spark arresting screen that they put in most saws today?  First thing i do is
remove em.  Never started a fire in 50 years of cutting.  Are they really supposed to work?  I think they rob power by restricting exhaust and could get plugged up with carbon quite easily.   

sawguy21

Don't get caught cutting on public land without it. If it gets plugged easily your mix is too heavy.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

AdkStihl

They also do not help with heat dissipation.......
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Al_Smith

If you really feel the need to run them you can always cut the hole larger .That is providing the muffler is made in such a way that it comes apart .

lumberjack48

I wounder how many saws have gone to the bone yard because of a plugged spark arrester  :(

They well start a fire with out it, i had many little smokers around the stump in the dry moss when felling. Could have very easily started a forest fire.
It'll do the same thing with spark arrester, but not near as easy. This is a good example of how much more heat your getting rid of with out it.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

CTYank

Quote from: sawguy21 on May 16, 2012, 09:41:55 AM
Don't get caught cutting on public land without it. If it gets plugged easily your mix is too heavy.

From a recent Echo manual:
"Certain internal combustion engines operated on forest, brush, and/or grass-covered areas in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Minnesota, New Jersey and Maine, are required to be equipped with a spark arrestor. This requirement also applies to all U.S. Forest Service lands."

My experience in Maine was that this applied to ALL lands in the state. I was asked, but fortunately didn't have to open up the muffler on my little Echo to show the screen I'd installed. (None has ever accumulated deposits.)

The problem is running a saw in such a manner as to build up deposits in chamber/port/muffler that can be tossed in glowing chunks. Not readily visible.

Randomly removing spark arrestors, as opposed to proper maintenance, can be an invite to disaster. Some can be pulled, cleaned, and put back by turning one screw.

What these screens have to do with heat dissipation escapes me.
'72 blue Homelite 150
Echo 315, SRM-200DA
Poulan 2400, PP5020, PP4218
RedMax GZ4000, "Mac" 35 cc, Dolmar PS-6100
Husqy 576XP-AT
Tanaka 260 PF Polesaw, TBC-270PFD, ECS-3351B
Mix of mauls
Morso 7110

Al_Smith

 Depends on the saw and how much area is in the screen .

It's a proven fact for example that a Stihl 020T or 200T will run a lot better without a screen .Then again that's a high dollar pro trimmers saw and wouldn't apply probabley in this discussion .

Then what location .In the PNW ,Washington ,Oregon northern Cal. full of fir trees and dry as a bone it might be a concern .Here in the corn belt you'd be hard pressed to catch the woods afire from a spark .Possible perhaps just unlikely .

Maybe on the rare occasion you get a very dry late Oct or Nov you might catch the leaves on fire .This time of year you could ignite a barrel full of gasoline and all that would burn would be the gas .Now it would cook the underbrush and bake the leaves out of the trees but they'd never go up in flames .

lumberjack48

Its hard to believe a saw can throw enough sparks to start a fire. The only time i got smoke was i had the muffler right in the dry moss. This was caused from heat not sparks. The only time i seen a saw throw sparks was when i used detergent oil for mix, that loused all the carbon up.

The screen creates a lot of back pressure, blow in the air then plow threw the screen.

I ran 32:1 mix, my spark plug was brownish white, it takes a while for a screen plug up. It might take 6 months to 3 yrs, but it well plug up, it plugs so slowly you don't notice it. This is one of the main cause of scored pistons.

I was never asked if i had the screen in my saw by the Feds or the State Rangers. They told me if the fire danger got up to medium, i'd have to put the muffler back on my Detroit, lucky they didn't know i was running N-50 injectors.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

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