Regarding Chainsaws

[Geezer]

My saw is an 18" Sthil. I only use it once a year for about 2 tanks of gas. I use the stihl oil (what a rip), ethanol free gas, and I run the carb dry before cleaning it and putting it away.
Every year, without fail, I've got to allow an extra 30 minutes to disassemble the carb, clean the crap out of it, reassemble, and then the saw will start and run like a scalded ape. For whatever reason, I just cannot avoid it. There is always (ALWAYS) a microscopic piece of crap in the pilot jet.

BTW - has anyone actually seen a scalded ape?

I have 2 Stihl saws that I cut about 10 cords of firewood with every year. The manual with the newer one specifically said not to use alcohol free fuel because of whatever they may use instead of alcohol in the fuel. So, I run mid-grade 10 percent alcohol fuel with Stihl synthetic oil. That oil is pricey, but I only go through a couple of gallons of fuel a year so it doesn't add up to much. I also have a Stihl leaf blower and RedMax hedge trimmer that require the same 50-1 mix, so I use the same fuel for those.

 

[Powerman]

Traded an old rusty six shot 22 revolver for a Stihl chainsaw,

heated my house with free wood for over ten years.

Finally died and bought a new Stihl. Run the gas dry last use of the season,

starts first crank.

Someone gave me an old Mac weed eater that ran for twenty plus years.

Went through three suck ass blowers, got a pro Stihl backpack.

Family put straight gas in the two stroke Lawnboy mower,

put the rod out the side.

 

[RsvlFeej]

I can fully relate to the original poem, but my Dad's clapped out Homelite went one step further towards being a hexed thing. Pop's decision whether or not to cut wood on any particular day started with him seeing if the saw would fire up. If he couldn't get it going in the first 40-50 pulls, well, the woodcutting could wait a week or two. The hard-won lesson there was he could force it to start if he worked on it bloodily, ceaselessly, increasingly angrily (and despairingly) for 1-3 days - or - he could "let it rest" and, likely as not, IT would decide it was a good day to cut wood next time he tried it. Thus, the one-step-further in the curse - you KNEW the #$&%^&* thing COULD run, it was CHOOSING NOT to run at this time.

First time I borrowed that saw, I wasn't about to let the whimsy of a small engine decide my schedule (I had by then concluded it was my lack of mechanical eptitude which caused the Sears minibike I had as a kid to share the same diabolical starting / not starting pattern as the Homelite. At least I had some basis for not learning the lesson early - our old tractor driver could make that minibike start whenever he wanted). I therefore once again needed to learn the "let it rest" lesson first hand -- by forming and bursting blisters between each two sets of fingers on both hands from yanking on that damned pull cord. No wood got cut that day.

Move forward 10 or so years, first major purchase when I started my first job out of college was a Stihl 034 with a 20-inch bar (a 24-inch was optional). Still my go-to 20+ years later. Picked up a 14-inch Stihl for the wife a couple years ago - I can see that becoming my main saw eventually.