which chainsaw?

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slemishwoodcrafts

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I am looking to buy a chainsaw to mill with and I was thinking of a husky 3120xp or a Stihl ms 660 or 880?

Does anyone have any experience of these saws and can recommend one over the other? Be interested to hear anyone's thoughts

cheers
 
I would always buy stihl , I have two currently that have never let me down and there customer service is far far far better than husky , even down to advise on how to use it etc.
 
If you're going to be milling regularly then either ms880 or 3120xp, both fairly similar, husky has manual oiler but both are heavy and v.thirsty! Dont bother buying with a bar as the large sthil bar (and maybe the husky) dont have a sprocket nose. Give rob d at chainsaw bars a shout for a milling bar with sprocket nose.

If you want a lighter saw, dont need more than a 36" bar (30" cut on an alaskanmill) then the new ms661 is well respected for power, weight and efficiency, and is more useable off the mill too.

Ive got an old school set up with a husky 188 on a 36" alaskan for those odd times ive wanted it, but also built a bandsaw mill for fun.

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Never owned a stihl but leaning towards it over the husky, despite always having owned husqvarna saws. Good tip about the bar, but I'll most likely get a second hand one so do doubt it will come with a bar.
I believe I need an auxiliary oiler at the nose of the bar as well when using a big saw


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We use a 660 with a 30" bar. It performs well but it would be good to have more power for the wider boards. And yes, the saw is useful sometimes when not planking as well.
Our oiler is set to max and it would be good to have a higher flow. I think there was a version specifically for milling which had higher flow but wasn't available in this country when we bought. A quick look at the 661 manual suggests that it might have an easier to adjust flow rate, which could go higher as they talk about it possibly running out. Ours has never been close to empty for a full tank of fuel.

It looks as though the 661 has the same m-tronic system as our 261s. Hopefully they don't cut out as often as the 261. One downside to them is that if they need adjustment you have to take them to the dealer rather than being able to do it yourself.

You don't automatically need an aux oiler - just depends on what you're milling and how wide it is. We experimented by making one out of an old drink bottle, some tubing and a tap from a water butt and it appeared to help on wide oak slabs. It wasn't an obvious enough advantage that we bought the proper oiler when ours broke so we don't use one now.

It's also a good idea to have several chains with you whilst working. We have 3 and swap them over rather than sharpening whilst out in the wood. Our original one came with the bar and is filed for ripping. Our new ones came from http://www.northernarbsupplies.co.uk/582-rotatech-chain-loops at much less cost. They're still not sharpened to ripping angle but will be brought towards that each time we sharpen. They seem to get good reviews on ArbTalk

Never used the Husky saw saw can't compare.


Finally, if you're new to this then have a read of this book. It's expensive but if you're lucky you can find a pdf version online...
 
Ms880 all the way. Great saw and the newer ones have an adjustable oiler. Run it ok alkyl ate fuel and all will be golden. I did buy mine with a 3 ft bar. Was cheaper than buying separately and the 3ft is great for planks or smaller trees as it's safer and faster than the 56" bar.
 
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