Putting In The Firewood

My summer job of keeping the log landing clean and my self appointed title of ‘firewood reclamation specialist’, has dwindled slightly with the fire danger.

However, there are still several cords of wood that can be cleaned up during the restricted hours of power saw usage as long as we keep our fire tools handy. Even in the landing we have all power equipment cool before 1pm and firewatch after that. Slowly the pile of winter wood has been increasing.(

My power saw had been acting up lately, nothing major(I didn’t think)  just more sluggish than usual and not as much power when I rev it up. Yesterday, the poor thing just choked out. I thought that maybe it had gotten a drop of moisture in the fuel or a bit of dirt fouled the line. I was able to get it started again but then was having trouble with the chain staying oiled. Power saws can overheat quickly if the chain is not lubricated to keep it smooth running. In dry conditions, overheating is cause for fire concerns.

Shutting the saw off and letting it cool was the first step. Waiting for Mike to be able to check out the problem was the next one. I can fix most small issues with saws like tighten the chain, flip the bar, add fuel, all the simple stuff. When it comes to dismantling the darn thing, I defer to the master.

He started it up to see if the oil-er was clogged, that meant taking the chain and bar off and digging into the guts of the saw. No oil was getting to the oil-er.

Mike tried dumping out the oil in the reservoir and cleaning the filter and pump with gasoline. Once cleaned, he refilled the oil and started the saw again, still no oil for the chain came through the line. During this process the saw was dismantled and put back together several times without luck.

Official diagnosis, the saw is dead for now. Not only was the oil-er not doing its job, but the clutch was not working correctly and the motor was not producing enough power. It may cost much more to repair than to replace since finding the areas that were problems besides the oil-er. This saw has worked well for me for almost 6 years with countless cords of firewood and limbing both in the landings and in the forest. All of this and it was second-hand when I got it from some weekend warriors in California who wanted to ‘rough it’ in the woods but didn’t know the first thing non-city.

As I read through my descriptions of fixing the saw, I realized that it sounds like I know what I am doing. I DO NOT! I repeat a lot of the words that were spit out as Mike was digging through the guts of the saw. I may have simply worn the darn thing out.