Chainsaw Bar?

macrocarpa said:
I have the makita battery top handled saw and would like to know if putting a smaller bar on it would have advantages? I see Japanese arborists doing this with the makitas. Would going from 3/8 to 1/4 be worth trying out?

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Using a narrower kerf bar and chain will definitely improve performance, but it won’t last as long.

The narrow chain on the Stinl 241 is much of the key to its amazing performance. Narrower kerf requires less power to achieve the same cutting performance. When in the bucket adding performance to a lighter saw is worth the added long term bar and chain expense. Whether it’s worth it for you is your decision.
 
this forum is wild.
came looking for this exact conversation. been using the makita battery saws, both 18v and 36v. the nose fattened out on the original small makita bar, I have righted it a time or two with some hammering, but it got tweaked pretty good last week. got me thinking about better bars.

of course it was only half a page down i find these great ideas. Going to do some seek and find. Will let you know what matches up over here and how it cuts.
 
Mud said:
Monkey Beaver sells Panther bar and chain kits. https://monkeybeaver.com/product/makita-panther-kits/
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that looks totally rad. would love to put that on the 36v when the time comes. for now I am looking at my small saw. it had a 10" bar but I am looking at an 8" bar made by Oregon. I use the little one when I am doing a lot of movement, or its a dense tree, and just minor pruning cuts, say 6" cut max.
 
I've used the second smallest (smallest being the one with the 4" bar) makita saw on white oak and it was great, but gutless. It would bind on a tooth mid cut in 4-5" diameter. The narrow kerf would be perfect for it.
 
colb said:
I've used the second smallest (smallest being the one with the 4" bar) makita saw on white oak and it was great, but gutless. It would bind on a tooth mid cut in 4-5" diameter. The narrow kerf would be perfect for it.
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yep, sure thing. if you can get the hang of just how much you can push the cut before binding it, it's just slow and steady. once the battery starts to heat up, it's ridiculous and no fun.
it has it's place. it's like comparing a bicycle to a car.
 
I also can't say enough about my 8" bar. I thought it would be ridiculous, but it's great. I even stripped out a large laurel oak removal with it and made a few cuts with my ms661 to finish it off. It cuts on removals to about 10" diameter fairly easily. I'm a believer in short bars.
 
colb said:
I also can't say enough about my 8" bar. I thought it would be ridiculous, but it's great. I even stripped out a large laurel oak removal with it and made a few cuts with my ms661 to finish it off. It cuts on removals to about 10" diameter fairly easily. I'm a believer in short bars.
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that's awesome. I was looking around for a while, only came up with this one: https://americanforestry.com/oregon...-10-guide-bar-3-8-low-profile-pitch-043-gauge

I asked the local saw shop to see if they can order it.
 
dspacio said:
this forum is wild.
came looking for this exact conversation. been using the makita battery saws, both 18v and 36v. the nose fattened out on the original small makita bar, I have righted it a time or two with some hammering, but it got tweaked pretty good last week. got me thinking about better bars.

of course it was only half a page down i find these great ideas. Going to do some seek and find. Will let you know what matches up over here and how it cuts.
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I have been using the 18V to prune/deadwood endless street trees of 20" dbh ash out of a bucket truck. Been the perfect tool for the job!

You probably already saw this video I put up a while back?

 
macrocarpa said:
I have been using the 18V to prune/deadwood endless street trees of 20" dbh ash out of a bucket truck. Been the perfect tool for the job!

You probably already saw this video I put up a while back?

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I had not seen that yet. thanks for sharing.
do you use the torque mode often?
I am pretty intrigued about that 1/4" pitch now.
 
macrocarpa said:
Stihl bar- 3005-008-3403 (10”-1/4” pitch- .043 gauge)
Stihl chain- 3670-000-0056 (71pm3) 56 drive link
Makita sprocket- 198259-2

online the bar was $50 but my local stihl dealer price was $26.
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Long time lurker here, I don't remember if I've ever posted.

Anyway, I recently bought the Makita XCU06 and found your YouTube video about the 1/4" pitch conversion. I ordered a sprocket directly from Makita (after ordering one from some sketchy web site that charged my card and only told me it was back-ordered when I called them several days later).

I took the bar and chain model numbers to a local Stihl dealership and got those exact items. The bar seems to fit perfectly but I cannot get the chain on. The tensioner seems to be turned all the way to the rear but the chain is still slightly too short. Has anyone had this issue? Do I need to add drive links to the chain?
 
I had to file my bar for awhile to get it to fit, it was weird that some others didn’t seem to have that issue at all


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Ok, thanks. After taking everything apart again it seems the only other solution would be to modify the tension slide (part #347569-6) to allow it to sit further back, or fabricate another piece to put in its place, which is too much effort. I'll try filing the bar tomorrow.
 
zainva said:
Long time lurker here, I don't remember if I've ever posted.

Anyway, I recently bought the Makita XCU06 and found your YouTube video about the 1/4" pitch conversion. I ordered a sprocket directly from Makita (after ordering one from some sketchy web site that charged my card and only told me it was back-ordered when I called them several days later).

I took the bar and chain model numbers to a local Stihl dealership and got those exact items. The bar seems to fit perfectly but I cannot get the chain on. The tensioner seems to be turned all the way to the rear but the chain is still slightly too short. Has anyone had this issue? Do I need to add drive links to the chain?
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I don't know what changed? Mine fit perfectly. The panther conversion should fit without issue but its more expensive than stihl.
 
Has anyone found a 1/4 bar and sprocket for the dewalt top handle saw? One of the guys I work with has one and it's pretty meh but would probably be much better with a smaller chain and it's really nice having 2 electric saws for those multi tree prune jobs.
 
Vicente said:
Has anyone found a 1/4 bar and sprocket for the dewalt top handle saw? One of the guys I work with has one and it's pretty meh but would probably be much better with a smaller chain and it's really nice having 2 electric saws for those multi tree prune jobs.
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Does Dewalt use a bar design that other saw brands use, or is it unique?
 
colb said:
Does Dewalt use a bar design that other saw brands use, or is it unique?
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I'm not sure we're going to check and see if my stihl bar fits, but all our saws are stihl so the amount of checking we can do is pretty limited, from what I can see they use a rebranded and way marked up Oregon bar on the bigger dewalt saws, couldn't find any info on a 1/4 though.
 
Vicente said:
I'm not sure we're going to check and see if my stihl bar fits, but all our saws are stihl so the amount of checking we can do is pretty limited, from what I can see they use a rebranded and way marked up Oregon bar on the bigger dewalt saws, couldn't find any info on a 1/4 though.
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Recommend you find which Oregon bar it is, then contact chainsawbars.uk.co.
 
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