John’s Custom Saws build nightmare, what would you do?

Dan Cobb said:
This kind of saga quenches my interest in modded saws.
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I’m pretty happy with my saws which are all stock. Quieter, reliable, and no breaking the bank to have them built.

When I pick up my contract climber’s saws which are modded I often wince at the sound. If I were a production faller it would maybe make sense but for regular tree work in an semi urban environment, that level of performance doesn’t seem worth the hassle and the noise.
 
I have only one ported saw but my experience with a builder here in Michigan was a great one. It seems like a real hit or miss proposition nowadays with more people getting into the saw building business, supply chain issues, high demand, etc. I have a ported 362 and run it with a 28" light bar and semi-skip chain. It will pull that setup in stuff up to 30" with no trouble and great chain speed as long as you don't push too hard. It has eliminated the need to bring out the 066 in 90% of the situations that I would normally do that, since I have nothing between the 362 and the 066. I hope you get this resolved, good luck.
 
Best piece of advice I can give people looking to have someone port a saw for them is to talk directly with the builder and ask to speak to previous customers. If the builder is unwilling or unable to provide this info it’s a big red flag.

Second best piece of advice would be to check out the builder review section over at opeforum. Known bad builders have been called out there. @Chris Schultz and @Treeline feel free to post up your experiences over there.
 
evo said:
Any updates?
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I have given him 2 weeks to get the saw to me. I told him if I don’t have it exactly then I would be reporting it stolen.

He quickly responded saying he’s been in the hospital but saw is complete and had been shipped. He said “it’s on the house” for the trouble. I asked him to please send a tracking number as soon as possible. I never got a tracking number though.

I hope he’s shooting me straight and if I do get the saw in the next 2 weeks I will insist on paying for it. I’m not looking for a handout or a discount I just want the saw. But my gut tells me he’s just feeding me some bs so I won’t report it stolen.
 
Treeline said:
I have given him 2 weeks to get the saw to me. I told him if I don’t have it exactly then I would be reporting it stolen.

He quickly responded saying he’s been in the hospital but saw is complete and had been shipped. He said “it’s on the house” for the trouble. I asked him to please send a tracking number as soon as possible. I never got a tracking number though.

I hope he’s shooting me straight and if I do get the saw in the next 2 weeks I will insist on paying for it. I’m not looking for a handout or a discount I just want the saw. But my gut tells me he’s just feeding me some bs so I won’t report it stolen.
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I feel like I’ve seen YouTube’s of his where he is denying the existence of Covid…. also seen plenty of his videos where he’s saying he’s been down and out for weeks, and “never been sicker”….. but won’t come to terms that he actually had “it”.
 
In one of his videos from a couple of weeks ago, he said he had stomach surgery, as well as getting covid twice in a short period of time. But he's got time to post videos in the past few days.
 
I wouldn't pay him a dime until you have a saw mechanic verify that he actually performed the work he was supposed to on the saw. Since you never had it in hand or ran it, you wouldn't notice a performance difference. I also wouldn't pay him full price even if he did all the work. There has to be some penalty for conducting business like a 12-year old boy, and if you don't enforce a penalty the next person will suffer the same fate. There has to be a motivation for him to change his behavior or else he won't. Don't pass the buck to the next poor sucker.
 
moss said:
Here's the thing, for whatever reason anyone wants to mod a saw, there's so much good documentation out there on how to do it, any local saw mechanic can do it very quickly. Best policy is work with a local mechanic, this is not rocket science whatsoever.
-AJ
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This would have been my first choice. However I could not find anyone local who would do it.
 
Treeline said:
This would have been my first choice. However I could not find anyone local who would do it.
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I found the same to be true. I have a friend who's a Stihl Gold certified tech who told me he's never ported a saw before and didn't want to because he wasn't experienced. I found it a little surprising that he had so little exposure to the idea and techniques since it is all over the internet.
 
moss said:
any local saw mechanic can do it very quickly. Best policy is work with a local mechanic, this is not rocket science whatsoever.
-AJ
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I think that may be a bit of a stretch…… non of my local saw mechanics do custom stuff. Either they’re not equipped, or just don’t have the time/demand for that type of work.
 
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My take on the modded saws is that any gain that the modders are getting come at a cost of emissions.

As the operator of my saws I'm not fond of the idea of working in a higher emissions environment.

If the mods didn't increase emissions then the saw manufacturers would be building the saws the ways that the modders are modifying them.
 
TreeCo said:
My take on the modded saws is that any gain that the modders are getting come at a cost of emissions.

As the operator of my saws I'm not fond of the idea of working in a higher emissions environment.

If the mods didn't increase emissions then the saw manufacturers would be building the saws the ways that the modders are modifying them.
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I agree.

There are certain saws that are total dogs off the shelf but have potential to be excellent. My only mod’d saw is my Stihl 193T, pretty much useless before the mod, great saw (for what it is) after. A friend who is a good 2-stroke mechanic helped me advance the timing, I did the muffler porting and carb adjustment mod and tuning. Basic stuff.

For my ground saws it’s all about keeping chains sharp, no desire to make them louder or create some percentage power gain, they’re already plenty strong.
-AJ
 
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moss said:
I agree.

There are certain saws that are total dogs off the shelf but have potential to be excellent. My only mod’d saw is my Stihl 193T, pretty much useless before the mod, great saw (for what it is) after. A friend who is a good 2-stroke mechanic helped me advance the timing, I did the muffler porting and carb adjustment mod and tuning. Basic stuff.

For my ground saws it’s all about keeping chains sharp, no desire to make them louder or create some percentage power gain, they’re already plenty strong.
-AJ
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I agree with you, I'm working with another company right now and at least one of the guys saws is a modded 462 with a bark box, damn thing is so load you can barely talk even 50 feet away from it. I used one if the modded 462s to cut an oak stump it had power but since his chain sharpening wasn't on point it was no better than my 362 with a 28" bar.
 
Chris Schultz said:
I think that may be a bit of a stretch…… non of my local saw mechanics do custom stuff. Either they’re not equipped, or just don’t have the time/demand for that type of work.
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I'm guessing most don't have time. They'd need to waste how much time (and money on trial saws) experimenting before they can do it for a customer?

And if they are good mechanic, how much extra time do they have? Unless they decide they intentionally want to change their focus and quit doing what they are already doing....which is what I am assuming the guys who take shipments are doing.

Does anybody buy the saw, modify and sell or do they all require you to send it to them?
 
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