6 Chainsaw Hacks ( you need to know )

Today, I got some awesome chainsaw hacks for you. Most people don't even know I use a chainsaw, and I normally don't do this on this channel, but I think it might help somebody. Maybe. So, let's quit wasting time, and let's get on with these hacks. Chainsaw hack number one. So, this right here is a firewood measuring tool. You use it to measure your wood when you're cutting firewood. It's basically just made out of fiberglass. It has a magnet on one end. A really strong magnet by the way. You put it right on your bar. like that right there. Now you can put this end on the end of your log and this yellow rod is basically 16 inches so wherever you cut it's going to be 16 inches. You don't use this to cut the log you use this to mark the log. So basically after you put it on you go down the log and you mark it every 16 inches and this thing's just to give you an exact measurement. Because there's nothing worse than uneven firewood when you stack it. One, if your firewood's uneven, it won't fit in your stove good. And two, if it's uneven, it won't stack good. It's going to look all wonky when you stack it up. This thing is just nice for that. And there's a lot of videos about DIYs making these. But all the DIYs that I've seen on YouTube making this. It's made out of PVC. They basically just take a giant magnet, then they bolt PVC onto it, which is kind of bulky if you think about it. I mean, this one's really nice. I actually bought this one off of Amazon. It was $29 or 30 bucks, which is a little bit expensive, but this thing's nice. I mean, it works good. And I'll leave a link for this one if you want one, but. I'm going to show you how to make your own and make it a whole lot cheaper. I figured out a way to make one of these almost exactly like it. Not quite, but almost. And I can make four of these now for $14. Like I said, I paid $30 for this one. Now, in order to build you one of these firewood measures, you're going to have to go to Harbor Freight. That's right. Harbor Freight, you know what I'm talking about. Because Harbor Freight sells all kinds of magnets. They have big magnets, they have little magnets, they have magnets with hooks on them, but we don't want the magnets with the hooks that rivet on. You want a pack of the magnets with the hooks just like this one that screw in. You see what I'm talking about? They're made just like this, and I think these are a dollar a piece if I ain't mistaken. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Or four for a dollar. after you get your magnets like these you just take one of them and you want to screw this hook out and you ain't gonna need this hook no more so you can just throw it away if you want to then you're gonna need to get one of these and pick it up it also comes from Harbor Freight I think this was ten dollars if i ain't mistaken and this is a 3/16 fiberglass wire running kit This is basically just a bunch of fiberglass rods with threaded ends on them and you can take one of these rods right here which are kind of super long. These are about three foot long but this threaded end right here on this rod just so happens to fit perfect into this magnet right here. Is that not freaking crazy? This thing fits this magnet like it was made for it. Now if you are I'm going to make you one of these. I would recommend. Taking some Loctite and putting it on the threads. That way that thing is not coming back off. Or you could use super glue or whatever you want. It don't matter. And as you can see, this one works exactly the same way. I mean, it sticks on the end. Then you got your fiberglass rod out here to measure your wood. This thing sticks good enough, but it doesn't quite stick as strong as the other one. If you want it to stick stronger, take that paper off the back. Because that paper is made so you don't scratch stuff up. And it's going to make this magnet. just a little bit weaker. Now one of the coolest things about this is this thing's like three foot long as you can tell and what's cool about it being so long is you can decide how long you want your firewood. I mean if you're cutting 24 inch pieces you can cut it 24 inches. If you want 18 inch pieces cut 18. If you want 16 cut 16. I personally use 16 because 16 is easier to measure because basically if you stack wood four foot tall and eight foot long three of those stacks It's gonna make a cord. So it just makes wood easier to measure cutting at 16. That's the only reason I do it. I can actually burn 18 inch pieces. But yeah, instead of paying $30 for one of these, you can make four of these for $14 or you could make eight of them for $18 and so on and so on. But you're gonna have a bunch of these rods left over when you're done. I'm just saying. Firewood measuring tool. Need to make you one. Chainsaw hack number two. Okay, so this next hack is probably going to cause some controversy. I've been cutting wood about 30 years, and about all of those years, I've used motor oil for bar oil. And I know some people are going to fuss about that. I used bar oil when I first started, but that stuff's thick as honey. It's ridiculous how thick it is. And yes, I understand what viscosity is. I know exactly what that's about. But actually, this right here is about the same viscosity as motor oil, 30 weight. Most bar oils are 30 to 40 weight. I mean, viscosity-wise. This is 30 weight, but this is not what I've used for the last 20 years. For the past 20 years, I've used 10 weight motor oil. Just straight 10 weight. And look at these bars. Do you see any burnt places? I mean, that right there scratches off. That's just wood. But you can look at all these bars, and I flip my bars, by the way. But there is no burnt places. This bar here has a lot of mileage on it. And there is zero burnt places on it. But most of the experts will tell you, you gotta use bar oil, you can't use motor oil. I basically did it 28 out of 30 years, so whatever they say, I'm sure they know more than me. The reason most people burn their bars is because they don't maintenance their saw right. If I'm about to sharpen this chain right here, say I gotta cut wood tomorrow. And I want to sharpen this chain. The first thing I do is take these two bolts off, take the side off. Then I'll take the bar and chain off. I'll clean all that mess out of there. Make sure my oiler's clean. Make sure my chain's clean and my bar's clean. Then I'll put it all back together and I'll sharpen my chain. If you do that every time, you're not going to get a burnt bar. It has a lot less to do with oil than it does chainsaw maintenance. Chainsaw maintenance is the key. Like I said, I started cutting wood about 30 years ago. Started using motor oil about 28 years ago. The last two years, I've used something different. Did you know that vegetable oil is industrial strength oil? I mean, that's all it is. This oil and that oil are pretty much the same, except for we're dumb enough to eat this. Because two years ago, I started eating right, and I started studying into foods. And when I did, I did a little study about vegetable, and vegetable was made in the 19th century, and was made for industrial machinery. And I mean, you got Google, check it yourself. It was not made to eat. It was made for industrial machinery. The only reason we eat this crap is because they told us it was good for us. Back when I was a kid, they told us to stop eating butter. Butter's bad for you. Hey, Parquet, what's the word? Better. Better? Aren't you supposed to say butter? Better. Butter. Better. It has cholesterol in it, and your brain's 65% cholesterol. Then they started making margarine out of vegetable oil, and they told us that was good for us. We're talking about seed oils that are so rancid, so oxidized, they're going to go into your cell membranes and create a lot of inflammation. If you were to eat this right now, this disgusting mixture, you would probably vomit. What they had to do was they had to add artificial flavors, then they would have to add... colorings to it and then they have to put some chemicals to preserve it and then more chemicals to make you keep eating it called msg and what's interesting about this slop is there's barely any protein and one reason they don't put protein is that protein is satisfying but without protein it's going to make you want to keep eating it over and over and over again. Then I started researching the viscosity of vegetable oil because this is just a machinery oil and it has the same viscosity as 10 weight motor oil which like I said I've been using for 20 years 10 weight motor oil so I decided I was going to try this and my chainsaw I told one of my buddies he started I started doing it before me and this past winter I cut about 15 cords of wood And you see any damage on that bar right there? I'm serious. I cut at least 15 cords of wood. I've already split about a third of it. And I've split 5.5 cords of wood this year. And I already know people's going to be talking about how crazy I am. But I'm really not interested in your opinion if you ain't even tried this stuff. Because it works. But like I said, the main thing is the maintenance on your saw. But that's with any oil. That's with bar oil, vegetable oil, motor oil. You've got to maintain these saws. By the way, my buddy that I talked about started trying it before me. He's cut more wood than I have. And he ain't had a problem with it either. This is actually more than a a gallon of oil, but it was $38 or $39. One gallon of bar oil now is about 30 bucks. And if you buy a gallon of vegetable, it's like $9. So this vegetable is going to cost you about a third of chainsaw oil. That's all I'm saying. And let's just say you try it. You try it and I'm a liar and it burns your bar. You know what I'm talking about? How your bar gets burnt. That'll tell you I'll tell you it ain't working. But I promise you, it's going to work. But I mean, what are you out? All you got to do is take a file, file any of that off, and fix it, and you're right back to business. Switch oils, go back to bar oil, and everybody's happy. Anyway, try it if you want to, and save yourself some money. If you don't want to try it, I don't really care. It does work. Chainsaw hack number three. When I first started cutting wood, I really didn't know how to sharpen a chain good. A chainsaw is one of the most high-maintenance tools there is, and it takes a little bit of skill to sharpen a chain if you've never done it before. So the first time my saw got dull, I did like everybody else. I just put a new chain on it. That's the easiest way to fix the problem, but that gets expensive. Even if you're using Chinese chains It still gets expensive eventually just to replace it every time So I found out the hardware store sharpened chainsaws and I took mine in to get it sharpened. When I got my saw back I mean, I don't have that chain anymore. These teeth right here They were like a blue color. When I used it, it cut really good, but it got dull really fast. Well, looking at the chain, I figured out that they took the temper off my chain because you just don't want to get these teeth blue. That's a bad thing. These teeth are hardened, so that means they've been heated up really high and then cooled down really fast. And if you're heating it back up and not cooling it down fast, you're annealing it. You're basically just making this hardened steel mild steel again. Well, after that happened, And I figured out right away I wasn't taking my chainsaw back to a hardware to get sharpened. So I learned how to use a chainsaw file. This was actually the first type of file I used. And I mean, it works really good. It's even got an angle guide right there to show you how to keep the right angle while you're sharpening. Plus, this thing kind of holds the file where it needs to be so it don't go too deep. into the gullet. It's basically a good tool for a beginner, but eventually I just went to a file after I learned how to do it. By the way, if you're going to sharpen your own saw, you also need to take the rakers down, and they have raker gauges like these to do that with. Then a few years ago, I don't remember exactly when, steel came out with this sharpener right here, and it was kind of all the rage. I mean, this thing holds your file the depth it needs to be, plus it gets your raker And you can flip it over. and do the other side. I mean, it's kind of a cool tool. So I used it a little while. Then I was surfing on YouTube one day and I ran across a channel called In The Wood Yard. This guy's up north. He cuts a lot of wood. He really does have a cool channel and he had a cool way of sharpening and he used a Dremel. Just like this. As you can see, I've used this one a lot. They make these little stones for chainsaws, and you can put them in a dremel. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, you're going to take the temper off your saw, but you really won't unless you overheat it. Giving it to somebody else and let them do it, well, they're probably going to overheat your stuff. I mean, when you're doing it yourself, you're going to be more careful. And man, this is 10 times faster than using a file. I'm telling you, it's way faster, way easier. It gets it just as sharp. Plus you see that little line on that tooth and there's one on that tooth and focus camera. I mean, there's one on every tooth. But that line on there just basically shows you the angle that you need to keep when you're sharpening. And as you can see, this thing fits in there perfect and it's turning so it takes away a lot of the work. You basically just work it in and out a couple of times and you'll have a sharp tooth. And I'm not going to show you all of it. I want you to go over to his channel, In The Wood Yard. Watch his video because he's really good at explaining how to do it. It's one of the best things I've ever seen concerning chainsaws anyway. I mean, it made my life a lot easier. I like it and do it so much that I bought this Dremel right here just to sharpen chainsaws with. That's all I use it for. And then recently, I was at Harbor Freight, and I bought this kit because this kit here, I got the same kind of sharpening stones. But this one here... It's cordless, and I can take this with me so if I need it while I'm out working, I don't have to plug it into nothing. Know what I'm saying? Now, there's only one thing that I disagree with with him. He uses the Oregon sharpening stones, which were the original and there's nothing wrong with them as far as how they work. But they're stone and they're going to wear down and lose their shape over time. I like using these diamond stones because, I mean, they'll sharpen good and they don't wear down, you know, like a stone would. They don't wear down like that. So you're not going to get a weird funky shape on your chain when you sharpen it. Plus, if you get these off Amazon, these are way cheaper. cheaper than the Oregon Stones too. I just like them. I'll leave these in the Amazon link too in case you want some. But yeah, go over to In The Wood Yard, watch his video on sharpening chainsaws. I'll try to put a link in my description box so you can find it easier because that chainsaw sharpening video really made my life easier. That's all I'm saying. Number four. Okay, so this hack is just to let you know, in case you don't, that 3D printers are awesome for chainsaws. I actually printed this myself, and if you don't have a 3D printer, you probably know somebody that does. This right here is a chainsaw holder. You basically just use those three holes to mount this thing onto a wall like that. Then you can just hang your chainsaw on it. It's actually pretty cool. I mean, I'm sure they sell these on Amazon, but they're just made with 3D printers too. If you know somebody that has one, you can make them a lot cheaper. Also, these steel sharpeners right here, you know, the ones Stihl sells, they even have a pattern to make these on there. Like I hadn't tried one because I used a Dremel, but you can make one of these holders if you got or know somebody that's got a 3D printer. Another thing you can make is your cap. If you lose a cap, you know, for your chainsaw, they actually got patterns that you can make new gas caps, oil caps with. Yeah, man, that's pretty dang cool right there. I've seen chain holders, like for extra chains that you can mount on the wall. I've seen all kinds of stuff on there that you can make for chainsaws. And I just wanted to put that out there because I never really thought about it. Plus, I never knew that they made so much chainsaw stuff with 3D printers. I mean, that's kind of cool if you think about it. Chainsaw hack number five. If you cut much firewood, you really should know what these are. I mean, these are just plastic wedges. When I was young, we didn't know what a plastic wedge was. We had steel wedges, and the wedges were used for splitting wood. You know, like driving it into a piece of wood and busting it open. These plastic wedges are really, really handy. Most guys use these for falling trees. You know, you cut your hinge in the tree, a proper hinge. Then you take these wedges and you drive them in and it'll make the tree fall over. Kind of doing a controlled fall, if that makes sense. But I think these are even handier for firewood guys. Because if you cut enough wood... Your chainsaw is going to get stuck. You're going to cut the wrong way eventually. That tree is going to close in on your chainsaw and pinch it. When you can't get it out, you can take one of these wedges and drive into that cut. When you drive it in, it's kind of amazing. It'll separate a tree no matter how heavy or big it is. And then you can pull your chainsaw out. And I've got my chainsaws out of a good bit of messes with these things. I mean, these... Really handy and I understand most people knows what this is. Most people are probably saying that ain't a hack. Well, here is the hack. If you go to a place that sells chainsaws like Lowe's or a hardware store, wherever you buy your chainsaws, these wedges are going to run anywhere from $12 a piece. To $20 a piece. And that ain't no joke. They really are. But this whole set of wedges right here, I got it off Amazon for $9.99, if I ain't mistaken. Yeah, I think it was like $10. I've been using these wedges for a couple of years, and they've done fine. I mean, I figured these things would probably tear up, but I'd give it a try. And I've been pretty abusive on this one. You can see it's got into some gnarly crap. But it ain't broke yet. I beat the crap out of it with a sledgehammer, and it's got a little dent on it, but... It ain't that bad. So basically for the price of one wedge, you can get a whole set off of Amazon. That's all I'm saying. And these things are really handy. See if I can find a link for the ones I got. Put it in the description box. Hack number six. Okay so this really is not a hack. I wanted to talk about the types of saws that we use and I want to explain that saws are just tools. That's all they are. You got a lot of steel guys out there and you got a lot of Husqvarna guys out there and they're always arguing which saws the best and in my opinion they're both good. I mean both of these saws work great. This was like the second saw I ever owned, maybe the third. Back then, Husqvarna only used two numbers. 49. Now this would be a 449 or a 549. Actually, it's probably a 549 because all of their saws were made good back then. Back in the earlier 90s, all Husqvarna saws were pretty much pro saws. They didn't make homeowners until they went to Lowe's Hardware and started selling there. Now they got homeowner saws and they got pro saws. This is a 562XP. This five on the beginning And it means it's a pro saw. It basically means. This means it's not a homeowner saw. It's a really good saw. And it means it's got a different motor in it. Now, when you get the Stihl saws, they get really confusing. This is a 362. Basically means it's a 60cc. It might be 62ccs. And the confusing part is you can get bigger numbers that won't have as much power as this one. Like this one here, it's a 261. This is like a 50cc saw, but this is a pro saw. I mean, it has a different motor. It also has a different muffler. Now, you can get a 290, and that's a higher number, and you would think it would be bigger, but this saw actually has more power because this is a pro saw, and the 290 is like a farm boss saw. They have homeowners, farm saws, and then pro saws. It's really kind of confusing until you learn about it, I guess. This Echo right here is like a 3410. It basically means it's a 34 horsepower. Which basically means it's 34 cc's. It's a small saw, but I bought it for a reason. And that's basically what I'm trying to explain. These are tools. I'm not brand loyal. I buy tools for a reason, like to use them. The reason I bought the Echo is it's hard to find a saw this light, made by Husqvarna or made by Stihl. They just don't make light saws. I mean... When you get into the regular saws, I'm not talking about the Arbor saws, the top handles. I'm talking about the regular saws. They just don't have much under 10 pounds. But when you get into the Echo small saws, like you can, I can pick this thing up. Look at that. It's basically really light. I think this saw weighs about seven pounds. By the way, Echo makes a saw that weighs like five pounds, which is crazy light. But like I said, saws are tools. I bought this saw. Just to put a longer bar on, as you can see. It's got a pretty long bar. It helps when I get into big stuff. This steel here is basically the same size. I already had it, but it's only got a 20 inch bar on it. And I use it a lot more than I use this one. But I do like this one. It's just made to cut longer stuff. That's all. The Echo I use for just cutting limbs and small stuff. If I got a lot of small stuff, I don't want to lug around a big old saw, so I use it. My old Husky probably got used the most out of all these saws, but the one I use the most now... It's this 261 steel. This steel's actually a little bit lighter than this Husky and they're pretty much the same CCs. But this steel has a lot more power than that Husky over there. It's really kind of crazy. My whole point is don't be brand loyal. Pick the tool for the job and you'll be a lot happier. Well, there you have it. Six chainsaw hacks that hopefully will help somebody. Hopefully, hey, if you like this video, then you're probably gonna like this video So go over there and check that video out and if you've never been on the channel before this is a DIY channel We make stuff. So just go to the channel page and check it out. You might find something you like maybe I'm serious Go check it out because this video is over