Battery Chainsaw offer at B&Q

[paulbo666]

Hi

there appears to be a good deal on 36v Lithium battery powered MacCallister chainsaws at some B&Q warehouses at the mo...

£64 for the base unit and £34 for a 36v, 4AH Lithium battery with charger.

 

http://www.diy.com/departments/mac-allister-cordless-lithium-ion-electric-chainsaw/213853_BQ.prd

 

paulbo

[GoodGurl]

don't want to burst your bubble but you can get petrol chainsaws ALOT cheaper. unless your marina based and on a landline most people won't be able to charge them without running the engine/genny.

[paulbo666]

Hi

I find that higher powered chainsaws can be a bit intimidating (maybe due to that Texas movie back in the 70's!) and don't really wish to have to store petrol on the boat.

I was sceptical about the usefulness of a battery powered tool such as this but bought one anyway last week as a bit of a punt.

It is a LOT less intimidating, easier to store on the boat, it cut wet lumber into about 60 logs ranging from 2-3 inch to 7-8 inch diameter over the weekend without draining the battery completely.

 

 

[Graham Davis]

And a battery one can cause as much damage to your body as a petrol one!!

Buy all the protection gear!!

[DHutch]

don't want to burst your bubble but you can get petrol chainsaws ALOT cheaper

 

Really? I have to admit that if I was looking, I would also be after a small secondhand Stihl, but I wouldnt have thought you could get much for the money mentioned in the opening post.

 

That said, I am not sure that I would be happy recommending some to buy a chainsaw and getting stuck in with it for the reasons above.

- If you want stove wood, find someone who is selling it, as its often surprisingly affordable.

- If you want to dice up some cut timber, for kindling get axe or hatchet and do it that way.

- If you want a saw, expect to pay £200 for it, the same again in clothing, learn how to use it.

 

As I cant comment on what is the recommended practice but while I would get fully suited if it was going to be doing any serious work, I have used small petrol chainsaws for dicing up pallet wood and the like with only quite minimal protection, being aware of what makes them kick and a treating it like a killing machine with a handle. Certainly however there is no room at all for complacency. Trousers appear to start at £150 which is buttons compared loosing you leg, but steep for a few logs.

 

 

Daniel

 

 

Daniel

[magnetman]

Do they do battery powered rechargeable replacement limbs ?

[rasputin]

Accidents with chainsaws are seldom trivial.

[bigste]

I've had my chinese chainsaw for 7 years and it is the same model as the link. Parts are easily available but rarely needed. Can be had for about £80 inc. postage.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Petrol-Chainsaw-58cc-3-4HP-20-Saw-Blade-2-Chains-Bar-Cover-Bag-Tool-Kit-/281119737916?pt=UK_Home_Garden_GardenPowerTools_CA&hash=item41740ac83c

[GoodGurl]

we bought a petrol mcculloch 360T for 54 quid from argos.

[valrene9600]

Do they do battery powered rechargeable replacement limbs ?

Aldi offer in new year.

[onionbargee]

If your buying a cheap DIY petrol chainsaw it probably means you haven't bothered to get any training in how to use one safely, or are interested in buying protective clothing, or maintaining the bar and chain. The fastest route to A&E there is.

[Neil Smith]

I have 2 chainsaws, a Chinese one that is 2 years old £50 of ebay and a JCB one that's probably Chinese also 5 years old £70 screw fix that are both going strong, I use them at work but not all the time and for fire wood, I don't have all the fancy gear but wear goggles, gloves and ear defenders.

 

Neil

[bigste]

If your buying a cheap DIY petrol chainsaw it probably means you haven't bothered to get any training in how to use one safely, or are interested in buying protective clothing, or maintaining the bar and chain. The fastest route to A&E there is.

I have refused to lend out my saw for that very reason. A deadly weapon in the wrong hands.

[craftycarper]

Just a few observations of my own, I have a woodburner in my house (very large) and a boatman on the boat, when I first fitted the one in my house I was quoted by several suppliers £250 for a level load on a transit tipper of logs the same price as a small sthil ,as I already own and drive most days a transit tipper I bought a small sthil so now I can fill my truck as and when I need, the saw is now four years old and still going strong so quids in there, secondly i do own all the safety gear but find it causes more issues than saves as you become immobile,deaf and partly blind when your visor steams up, now I just wear a boiler suit and steel toe caps but most importantly never ever stand above or inline with the chain when cutting, I also never stand on steps as this is another major cause of injury, owning safety gear does,nt make you safe, being aware of what your doing and were your doing it is more important in my opinion, I know many will disagree but I feel happy doing it this way

[Machpoint005]

I have 2 chainsaws, a Chinese one that is 2 years old £50 of ebay and a JCB one that's probably Chinese also 5 years old £70 screw fix that are both going strong, I use them at work but not all the time and for fire wood, I don't have all the fancy gear but wear goggles, gloves and ear defenders.

 

Neil

 

I'm with the others on this one.

 

As an absolute minimum, ballistic trousers are a must. See above. Chainsaw injuries are very, very nasty. Severing a main artery when you're in a remote location is probably fatal.

 

Eye protection - at least something to stop bits flying into an eye, even if it's only safety specs - well, I don't want to lose an eye, I'm rather attached to both of them.

 

Ear protection - is so easy to wear, why would you not bother? I tend to use E-A-R Plugs for any job likely to be excessively noisy.

 

I really would not want to read on this forum that one of us had had a chainsaw accident.

I would have thought a second-hand chainsaw a recipe for disaster too, as you can't possibly know its history, or whether it has been mistreated or abused. That chain might be on the point of letting go.

And they say health and safety is just a matter of common sense...

[Neil Smith]

I agree I have used chainsaws on and off for 40 years and the worst injury I have had is splinters, but I think I am very safety conscious and know they can be lethal.

 

Neil

[magnetman]

Aldi offer in new year.

And if you cut off just your fingers look at the Lidl ones

[Guest]

Just a few observations of my own, I have a woodburner in my house (very large) and a boatman on the boat, when I first fitted the one in my house I was quoted by several suppliers £250 for a level load on a transit tipper of logs the same price as a small sthil ,as I already own and drive most days a transit tipper I bought a small sthil so now I can fill my truck as and when I need, the saw is now four years old and still going strong so quids in there, secondly i do own all the safety gear but find it causes more issues than saves as you become immobile,deaf and partly blind when your visor steams up, now I just wear a boiler suit and steel toe caps but most importantly never ever stand above or inline with the chain when cutting, I also never stand on steps as this is another major cause of injury, owning safety gear does,nt make you safe, being aware of what your doing and were your doing it is more important in my opinion, I know many will disagree but I feel happy doing it this way

 

 

Great comment second that

[magnetman]

I agree too. This is why chainsaws should be a licensed product. They are too dangerous really for people who don't know how they operate. I did a tree felling course a few years ago and it taught me quite a lot really. I still don't use a chainsaw because a.I have no need for one and b.I do think they are dangerous even if you know what you are doing.

 

I would say that a trained operator in the nude would probably be safer than a clueless person wearing safety gear. And other people in the vicinity of course.

On the other hand I have seen apparently silly things done by people who appear to be 'professional' like the bloke who was cutting a point on the end of a 12 inch square bit of wood which was hanging over the edge of a boat. He was actually leaning over the back of the boat slicing into the wood at an angle. This was to make a spike on the wood which was going to be driven into the river bed as a mooring pile.

 

I also know someone who cut replacement wooden stern deck cants for his narrow boat by clamping a chainsaw into a workmate starting it, cable tie on the controls and then feed the piece of wood through the vertical chainsaw blade to form it. He got away with it but a lot of people might not.

 

All comes down to operator skill really.

 

Maybe they should have warnings like "This thing will cut through your leg in less than 2 seconds just look how quickly it got through that log you just cut "

[Machpoint005]

>> I would say that a trained operator in the nude would probably be safer than a clueless person wearing safety gear.<<

 

Not if he was acting like a complete bell end!

[floatsyourboat]

I just use a decent hand saw does the job nicely and no need to worry about petrol on board!

[craftycarper]

I just use a decent hand saw does the job nicely and no need to worry about petrol on board!

. To be fair I do keep a bowsaw on the boat and a sturdy folding laundry bin that folds flat, I could quite easily keep the small boatman running like this, but the 12 kW. Monster in my house takes a fair bit of feeding and when I am logging up the big stuff for that I normally cut all the small branch,s into 6" bits to take to the boat, if I run out on the boat an hour in the woods normally fills the laundry bin with small stuff and one bin will give me around three days burning, plus I think as I get older and slower it's good to get out and keep active so collecting wood is cheaper than joining a gym, is more beneficial to me and I,m surrounded by trees rather than pumped up Lycra clad dicks , win win win

[OldGoat]

I agree too. This is why chainsaws should be a licensed product. They are too dangerous really for people who don't know how they operate. I did a tree felling course a few years ago and it taught me quite a lot really. I still don't use a chainsaw because a.I have no need for one and b.I do think they are dangerous even if you know what you are doing.

 

 

 

This is precisely why Stihl - 'the market leader' (well at least in the professional market), insist that their dealers do some form of proper handover - and they do.

It doesn't help their sales as folks always want a bargain. Other manufacturers are not so ethical.

 

OTOH people will complain about the Nanny State - reserving the right to chop of their body parts...

[NMEA]

Do they do battery powered rechargeable replacement limbs ?

Yes, but they are not very good yet, give it time.

[blackrose]

I have a small 14" Ryobi petrol chainsaw that I bought from Screwfix for about 90 quid 6 years ago. It's not bad. It can get through 30cm dia logs without a problem, but it's too small to be a serious chain saw. However, it could still do some serious damage if it's misused. I store petrol onboard anyway (for my generator) in a dedicated locker.

 

I use steel toe cap boots, ear defenders, eye protection and gloves, but I don't have ballistic trousers even though perhaps I should. A couple of posters on this thread mentioned certain PPE as "an absolute minimum", but then go on to say that they don't use it themselves! I think they need to make their minds up. You could do just as much serious injury chopping up pallets with a chainsaw as you can cutting logs.

Edited December 25, 2014 by blackrose