Makita Chainsaws?

[Jolly]

What's the scoop? I understand that they are built in Germany, not Japan, by Sachs. HF has one in the latest flyer, 18" bar for $280.

Is Stihl worth the extra money, for an around-the-place saw? Or is the best bang for the buck one of the ubiquitous refurbed Poulans on ePrey?

[horselogger]

Originally Posted by Jolly

What's the scoop? I understand that they are built in Germany, not Japan, by Sachs. HF has one in the latest flyer, 18" bar for $280.

Is Stihl worth the extra money, for an around-the-place saw? Or is the best bang for the buck one of the ubiquitous refurbed Poulans on ePrey?

I log for a living,havefor 31 years. I have owned 35 diffferent chain saws. I buy only two brands now;Stihl or Huskie. Both have their little idiosynracies,but if m,aintained will last many years for you. Do not buy an older model saw;buy new,maintain it,grease clutch drum bearing, clean air filter and airfins,clean fuel( never more than a month old) with either stihl or husky two cycle mix,and bar oil. I am proffesionally running a husky 394 that is 10 years old. Only other advice,never get involved with rebuilt saws;they will nickel and dime you to death whereas a new one will have a warrenty. Things generally fail withinin the time of warrenty. By the way,the best way to break a saw in is to let it idle goosing it every few minutes,until the tank of fuel gas run out. Husky sawmix,in a black bottle,has a fuel stabilizer. Polan,which is a subsidary of electrolux,sa(The vacum cleaner people) is a consumer saw,it is designed for once in a blue moon .Run five ir six cords through them and you are probably going to be losing compression. A good saw,to keep it running should never be left sitting with fuel in it. Runit empty,pull the choke and crank it over until it won't pop off.

[dale]

They are made by Sach Dolmar. They are very good saws. They are an older saw then Stilh. Also made in Germany. If taken care of they last and last.

My boss sells them and we have very few problems with them. The most problems is owner problems like water in gas, not cleaning air filter, old gas, ect. But if it is taken care of like any piece of equipment they will last.

We have a several loggers that use them in our area. One has been using them for 8 years and has the original one still. Now he has bought newer ones also but still has the first one and uses it too.

Many of the Amish have moved in this area and they buy them.

Can you tell im partial?
Stilh is good if you dont get the cheap one or the home owner model because the mounting screws are just screwed into plastic and you can imagine how good that saw is.
Husky.. Some are good we but we work on alot of them.

dale

[simpleman]

Makita makes great power tools (my humble opinion) but, I am not so sure about their chainsaw. I still trust Husquavana brand chainsaws the most. Mine outlived both my poulon and stilh.

Ernest

[HermitJohn]

If Makita is made by Sachs then it is a good saw. When I built my present little house, a crew working for electric had to bring lines and they used Sachs. Leader of crew chatted for while and said they used Sachs for long time and they were great saw.

This year I have got back to cutting my own wood since there are so many dead red oak. My ancient Craftsman (made by Roper) started and wasnt too bad, but I wanted reliable backup. Well I found and bought a Shindaiwa saw said to run perfectly off ebay for $60. Then couple days later saw one advertised for parts only on ebay, said it had sat for 3 years and they didnt know anything about it . Bought it for $5. Well parts saw gets here first. Had sharp chain and turned over so I put bar/chain on and added gas/oil. Dang thing started up and ran well, even idled well. Restarted well hot. That was a deal. Dont know what the seller was thinking selling it as parts only. I used it and the $60 one several times since. They are top quality saw about like older Stihl/Husky. And they are bargain priced used because nobody ever heard of them. I do figure I'll have to order any Shindaiwa only parts off internet. Nobody deals in them around here. They use same bar/chain as my Craftsman does.

[Jolly]

Thanks folks.

I've heard two different stories on the Makita saws: 1. Makita has contracted Sachs to build them, and 2. Makita bought Sachs. Don't know which one is correct, but they are definitely a Sachs saw.

[dale]

Makita bought Sachs

Shindaiwa is a very good little motor.. They make a very good Weed eater. At the shop I work at we sell them and have very little trouble.
They make them where they can be worked on with out taking apart the whole thing just to work on a carb.

I know the weedeaters are good. The Missouri Dept of Transportation uses them around here and they use them hard. The prisoners use them on the sides of the hwy around the guard rails. Almost like the old chain gains but without the chains.

dale

[mysticokra]

Avoid Poulan. This miserable saw was designed by a committee that must have had a bunch of bad parts they had to recycle. It's only redeeming feature is that it will qualify for the loggers trio... "one that's broke, one that gets stuck in the tree and one to cut it out with."

[brosil]

I've got a Makita saw and enjoyed using it until I buggered the chain up. Now I can't seem to find a replacement chain. Anybody got an on-line source?

[Case]

Makita chain saws? That's a new one on me.

Most Makita tools are excellent and so may be the chainsaw.

I wouldn't buy one because I think parts and service might be spotty.

I think Husqvarna is cheapening its product.

I stick strictly with Stihl, who I suspect also is beginning to cheapen the product.

I have two Stihl 029s which are pure workhorses. They've now renamed that to the M290 and people tell me they've cheapened it some.

I have a Shindaiwa string trimmer that's awesome. Anything made by Shindaiwa is the Cadillac of its genre -- and the price reflects it.

You can get a brand new M290 Stihl chainsaw virtually anywhere for just under $300.

The equivalent Shindaiwa lists for about $700.