Electric chain saw

Stan in Oly, WA

Well-known Member
I have a decent chain saw, but there's no way my wife could ever operate it. Yesterday she had a very minor amount of limbing of a shrub to do, and did it with a bow saw. She's good with tools, although not very strong. If I'd had a small electric chain saw, I'd have offered that.

Question: Is the Harbor Freight electric chain saw, by any chance, one of the few good values there? This would be purely an impulse purchase, so if it's just their regular quality I don't want it, and I don't have enough use for one to pay more for an acceptable brand.

Harbor Freight sells a handful of items which rise far above the store's normal quality of goods, and represent, in my opinion, terrific values. I can think of three. What I'm asking is whether this falls into that category.

(Go ahead and tell me all Chinese goods are cr*p, if that's your feeling and you've got nothing better to do with your time. I've heard it here before.)

Thanks, Stan
 
I've never used one of their chain saws but I buy a lot of harbor freight tools and have been pleased with the overwhelming majority of them. The few that were no good they took them back and gave me my money back without question. The electric chain saw is a good idea. When my son was young he learned to operate a chain saw with a 14" Remington.
 
Stan, I purchased an 18 electric from Sears, on sale $100, regular price $125. Get a sears credit card and get another 5%. It's rated at 4 peak hp. Made by worx. It comes with two chains. I purchased an extended warantee, 3 years, with the 5%.

I have a 3500 watt RV genny. The RV out is raged at 30 amps, 120v, 100 pounds. I put a chain around the genny, connected it to the loader, put chainsaw and oil in bucket of loader and off to the woods I go.

I love it. Genny starts on first or second pull, quiet, no smell. Yes, you have a cord to drag around. My arm doesn't hurt trying to start the saw. I like it so much, I bought a second one, because there was little difference in buying a second one vs buying 2 new chains and a new bar. Didn't buy an extended warantee with second saw. Figure if it goes bad, I'll pitch it and keep the bar and chains.

It cut through an 18 inch red oak log with no problem. Chain may run a little slower, but it seems like it never need to stop and tighten, which can be done with no tools.

Try it, you will like.
George
 
If you have a battery powered reciprocal saw, put a long blade on it and let her try that.
I have a remington electric chainsaw, and the chain seems to be different than a gas saw (less teeth). Used it Sat to clean up a couple of limbs that blew down worked fine but I wouldn't want to cut a years firewood with that chain.
 

If you think that you might ever need to trim a tree, get an electric pole saw. You can take the pole off and use just the saw. I have a 16" Remington and wish I had a pole for it.
I have a 4000 watt belt driven generator, that I run with my 17 hp garden tractor. I use that for running the electric chain saw.

Dusty
 
I have one too - am told the fewer teeth are because the electric motor doesn't have enough power to run a conventional chain. My take is that it is rough running, tends to chatter a lot. OK for a little limbing but I sure wouldn't want to use one for serious wood cutting.
 
the HF saw is good for what you want have one and its every bit as good as a remington electric and lots cheaper. I have very few problems with HF stuff
 
My electric is not a skip tooth, it's a regular oregon chain and bar, 62 tooth 18 inch bar. It may run at a slightly slower speed. Produces long wood chips, not saw dust. Stays sharper longer, as long as I don't put in the dirt. Chain stays cool and doesn't need adjusted. My 4 hp has all the power you want. I was helping a friend, who only had a 16 inch gasser. I could make more cuts than he could. He had to stop, gas up, tighten chain, and hit chain with file. The only time I stopped was to put oil in. It was funny to watch him start his saw. His wife stood on the saw while he pulled the rope. By the time the saw started, he was tired. I cut circles around him.
George
 
The Harbor Freight saw has quite a few reviews written about it. Looks to be a pretty good one.

I have an old black Craftsman. Though it works OK, I cannot find a bar or chain for it.

I also have the newer gray Craftsman. Not half the saw the old one is. Chain falls off but I think that is due to a lower quality bar and chain.
 
You know? Its for the wife, and she probably won't be using it all that much. Earlier in the year I was somewhere and needed to take down a reletively small tree quick and I've got chain saws, were about 200 miles away. Where's the nearest Menards? I found it, ran inside and they had a couple different models with something like 12" bars I think? Self oiling too. A bit noisy, but not nearly as noisy as I'm used to. A bit slow too. I never used an electric chainsaw before. But, was a one time thing. I'm not sure who even made it. Homelite maybe? I forgot I even had that thing. Now you got me wondering where I put it. Hmm. Better look around tomorrow. Would be perfect for trimming stuff. Hmm. I wonder where I left it.

Good luck.

Mark
 
My ex son in law was trying to suck up to me to make amends for a stunt he pulled. So he brought me an old Remington electric he found. I've seen a lot of the plastic Remingtons, but this one is metal. Once I got it sharpened up and fixed a few things I tried it and was amazed! It's actually not a bad saw for odd jobs, construction and trimming. Only downside is the lead cord and the manual oiler that makes my old arthitic thumb hurt. :lol:
 
[i:654c4848f0](Go ahead and tell me all Chinese goods are cr*p, if that's your feeling and you've got nothing better to do with your time. I've heard it here before.) [/i:654c4848f0]

My right elbow has been bothering me quite a bit but otherwise I'm holding up pretty good and have been generally happy of late.
Of course my opinions on chain saws have little to do with how I feel.
Now if you ask me what I [b:654c4848f0]think[/b:654c4848f0] about Harbor Fright tools I'll tell you I have a rather poor opinion of them.
 
Ultradog MN,

Glad to hear you've been generally happy of late. Hope your right elbow stops bothering you. I'm surprised that anything ever heals up at my age, but most things still do. I tore some of the sheath of muscle right under my sternum and it hurts like the dickens. I can cinch myself in real tight and take painkillers and work almost normally, but if I do it'll never heal.

Harbor Freight sells mostly low quality goods, but it has the unexpected bargain once in a while. If you can get someone to tell you about the bargains rather than having to find them the hard way, then it's all right.

Stan
 
I have a couple red Sears or Craftsman electric chain saws that I use with a portable generator as others have mentioned. In my area there are at least 3 surplus stores that sell Sears & others returned or scratch & dent merchandise. The Sears saws sell for $15 to $25 at these places.
 

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