What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw?

   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #1  

Hipa Jeremy

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Joined
Jan 6, 2023
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Tractor
John Deere 5050E
I'm curious whether the level of cleaning and maintenance. I'm also wondering whether too much cleaning and maintenance can be bad for a lawnmower(constantly disassembling the powerhead, using compressed air on the air filter, exposing the carburetor mouth, constantly greasing the needle bearing, daily use of cleaning agents like Citrol or Simple Green, etc.)
After a normal day of cutting, what daily cleaning and maintenance tasks are you doing for your saw?
After a week of work what deep cleaning and maintenance tasks are you doing for your saw?
What are your once or twice or three times a year cleaning and maintenance tasks?
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #2  
It really depends on the use. Homeowner or arborist or logger? If you are burning a gallon of gas a day or more... Take the bar off. Clean the grooves, flip it over reinstall after cleaning out the oiler exit on the saw body. Remove greasy sawdust. Clean the side cover with your bar wrench. Put your chain or new chain back on. take your top cover off and inspect your filter. Tap it on the body to dislodge funk, or use a tooth brush. put it back on. Gas and oil up. Put it away for tomorrow. A clean saw is a happy saw. Some people don't care and jes' runnem.

If you are in your home area, blow out the everything with your air compressor, make sure the choke is closed when you clean out the carburetor mount.
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #3  
Whatever you do for maintenance I recommend draining the tank and running it until the carburetor is empty before putting it away for any extended period - say over a month.
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #4  
Contrarian that I am I never drain the fuel out of my 2 cycle equipment. The three saws can sit on the shelf for 6 months. Starts up just fine. Saws work a hard day or two, or a light day depending on what has fallen on the trails. I used to just use premium gas for my mix. Now I just use non-ethanol gas for the mix.

I do have a fuel cutoff on one 4 cycle generator. I like to turn that off and let the engine burn up what is left in the carb. I did not set a calendar on that generator but it had fuel that was older than 5 years. It would start right up after sitting a year or two. That said I have had a few 4 cycle tools that got gummed up jets but none since I started using non-ethanol gas.
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #5  
I can see some logic to putting it away with a full tank. I'm guessing less condensation inside the fuel tank. My saw is ooold, and doesn't seem to care much about leaving a bit of gas in the fuel tank, as i found out by accident. I usually dump fuel out and start the saw and let it run out, but im getting forgetful and have left a bit of fuel in it for a few years now, probably thinking im going to be using it again real soon, but don't. Anyway, first time i dump the little fuel out and added fresh in, choked, pulled a few times till it attempted to start, turn choke off and fired away.

But, mostly like hslogger says in his post. Also now when i get tired, i'll shut the saw off and touch up the chain a bit, then get back at it.
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #6  
I don't drain gas outta mine either. My maintenance is minimal with the chainsaw. Really the only time I clean anything out is when I take the chain off to sharpen it, at which point the sprocket is exposed and I'll halfazz wipe all that out.
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #7  
I don't drain gas outta mine either. My maintenance is minimal with the chainsaw. Really the only time I clean anything out is when I take the chain off to sharpen it, at which point the sprocket is exposed and I'll halfazz wipe all that out.

I tend to fall into this camp however, I wipe mine down with my fullazz rather than my halfazz.... :oops:
I also usually pull out the air hose for a good blow job


(omg, I'm going to shut up while I'm ahead)
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #8  
I tend to fall into this camp however, I wipe mine down with my fullazz rather than my halfazz.... :oops:
I also usually pull out the air hose for a good blow job


(omg, I'm going to shut up while I'm ahead)
Woah, sexy!
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #9  
I usually clean out clutch area and be sure oiler ports are clear and turn over bar every time I remove chain for sharpening, remove air filter and blow it out whenever I happen to think about it.... Always put away saw with touched up chain, full of fuel and oil.... Always ready for "next" days work.... Alway a negative to have to deal with saw problem at start of days work....Never have any issues leaving fuel and oil in my chainsaws, lawnmowers, generator, log splitter... It you go with the concept of draining fuel and running dry, do you do it with your tractor or pickup truck or wifes flashy car when it gets parked....

Also does the $50 a gallon custom fuel blend make you saw run any better and give longer life than the gallon of pump gas and small bottle of oil (50:1) fuel mix...
 
   / What is your cleaning and maintenance routine for your chainsaw? #10  
I blow with my compressor all external grime / clutch every time I flip my bar/chain which is about after 3 days use when I do a serious sharpen.
I touch up my chain sharpness ever night and do a better sharpen every 3 days or so. Rare occasions i touch up my chain sharpness during luch break when if i know I did something I should not have done like touched the ground.
Plug/fuel filter every 10 gallons of fuel.
Fuel pickup line every spring and fall.
Depending on what saw (what type of air filter) its gets a good visual inspection every time I run a file over the chain but I cut alot and usually go through them quicker than most as I find them cheap to replace when bought in bulk.
Needle bearing, clutch springs and oiler gears inspected / cleaned every 10 gallons of fuel and replaced 1 - 2x per year. I rarely ever replace an oil pump unless it fails which is super easy to tell when that happens as you can smell and see color of shavings change..

Much of my maintenance is just out of habit vs. per the book like fuel pickup every spring and fall just becasue and the parts are really cheap versus having a bad running saw.
 
 
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