spend teh money on a GOOD one. you buy a 1-200.00 saw and you will be very frustrated with it. i have a 160.00 Craftsman that forever practically refused to crank every time i needed it, and then once warm it would only idle for a few seconds before dieing. after some adjusting on it one day while in teh middle of the woods i got it to finally crank and idle decently, but it still wants to die after about 15 seconds of idling. it works for what i need it to do, but i have to say it gets on my nerves when it acts like that!

i know several people with good Stihl saws, and they have 0 complaints about spending the extra dough on them.

David is right, save your money and move up to a better saw. You will be a lot happier later.

I would like to spend the money and get a better saw the only problem is. I only have abou $200 save at this time. I need a saw now so I can get the wood cut and seasoned for next winter. As of right now I've been barrow from people to cut with. Do you think buying a good used saw would be the way to go then?

Don't waste your money on a new Poulan, Mac or Homelite. They don't last and are hard to keep running. You can get a new Echo CS370 or CS400 or a smaller John Deere off Ebay for around $200 which are good saws for the money, but you should know how to tune a saw or have a small engine shop that would do it for you as most are set to lean when new, for sure if you use ethonal gas. Another good option would be a Makita (64cc built real good, quite a bit more weight but would really cut fast) rental saw from Home Depot that they sell for a little over $200. Steve

I love my Stihl MS290.......There's usually a dozen or so available on E-bay at any one time.....

I can vouch for the Craftsman saw being a PIA.....I finally got sick of fiddling with the carb mixture screws and chucked it. I bought the Stihl and have been a very happy camper since.....

Here is a link that might be useful: Stihl MS290 on the 'bay