Too much voltage drop with a 250' extension cord. You will fry the motor. Is renting a gas saw feasible?

TBB,

"Someone mentioned a cheaper alternative would be an electric chainsaw."

Good electric chainsaws, like the Stihl MSE 140 C-BQ Electric Chain Saw, the Stihl MSE 180 C-BQ Electric Chain Saw, or the Stihl MSE 220 Electric Chain Saw, aren't cheap. And neither is heavy gauge extension cord. You would need at least 10-gauge, and possibly 8-gauge. It would be like garden hose, only heavier. And 250 feet of it would cost more than a Stihl 170.

I don't think you're going to find a cheaper workable solution than the Stihl MS 170. And you probably should invest in chainsaw protective chaps and a good chainsaw helmet. After you buy 2-cycle oil and chain oil you are going to be approaching a total tab of $300.

MM

You sound like the perfect candidate for renting a chainsaw. Having the saw sit idle all year will not do it any favors in terms of longevity or reliability.

If I were you I would (a) rent a good saw for my cleanup chores and then (b) buy a GOOD arborist-grade pull-saw for other pruning, xmas tree cutting, etc. If you haven't used one, you will be amazed at just how efficient they are and how quickly they cut up green wood and smaller dry wood. Even the $20 Corunna Professional 13" curved-blade saw from HomeDepot would be good choice, and it is about a third of the cost of the Silky saws and the like.

It's all about having the right tool for the job and I think my plan would do so in the most cost-effective fashion possible.

Do the saws that are of this grade say it on the saw itself? I was looking at some handsaws in Lowes Hardware the other day and were amazed that some of them cost up to $30.

But after trying to saw the tree this year with my handsaw ($10 at Wal-Mart I think) it will be worth the extra cost.

Thanks for the advice.

TBB

By hand saw do you mean like a carpenter's saw? I can see where that wouldn't work very well. Get a pruning saw or bow saw and you should have no trouble. I have a chain saw but would never go to the trouble to break it out just to trim the trunk on the Xmas tree.

I was referring to something like this:

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc%2fsearchResults.jsp&BV_SessionID=@@@@1919897075.1164979428@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccedaddjhmjjdglcgelceffdfgidgml.0&MID=9876

TBB

TBB,

That link doesn't seem to be working for me. I see it has a SessionID, which probably means that your Home Depot online "Session" has expired. Could you tell us the name of the product enough so that we could search Home Depot for it? Are you talking about a cordless reciprocating saw like this?
{{gwi:320950}}

MM

A reciprocating saw is a very handy tool, but I doubt it's the right tool for cutting a Christmas tree trunk. The tree would tend to wobble back and forth with the reciprocating action, unless you clamped it somehow. I use a saw like the one at the website linked below for my Christmas trees.

Here is a link that might be useful: bow saw

Instead of such an expensive extension cord,
how about wheeling your emergency generator
250 feet and giving that a little exercise too?

Based on your post, I suggest that you rent a really good chainsaw to do the one really large project.

If all you foresee down the road is the occasional pruning jobs here and there on your property, then you could easily get by with an electric chainsaw. The big secret to any chainsaw is a sharp chain. That is what makes the difference. An electric chainsaw will whiz right through branches and small tree trunks as long as the chain is sharp, sharp, sharp.

I also second the suggestion of a recip saw. I own a Milwaukee corded and cordless recip saw and I recently acquired a Ryobi cordless recip saw as part of a Ryobi package deal. With the right blade in these saws, I regularly trim branches off spruce, pine and decidious trees with no problems.

If the base shoe is held tightly against the trunk, there is no problem to cut right through a Christmas tree. The key is the blade. It must be sharp, it must be very course and it must have good tooth offset so that it cuts a wide kerf to prevent binding.

Gas powered chainsaws are great tools but you need to use them regularly to avoid problems from stale gas that leads to varnish in the fuel system. Only you can decide ultimately which type of saw will best suit your needs. I too hate tossing money in the direction of rental yards but sometimes it is the wiser choice IF... you are not going to use the tool often enough to justify the total cost of ownership.