Whoops

I’ve been off line long enough to lose some physical fitness. My Dr. encourages me to go to the gym… which is just the kind of bullshit doctors say. Looking at a guy like me and thinking “this bearded maniac ought to be on a treadmill, in an air conditioned gym, getting his mental shorts in a wad because CNN is blasting propaganda at him” is missing… everything! My whole way of being just ain’t that way. It infuriates me when a Dr. sees a widget and not a human. I’d at least consider wrestling alligators for exercise and this dweeb thinks I ought to go to a gym… in a mall. (Actually I live so far in the hinterlands there is no mall.)

On the other hand, I’ve taken a hit and can’t deny it. One year ago I was riding a dirtbike solo across Wyoming at high altitude. That’s technically not “safe” for anyone but I did it. It’s certainly strenuous (especially in the thin air) and (at the time) I had more to give but just ran out of time. Last year’s accomplishments are a baseline I’m clearly not up to yet.

As a “compromise” I’ve been cutting firewood… cautiously. I’m only doing small amounts while I build stamina. Short “sessions”, only a few days a week. But it’s something. At first I was using my little electric saw, but as I got more “into it” I was working harder and needed to switch to gas. (Don’t get impressed, moving up from battery saws to gas is progress but I’m still slow as shit compared to true production logging, or even me a few years ago.)

I have a Stihl MS361. It spent many months ignored but it’s a loyal friend and I’m glad to be using it again. I’ve had it about 15+ years. I’ve worked it like a rented mule.

Unfortunately, it got a little out of tune. I’m not sure why, only that it did. It would start easily and run strong, but it would stall out on any extended pause. If I felled a tree and the saw was idle for 30 seconds while I waded through the brush to get to the first part of bucking the log… it would be dead when I got there. It would start up right away, but stalling was an issue that I could no longer ignore.

I looked online and found the instructions to tweak the idle speed. Here they are. Looks simple to me:

I carefully turned the low speed screw (L) 1/4 turn. Then started her up to adjust the idle speed (LA). Except I couldn’t. She wouldn’t start.

Here’s the thing. Saws are finicky and my saw is peculiar in that it’ll either start right away or not at all. I know what you’re all thinking. You’re leaping to give advice about blowing off, replacing, or gapping the sparkplug, cleaning the air filter, checking the fuel intake, etc… Please spare me. I’ve been through it all before. The saw’s just got personality. Works great but you’d better set the choke right when you start it cold or your day is over before it starts.

That said, it has been flawless for years. Starting every damn time! I had the routine down cold. Full choke, on the third pull it’ll try to start. Go to half choke, on the second pull it’ll fire right up. That was happening with perfect regularity, but if I forgot to set the choke or something it would get flooded and I’d be fucked.

I know all the tricks to start a recalcitrant saw, but for some reason my MS361 just won’t listen to reason. 99% of the time it cuts wood like an ape on crack… 1% of the time it’s on strike like a New York City unionized garbageman. No middle ground!

I’d messed it up! I panicked! I tried to turn the screw back the exact 1/4 turn and undo what I’d done. I left it overnight and gave it a shot at a cold start. Nope! The saw had gone on strike.

That’s when I did the wisest thing I’ve done in a while; I put down the saw and stepped away from it. I was starting great. Whatever I’d done didn’t “undo” right away. Time to pay someone smarter than me to fix it.

She’s in the shop right now. It’s probably for the best. It’s roasting hot out and I should be resting today. I have to constantly guard against my own tendency to overwork myself and it’s like the saw decided I needed a break. 🙂

What’s the point of all this? There is no point. Only that I like my saw and Sithl in general but it’s super sensitive to the damn carb screw. It hasn’t been “tweaked” in like a decade so I can’t complain… but I guess I am.

If it’s cooler tomorrow I might go back to the little battery saw and flog it mercilessly. We’ll find out if the batteries overheat before I do (which I doubt, I’m still weak). Or maybe I’ll listen to the wisdom of my chainsaw as it spends the weekend at the saw spa, and take a few days off.