Chainsaw Repair

This really not correct at all. For one thing, prices are not coming down. Beginning of the year saw a price increase on all Husky jugs. They are not "feeling the heat" in any way. Trust me on this point. I'm one of the few guys who live in both worlds here. Both the enthusiast/hobby world here on the saw sites and also in the real everyday world in my own store. There is a huge and very real disconnect between those two realities.

I do fully understand the sentiment that most of you have regarding OEM prices and the feeling that you are getting hosed in a system that you feel is stacked against you. So, AM prices allow you to beat that system.

I've been sharing in Weimedog's experiments and my comclusions are a little different, as I do not see ANY of the Asian sources as being of consistant enough quality to use in my store. Too many middle men clouding the discussion, and with the Asian crap, the name on the box has little if anything to do with the name on the part. Just a bunch of guys re-boxing and selling the same crap. Sometimes you can't even trust the box will have the same part. Weimedog and I each bought a Forester 372 kit. Same part number, a few weeks apart, yet each kit was from a different source. Mine runs OK, his blows up. Which kit is representative of that Forester part number? What's going to be in the next box? I ordered a Mako 372, and guess what? It's the same "Pacme" labeled jug that Walt got in a Forester box, with the same ring hang up on the intake port. Sent it back and Tilton is looking into it. 272 kits on the other hand, from both Forester and Mako look like nice stuff. But it's all a crap shoot and regardless of what the various sellers are saying about their fake "brands", most of this stuff is coming from the same few sources "over there". It's all a little bit of a scam IMO. Creating fake brands selling the same junk in different boxes at prices that are all over the map. Talk about a system that's stacked against you! This is far more a hosing of the customer than what's going on with OEM parts.

This not the case with the European stuff. A Meteor is a Meteor. A Tecomec is a Tecomec. Same way a Mahle is a Mahle. But the European kits really offer me no significant price advantage over OEM, so I mostly stick to the real stuff in the store.

I do sell the OEM kits at a fair price, and I look at this all from a cost standpoint. My cost on and OEM 372 kit is $100 more than my whiolesale cost on a Mako or Forester kit. For a $100 difference, OEM is the better way to go IMO. And my customers want the OEM anyway. My shop has a great reputation and I won't compromise that by using Chinese AM junk.

I could go on and on about this. Probably will tonight, but I've got plenty to do here in the store. Some of these parts do work fine, and external bits are a little easier to do right.

I also think that AM pistons are usually pretty decent for that same reason. And likely the cheapest way to go of all the rebuild options. After all, most dead saws will come with a cylinder, and the majority of the time that cylinder can be salvaged. A refinished OEM jug is a FAR better option than an AM top end, using either an OEM or AM piston.

I also have to remark here that it's a wonder my Forester 372 kit runs as good as it does, or even at all for that matter. If you look up the exhaust port it's so out of wack that you'd swear the cylinder was on crooked. No real contour to the exhaust port roof and it will open a good 2mm on the left before it begins to open on the right side. What kind of port timing is that called? 

But here again, I'll correct myself: I should NOT be calling that a "forester" kit. It's an unmarked kit in a Forester box, again from a different source than the one Walt got, in the same box with the same part number. Calling it a Forester plays into the same "brand language" game that all of these re-sellers are using to confuse us. Creating these phony brands selling the same stuff in different boxes is where all of these vendors, jobbers, and re-sellers fabricate the mist that we have trouble seeing through. I have identified at least 3, maybe 4 sources of cylinders that are sold under the same brand. You could open a box and get a "pacme", a "star gry", or something with no markings on it. It's like Cracker Jacks; a surprise in every box. THIS is the central point in my argument that there is a bit of a scam going on here. Not necessarily intentional, but there's so much BS with this Asian stuff that we never get to see the man behind the curtain. The many layers that exist in the marketing of these cylinders from the casting houses making them til they get to your work bench makes that impossible. My suppliers were just as baffled as I was. My questions received answers like "What's a pacme?" "What's a Star Gry?" "We get these from our vendor in Australia" "They tell us they have people on the ground in the factories checking quality". Nobody's got a clue what's going on.

Another example: Ordered 2 of the 372 big bore kits with that dark finish on them that are likely all coming from the same place. Same company, same part number, same pretty box. One came with the split ring style piston rings. Lasted about 2 minutes and destroyed itself. Total waste. Other kit had standard rings and runs fine. Consistency just isn't there.

Also, before someone throws this out there, I do not have an OEM parts agenda. When Walt and I started messing with this stuff my objective was to find a reliable source of this stuff to use on less expensive saws such as 55's or what not that are almost never rebuilt. I'm not saying that none of them work, as many do. Just that the consistency doesn't exist for a real shop environment, but is fine for the DIY guy who owns multiple saws.

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Come across  this info from Spike today.  Good read.