Yet another new toy: mini chainsaw

My firewood sawing has become a heck of a lot quicker since I got a mitre saw.  But there is a limit to what it can do. Firstly; it is mounted, and there is only a fixed thickness of wood you can fit underneath. Wood with sticky-outy bits is also a problem. And you can't so infinitely long bits of food, as the platform you put it on is only so wide. And of course you could hold it in position, but you also need hands to work the saw. With relatively short bits of wood that is ok, but if they become long, and thereby heavy and unwieldy, they might make you stray into the slightly risky territories.

Neil has a small battery-powered chainsaw for this purpose. He once bought one, and it had some functionality where it lubricates itself. That functionality didn't work. When he told the manufacturer, they sent him a new one. He still has the old one! And other than that you have to lubricate it by hand, there is nothing wrong with it. So he gave it to me.

The new toy

The garage when I started

I've now tried it! It is very small, but it can do miracles. I got rid of a lot of the firewood from the neighbour's tree, and my own willow. That is unseasoned wood, and it can be a pain to saw by hand. Your saw sticks in it. The chainsaw has enough power to rip itself free.

The bits that were still doable by hand I still did by hand, but it was great to have the chainsaw for the rest. It is small but it made easy work of the bigger trunks. 

There also are the two stringers (the big diagonal bits) of my old outside stairs. Too big for the mitre saw. I finished dealing with one, and I'm not far off dealing with the other. But by then, which took two days, I felt the chainsaw had lost its power. I figured I might have used it so much I had already blunted the chain. I decided to have a break and give it a new chain the test my hypothesis. 

The garage when I took a break (remainder of stringer still on the saw horse)

Changing the chain worked, and I finished the job a day later. It feels really good to have dealt with so much of the firewood that had piled up over the months. Everything that is left now can also be done by the mitre saw. Or by hand. The natural wood will have to rest for a year or two, but these two stair stringers will, in addition to what I still had lying around from last winter, probably get me through the coming one!