OK. The weather was just awesome yesterday. High in the 70's and low last night in the low 50's. Today the high is supposed to be high 60's and the low tonight is supposed to be 39. Kathy and I both LOVE these temperatures. Tonight we might actually close the living room windows but the bedroom windows will remain open.
The other good news is that Kathy is progressing well after her hernia surgery.
Yesterday morning I split some wood I had in the back of my pickup and then move the truck over to where I found the good wood. I hand split a few pieces and had to cut up some that were to big to fit in the splitter. The large long pieces are only 25-26" long but the splitter will only take 23.5" pieces. We end up with a bunch of very short pieces.
I had "touched up" the chain that was on the saw but my "touching up" doesn't last long. The yellow wood that I'm cutting/splitting, I have no idea what it is, is hard and HEAVY. I put a different chain on and found out that it was duller than the one I took off. I put it in the pile of dull chains and tried another one. It cut OK, but not like a new one. I had filled the tank about 3/4 full when I started in the morning and refilled it to about this level during the last chain change. After about 3-4 minutes of heavy cutting with the last chain the engine seized. No warning, it just went from full throttle to dead stop instantly. It was a sad morning, I REALLY liked this saw. I knocked off for the day in mourning <sad grin>.
I did some searching on the Net this morning. The only new "short blocks" for Stihl saws appeared to cost 50-75% of a new saw. I located local dealers on Stihl's web site and went in this morning and bought a MS290 with an 18" bar. It is larger than the MS250, smaller engine and only a 16" bar, that died. I bought it at Pop's Outdoor Equipment. It will not be that last thing that I buy from them. I liked the guys.
I discussed what had happened with my 250 and the guy said that sadly he is hearing more and more such stories. He blames in on the quality of today's gas and government interference that continually forces engine manufacturers to lean out their engines to meet EPA requirements. I told him that I had noticed that the saw smoked more than normal when I first used it yesterday morning and that it quit smoking after I refilled it, for the same gas can. When it was smoking I wasn't concerned, I just figured that I had mixed the gas a little "rich". He told me that he thought that the gas and oil had partially separated in the gas can and the first fill up got me an oil rich mix while the second one got me mostly gas. He also confirmed that it would cost a lot to fix my saw.
This afternoon I will try out the new one.
Hope all of you have a better day than I had yesterday. May God bless you and yours.
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