Chainsaw musical chairs

[MowerMike]

I have three electric chainsaws:

1) Greenworks 10" 20V Li-Ion battery powered
2) Greenworks 12" 40V Li-Ion battery powered with sprocket tip bar
3) Homelite 14" 9A corded electric with sprocket tip and safety tip bar

I really like the 14" bar with the sprocket tip and safety tip bar, but don't like dealing with the cord. I really like the Li-Ion battery powered chainsaws, but would rather have the larger bars with safety tip on the 40V chainsaw and sprocket tip on the 20V chainsaw. So I decided to see if the bars were interchangeable and it turns out that they all are. So I rotated them out as follows:

1) Installed Homelite 14" bar on Greenworks 40V chainsaw
2) Installed 40V Greenworks 12" bar on Greenworks 20V chainsaw
3) Installed 20V Greenworks 10" bar on Homelite chainsaw

I also changed out the stock skip tooth chains on the 12" and 14" bars with new Oregon standard chains that effectively increase the chain cutting speeds by 50%.

I haven't checked out the Homelite, but the two Greenworks Li-Ion chainsaws work perfectly. Interestingly the 20V Greenworks chainsaw with the 12" bar and smaller capacity battery weighs more than the 40V Greenworks with the 14" bar and larger capacity battery. Both chainsaws will run under load for over 30 minutes on a fully charged battery, and I have two 40V batteries, so I can do up to one hour's work with the 40V Greenworks.

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

cool hack!

Which has the best oiler?

I have an old (by today's standards I guess) 18V NiCd B&D that I have used/abused a little but, the oiling is messy and tricky.

what's the details on the Oregon chain? Where'd you get it? I know little about saw chains, how do you order one? by bar length?

 

[MowerMike]

Which has the best oiler?

I have an old (by today's standards I guess) 18V NiCd B&D that I have used/abused a little but, the oiling is messy and tricky.

what's the details on the Oregon chain? Where'd you get it? I know little about saw chains, how do you order one? by bar length?

All three of them deliverer sufficient oil to the chains, but at varying rates. The Homelite over oils to the point that the reservoir has to be refilled every couple of minutes and it makes a bloody mess. The 20V Greenworks is a lot better, but still oils excessively and the 40V Greenworks has a Goldilocks oiler that oils not too much and not too little but just the right amount.

As to chain selection, the easiest way to do it is to use the Oregon Selector Guide:

OREGON® Hand Held Chain Saw Replacement Parts .

You simply enter the manufacturer and model chainsaw, and it will display all options for bar length, chain pitch and chain gauge for that model. You then get to choose between low kickback type chain and professional type chain. Once you do this the selector will show you all options by chain part number that will work with your bar.

Note that bar length does not uniquely determine the number of links in a chain. For example, the Homelite chainsaw with the 14" bar uses a 52 link chain, but the WORX chainsaw with the 14" bar uses a 53 link chain. The reason for the difference is that the Homelite chainsaw uses a 6 tooth drive sprocket, but the WORX uses a 7 tooth drive sprocket. A chain with an odd number of links will have an extra non-cutting link in it.

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

thanx MM, very helpful.

 

[MowerMike]

Last time I posted, I had removed the 14" bar from the Homelite chainsaw and installed it on the 40V Greenworks power head. But that left me with a perfectly good Homelite power head w/o a bar. Meanwhile, I have an old 16" Remington corded saw that has been sitting unused for years, because the oiler had stopped working and I couldn't find parts to fix it. I also had a perfectly good brand new spare 16" Oregon chain in my parts bin that I never installed. I thought I would use it on my new 16" Greenworks cordless chainsaw, until I discovered that it uses a 0.043" gauge bar and chain, and the 16" spare chain is 0.050" gauge. So I got the bright idea of using the 16" bar from the Remington and the spare 16" Oregon chain on the Homelite. The only problem is that even with the chain adjuster turned all the way to its shortest position, there was way too much tension on the chain to the point that the bar couldn't even be installed. I could have gone to Home Depot and spent $20 on a longer 57 link chain, but it seemed stupid to do that on a chainsaw that only cost $50 in the first place. So, I figured I had nothing to lose by grinding down the adjuster guide plate and the guide slot in the bar to get sufficient slack to mount the bar and adjust the chain tension. The guide plate is thin metal and was easy to lengthen with a round file, but the bar was much harder and required using my Dremel tool and a grinding stone. Anyway, it worked like a charm and the chainsaw works great. Given that the Homelite motor is only 9 amps, I doubt I'll be using all 16" of the chain, but the nice part is that I only need a 16 AWG 100 foot cord, whereas the Remington 12 Amp motor required a much heavier 14 AWG cord. Also, the chain adjustment on the Homelite is completely tool free, whereas the Remington requires a box wrench to adjust.

 

[exotion]

Please just be careful I don't think tampering with the original design on a piece of equipment that could easily kill you is a good idea

 

[MowerMike]

Please just be careful I don't think tampering with the original design on a piece of equipment that could easily kill you is a good idea

Well, I definitely appreciate your concern, but I don't see how my "tampering" with this tool has in any way made it more unsafe than it already is. None of the removed material has made it less secure or strong, and the same basic design is used on Homelite's 16" electric saw.