Showing reviews 1 - 6 of 6
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Maybe...will cost a few teeth
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Posted by: FM M from ON on 12/17/2010
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Good idea, hasty invention. In the video, the wood is at least 4'' in diameter; for smaller wood, this unit takes a lot of experimenting to get it right. The reviews cover the pluses and some of the negatives, but don't mention the clamp will/can slip up and stop your chain at the expense of a tooth or two. AND watch the tension on the screws; a vibrating bar&chain shakes them loose. Buddy has limited efficacy, as far as I'm concerned. But with lots of practice, you can use it proficiently up to a point.
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291 people found this review helpful.
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Great tool with a bit of tinkering!
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Posted by: Bill S from Nevada on 8/23/2009
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I got this tool as I wind up with a lot of small branches when I'm cutting Pinyon for firewood. There are a couple of things I would suggest with this tool.
First, why can't Baileys' put a bolt arrangement on that's long enough to really screw down and hold onto the serrated uprights that the limbs are trapped against? The darn uprights fell off repeatedly the first time using it. I went to the hardware store and solved the problem for about $5, with bigger knobs for using with gloves and a bit longer shaft for the bolt. This is the first thing you will want to do.
I also had problems with the bolts holding on the bottom of the tool with the 'skis' coming loose and had to loctite them. I also figured out that once the tool is in place and where it works well, take an indelible ink marker and mark an outline on the bar. It sure makes getting it back in place the next time you use it easier.
Also, they say you can't run the saw into the ground but that's not true either. The tip can hit the ground so you need to use a 'scooping' motion and get used to having the tip of the saw pointing up when you are cutting. What I do at the house with a pile of small stuff is use a big, flat and short pine round as a platform to cut on. I put the small limb on the round and cut it on the round. If the saw hits something, it's wood and the chain doesn't get damaged.
A handy little tool that is very useful with a bit of tinkering!
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292 people found this review helpful.
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Wish I'd bought one of these sooner!
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Posted by: Scott W from NY on 8/20/2009
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I like to utilize as much of the tree as I can, so I cut quite a bit of limbwood and downed branches, down to an inch or so in diameter. No matter how careful I am to prop the wood up off the ground to avoid grounding the chain, it always happens, and I got tired of trying to hold the wood with one foot and balancing on the other while cutting, ect. So, I bought the Chainsaw Buddy and gave it a try. I must say that it works great, especially on 1 to 3" diameter wood. Cutting wood larger than 3" with the stops in the forward position is a little more difficult because it is using all of the last few inches of bar tip. I have not yet tried moving the stops to the rearward position for wood over 3", but from what I've seen so far I believe it will work fine. I'm very pleased with this tool so far. My only suggestion for improvement would be to develop a quick adjust for the stops, maybe by allowing them to slide on the 'fingers' and securing with a spring loaded pin in place of the two holes and thumb screw? (Yes, would add complexity and a little weight, but might be worth it) Anyway, I'm sure I'll be using this tool a lot, it is a time and chain saver!
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301 people found this review helpful.
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Excellent Idea For Smaller Wood!
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Posted by: Ronnie M from Arkansas on 8/2/2009
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If you're like me and hate to cull out good wood which just happens to be smaller diameter, this is the device that you've been waiting on! You can easily use straighter wood which goes well below 1" in diameter if you just do a little bit of prep work in advance and let the Chainsawbuddy do the work for 'ya.
I would suggest that you frequently check the tension of the fasteners that hold the Chainsawbuddy onto the bar, as well as the tension of the 2 screws that hold the vertical wood supports onto the device, as saw vibration will cause them to loosen up over time and you might find yourself going on an Easter egg hunt with a strong magnet trying to locate any fasteners and lockwashers which might drop off in use. Putting some threadlocker like Loctite 242 may be overkill since you will occasionally need to readjust the fasteners, so just recheck the fasteners frequently to avoid losing them and then using a large magnet to attempt to locate them again.....it only takes a few seconds to double check the tension, including the tension of the lockscrews that hold the vertical wood stops in position (they will loosen faster than the 3 bar locking bolts).
Do your prep work in advance before putting the Chainsawbuddy on the saw.....utilizing lopping shears and hand pruning shears on small stuff may help speed up the process to get the small limbs into straight pieces....and for hand pruning shears for green wood, the Stihl PP80 shears are the best option I've found (expensive, but they work great and feel good while using 'em). Once you've gotten a significant number of pieces of smaller diameter wood piled off to the side, that's when putting the Chainsawbuddy on the bar shines, and it greatly reduces the hassle of cutting up the smaller wood.
One thing I would mention is that even with the Chainsawbuddy properly installed, you still need to be careful not to run the bar tip into the dirt....holding the rear of the saw too high in relation to the bar tip can still bring the bar tip close to the ground, so just beware of trying to cut on the ground with the rear of the saw elevated too high (not a problem if the saw is kept down closer to horizontal, as the Chainsawbuddy will keep the bar off of the ground unless you try to establish too steep of an angle with the saw).
Why waste the smaller wood when you can use it instead??? Get yourself a Chainsawbuddy, get familiar with it, and you'll find that it will allow you to get a lot more usable wood from your cutting (with less hassle). Just do the prep work in advance on the small stuff, wait until you have enough small stuff to make it worth the time to mount the Chainsawbuddy onto the saw bar (not a hassle to mount at all, as only 3 Allen head bolts hold it onto the bar....just be sure to position it on correctly), frequently check the tension of the bar mounting bolts and the 2 vertical stop mounting screws (the vertical stop screws do use star lockwashers, but even still vibration will eventually loosen them), and you'll be surprised at how much easier it is to take care of your smaller wood.
I'll give the Chainsawbuddy 5 stars.....just don't forget to frequently check the hardware fastener tension, don't hold the rear of the saw too high when cutting on the ground (to avoid any potential grounding of the chain), and you're good to go.
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306 people found this review helpful.
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My bestest Buddy!
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Posted by: Matt H from MI on 10/20/2008
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This was VERY handy for post-tornado clean-up. The downed trees, wedged between other trees, they folded up like plastic Christmas trees, thick bunches of thin branches (1/4" to 3" or so) all pressed together as well as to the ground and this thing 'picked' them up and zipped through them like a hot knife through butter. Normally I have an 18" bar, but changed to my 14" bar and I could not really tell the difference in the weight. Made the clean-up so much easier. Cut a 'path' to the tree with it, so there was no stumbling over all the branches so I could work the truck itself. Once we get the rest of the area clear enough to do the 'real' work, I imagine this will work just as well on the bigger stuff laying on the ground (and there is a LOT of it). Only draw-back was the screws for the log-stops kept loosening up, maybe a better lock-washer will cure that (which I am snagging from work today).
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350 people found this review helpful.
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Works well
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Posted by: John K from MD on 1/19/2008
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Overall, I like this attachment. You have to wait till you have a bunch of small stuff to make it worthwhile, though. The only thing I would like is if they sold replacement arms from the manufacturer, as they do break eventually. But, I'm buying another one!
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529 people found this review helpful.
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Showing reviews 1 - 6 of 6
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