First Use of the New Chainsaw

 And when I was done, it was too dark to take pix, so I'll take some tomorrow before I start in on it again.

Our Tree Guy was over today to inspect the damage, and sure enough, the limbs that broke off were the ones he wanted to cut back in the Fall.

Since the tree has lost about 40% of it's canopy, he said it will likely go into shock, and he has to get out here to clean up where they broke from the trunk, and tar up the wound to seal it off from water ingress, which causes rot, and insects that will be attracted to the fresh break when the sap starts flowing strongly.

Our other two trees are OK, but the maple tree in the front needs specific deep-feeding (Like my Dad used to do to ours) and some pruning. The area had a lot of junipers growing there, and they acidify the soil, which isn't good for maple trees.

The crab apple tree needs some pruning back to encourage it grow a stronger canopy, but otherwise is doing OK.

And since he knows chainsaws, we spent some time going over the Makita, and he made a couple of cuts with it. Her says it seems "Pretty Damn Good", and should be more than enough for me.

So, after he left, I up-armored, and took it out to the tree. I had everything hanging over the fence cut back in about 20 minutes. Some of the branches were 2"~3" in diameter, and it went through them like butter. I took it in the back and started cutting branches off the limbs so I could get back to the gate and get the bigger limbs that had landed on the gate. Again, it just went though stuff up to 3" like it wasn't there.

Then I went after the bigger stuff to free the gate. 6"~8" limbs were cut through in maybe 15~20 seconds, and the saw went right through them with no moaning, groaning, slowing down, or laboring. It just went through anything I threw at it in short order with no complaining. I checked the batteries, and they were down to one bar, so since it was getting dark, we shut down for the night. In the two hours I was out there it probably had a good thirty minutes of run-time, as I was busy cutting, and SLW was busy dragging the branches out of the way for me. Yes, I made her wear PPE, too.

I let the batteries cool (they were warm, but not hot) while I cleaned the saw, and then plugged them in the charger. The saw chain tension looked and felt the same after I was finished cutting, and the oil level had dropped about half-way. The blade is noticeably damp with oil, but not dripping wet, so I think the oiler is OK as-is, with no adjustment required.

All-in-all I'm satisfied with this saw, but that could change with more use. It's a lot quieter than even a well-muffled two-stroke, doesn't blow oily exhaust out, and seems to have more than enough power to do the job.

Pix to follow tomorrow.