Homelite Chain Saw Circa 1950,ish.

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Homelite Chain Saw Circa 1950,ish.


I know we have some chain saw experts here, so I will pick your brains. Before I invest time and brain cells.

At a local house clearance come auction house has one Homelite chain saw coming up for auction.

Are they:

Any good?

Worth spending money & time on to restore?

Are parts easily available?

Any quirks I need to know about?


Thanks for your help and advice.

 

[mike os]

Used to be OK... won't really be suitable for use as it won't have any safety features

 

[Spark plug]

With chainsaws I don't make any comprimises on safety as the aren't fussy abaut chopping your arm or head off. I wouldn't even entertain the thort of useing a hobby saw that is that old as has been said it won't have any safety features like chain brake and probably won't even have an automatic oiler.

When you can buy a quality new saw like a still ms181 for under £200 it just isn't worth buying used as by the time you fit a new bar and chain + the cost of the saw your really not Saveing much.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Ok.
Let me clear a few things up.

I have better and newer chain saws I use for the little tree work I do.
I agree safety first with chain saws.


But I was pondering to bid on it to restore and get working as a project. Not to be used.
But as a project for me and Mini Me to do.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Can't you find another item to serve as the project? Something that could be [safely] used afterwards?

 

[penfold]

Homelite Chain Saw Circa 1950,ish.


I know we have some chain saw experts here, so I will pick your brains. Before I invest time and brain cells.

At a local house clearance come auction house has one Homelite chain saw coming up for auction.

Are they:

Any good?

Worth spending money & time on to restore?

Are parts easily available?

Any quirks I need to know about?

Homelite were pretty good once upon a time, certainly one of the larger US chainsaw makers and they also built saws for other vendors like Sears.

Only if you want to collect old chainsaws; there are collectors but unless it's a very rare one in as-new condition not worth very much.

There's reasonable availability of things like points, condensers etc but for other bits you may have a wait before one appears on ebay.

As already noted, this is from an era when safety was not considered; no chainbrake, no vibration control, exhaust note tempered only by a tinplate deflector, etc. With care you can cut up already felled trees into cordwood in reasonable safety but actual felling isn't a good idea given the absence of safety features. At that age it probably won't have auto oiling either, so you need a twitchy thumb and the weight of older saws plus the unmitigated vibration and noise will be very tiring.

 

[Spark plug]

Well agreed as a project and bit of fun then fine and probably a decent little project.

I have always wanted a still 076 AV to restore.

 

[Hitch]

I had a 20" super xl. wish I'd never sold it. Always a pain to get started, but once it was off it was a beauty. Heavy to use, and lots and lots of guts.
Much better than the Chinese thing I have now. Might not have a chain brake, but at least the throttle never got stuck in on the homelite!

 

[Paul99]

From what I've read some homelite models were very good others very poor so it'll pay to do a bit of home work first. As you have some experience of chainsaws and intend to use it in a non commercial environment of course I recommend that you spend some time reading around non UK based forums like Arbiristsite, chainsawcollectors.se etc - they have a much more sensible balanced approach to using older saws - sadly UK ones tend only to tell you how an old saw will instantly kill you if you should dare to ever use it rather than offering anything useful.

 

[Omniata]

Whilst I admire the enthusiasm and the nostalgia, I wouldn't.

If it's a non-runner now, it'll probably stay that way, and as previously noted it isn't safe.

If you restore it, great, but there's then nothing to stop someone else in the future starting it and coming to a sorry end.
I wouldn't be able to live with myself if the worse did happen...

 

[penfold]

You can apply the same cotton-wool rationale to anything from a table saw to an aeroplane; if someone attempts to use them without knowing what they're doing then bad things can happen. Getting out of bed kills dozens of people every year.

 

[angellonewolf]

homelite now are sold in b&q but thats the new ones i have played with mowers and strimmers for the last 5 years most of them are not worth repairing unless you can fix it under an hour more then that not worth doing money wise

if the fuel lines are gone broken hard they let the air in the prime bulb is cracked new spark plug and cheak the gap on the coil most of this can be done in the hours time scale if it non of these not worth it

i did at one time have one with low compresion a mate in the tree felling job said take the bore off run around the inside with wet and dry(runing the paper round and round the bore not up and down to keep the bore round) untill the score marks are gone put in new rings in it and a drop of oil and fire it up he said he done quite a few like that to get him out of a jam when he needed one asap the cost of this was £15 for the new rings and wet and dry

unless its a rare one even working £30/40 gumtree i would say its old though and not got the saftey stuff if you sell it just so they know i bought and sold chainsaws when i need them and then sell them on when finshed with them if cheap and working you will sell it just not make more than a few beer tokens out of it

 

[Paul99]

I had a 20" super xl. wish I'd never sold it. Always a pain to get started, but once it was off it was a beauty. Heavy to use, and lots and lots of guts.
Much better than the Chinese thing I have now. Might not have a chain brake, but at least the throttle never got stuck in on the homelite!

A farmer friend said exactly the same thing about his Super XL - and reading around it seems there are very few people who will say a bad word about that particular model.

It's not actually that bad a thing that there are so many anti old saw people out there - it makes picking up some very nice and perfectly usable old kit relatively easy sometimes - as has been stated above don't be too quick to jump on something that requires too much work especially if its a run of the mill 50cc or less saw but for something more unusual there are bargains to be had.

Just to prove that you don't die quite every time you use an old saw - I managed this with the big Dolmar not so long ago and luckily only lost my right leg below the knee and a took a bit out of my left hand. Rumours that all the kittens in the local cat sanctuary died as a result of this saw being put to good use are pure lies

 

[wookie]

As already noted, this is from an era when safety was not considered; no chainbrake, no vibration control, exhaust note tempered only by a tinplate deflector, etc. With care you can cut up already felled trees into cordwood in reasonable safety but actual felling isn't a good idea given the absence of safety features. At that age it probably won't have auto oiling either, so you need a twitchy thumb and the weight of older saws plus the unmitigated vibration and noise will be very tiring.

I have an old Danarm chainsaw, it's an absolute beast of a thing, I've cut massive trees down with it and it's happy to do the job, the revs never bog down it just keeps on chewing at max revs until the tree surrenders.

Having said that, it's noisy, thirsty, has no brake, heavy, no vibration damping, a pig to start and you have to remember to keep pumping the oiler as you use it. I always reach for my modern chainsaw first, the old beast only gets fired up if I have no alternative.

 

[penfold]

I've got a Danarm or two lurking in the shed; they don't come out to play very often for those reasons, the Husky 365 does most of the work although even that is 20 years old now.

 

[zzr1200]

If you use a chainsaw correctly and safely, the chain brake should never be needed. I can understand the anti vibration side of the argument but if you are only using the saw for short periods there shouldn't be a problem.

I have a friend who has and still uses a Stilhi 090AV now and again, its a beautiful old saw to use, once you have managed to start it.

Now before everybody starts pulling my reply apart, how many of us have and use machinery that wouldn't meet today's strict H&S standards, I certainly do in my home workshop, I can't afford all the latest kit.

Also we may not follow the correct processes required under H&S regs to use and store stuff.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Has 18:00 today all I know they have a:
Homelite Chain Saw Circa 1950 Approx.
Condition unknown.
Reserve price £20, plus any auction commission incurred.

I know it will not comply to todays H&S, I was wondering if it is worth bidding on and even if parts for a machine that age are available.

I have not seen it, yet.

I wanted an project to teach Mini Me the joys (???????) of restoration.

 

[Migmac]

Buy it. A chainsaw engine was the first proper engine my son and I stripped down together. Great memory if nothing else.

 

[angellonewolf]

no to sure i would like to pay near £28 ish ? for a non working unit thats prob worth max 40 if working i do some jobs just for the love of it but that amount up frount would put me off

 

[angellonewolf]

keep your eye out for a non working lawn mower will be a few around at the start of the season and good fun to fix and have a good chance of it working afterwords and when you sell it give him the profit or use it to build a go kart more welding that