makita mini

[kevin bingham]

love this little thing.

 

[Jonny]

I was looking at it at Home Depot or Lowe’s a while ago. Is the stock bar pretty bad?

 

[Tree09]

Is that the double battery one?

 

[kevin bingham]

it does much better with the stihl bar. cept the oiler doesnt quite line up. so i have to de gunk it regularly. its the single. the double is a great saw too. but much heavier

 

[cory]

I see you were working in the rain, no issues re using an electric saw in the wet environment ?

 

[kevin bingham]

no, the super cold gels up the bar oil and it can be hard on it

 

[Bart]

Once upon a time I came across a bottle of Light Stihl bar oil, maybe someone gave it to me, whereas the shops all carry Medium which starts thick till a gas saw heats up the oil compartment. Maybe you can Stihl get the Light oil.

 

[pigwot]

I’ve never used it before; does canola oil thicken up much in the cold? Left a jug in the truck overnight so I’ll find out soon...

 

[stig]

Depends on the additives.

 

[lxskllr]

Pure canola will start to cloud at 25°F. Haven't cut colder than that yet.

 

[kevin bingham]

i cut it with a bit of acetone to get it to flow.

 

[SeanKroll]

Curious how it compares in weight to a 193t or 2511t.

I like the little electric rear-handle I have.

Battery top-handles have been too heavy up to this point in time.

 

[ruel]

We've been using straight canola for a while, still liquid at 25°. Hasn't been colder this winter, but ive been really surprised. Acts like winter weight so far

 

[Climbhigh]

Curious how it compares in weight to a 193t or 2511t.


I am ready to pull the trigger on the two battery top handle Makita. Looks like it weighs 10.2 lb with both batteries, I hope my shoulder doesn't hate me.

 

[frans]

We've been using straight canola for a while, still liquid at 25°. Hasn't been colder this winter, but ive been really surprised. Acts like winter weight so far

Doesn’t the canola burn and clog up your sprockets bar and clutch??

 

[treesmith]

Does it smell like french fries or hush puppies?

My old foreman when I worked with Aspundh had some odd ideas about "saving" the company money. He once changed the oil in our chip truck out on the ROW, catching (most) of the old oil in empty chain oil jugs....whic he then out in the saw box to be "recycled" as chain oil. It was awful. Stunk....stained...pants/boots/shirts....because of its used state, its viscosity was near 0 and it not only would not adhere to the bar/chain at all, it slung off with a vengeance.

 

[lxskllr]

Smells vaguely like food if you spill some on the muffler. I haven't had any real problems running canola oil. I hear it can polymerize if you let it sit too long in the saw. I try to get normal bar oil in all my saws by the time hot weather comes, and they're mostly stored away.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

It smells really funny only when I suck and fill the gas tank with it !
Not often luckily, but I'm food smelling for two or three tanks with just the remains after ditching the offending canola/gas mix.

It polymerizes with heat and/or metal contact. A saw sitting on a bench for a good while get its nose's sprocket, the chain, the oil pump all stuck. Same with the spare chains. A saw running often doesn't have this issue.
The main issue is the dust glued with polymerized oil clogging the engine's fins and exhaust (outside) in the ms150 and ms200T. On these two saws, half the drops spilled outside the tank goes under the starter cover, then around the crankcase and cylinder. Here, it catches the wood dust pushed in by the flywheel and solidifies. That gives a very stiff layer and it's difficult to scrap off this card-board-like cake, even with a screwdriver..

It's way worse with the sunflower oil though, as it polymerizes more easily, just with air at room temp. Some other oils are better for that, like the grappe oil, but they are much more expensive.

 

[Burnham]

You make the whole concept of veggie oils just SO appealing .

 

[Frankie]

 

[Mick!]

Does it smell like french fries or hush puppies?

My old foreman when I worked with Aspundh had some odd ideas about "saving" the company money. He once changed the oil in our chip truck out on the ROW, catching (most) of the old oil in empty chain oil jugs....whic he then out in the saw box to be "recycled" as chain oil. It was awful. Stunk....stained...pants/boots/shirts....because of its used state, its viscosity was near 0 and it not only would not adhere to the bar/chain at all, it slung off with a vengeance.

It’s also carcinogenic, and as you would be breathing in minute droplets a very bad idea.

 

[pigwot]

I never reported back. It was low to mid 30s in Michigan and I ran through that gallon of Meijers brand canola in the eight days of work. It did smell like I was heating a fry pan of oil at times, but no downside. Poured easily and I’ve run enough oil through the saw since that it shouldn’t have any residual effects.

 

[kevin bingham]

ive never had a problem with canola on small saws. i stopped using it on big bars after breaking a few chains

 

[SeanKroll]

How big of bars?

We used canola on 660s with 36" bars for years, routinely. 880 got rare use, always canola.

I have a jug of petroleum oil for milling with a 42", but run 36" on a 661 normally.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

You make the whole concept of veggie oils just SO appealing .

Indeed, I'm not so happy with the downsides. I'll add one which questions the actual lubricant capacity of the stock canola oil (food grade for myself). It's cheeper but less effective than the mineral oils. Well, that's a serious one for the intended purpose.

But the very big valuable upside for me is that I'm much less woried to breath the tiny veggy dropplets sent all around when cutting up in the tree.
I 'm happy to have it when I'm near/over the water too.
I use the canola oil from the ms150T up to the ms661, but the 3120xp sees rarely the light and so I keep it full mineral.