[Just Jeff]

I'm now 70, I was born and lived entire life within a 3 mile radius, until 2021 when my wife and I decided we no longer fit there. The "well off suburbia" I mentioned started off as a mostly rural area when I was a kid. Football and baseball fields were anywhere in the "neighborhood" as long as someone had a push mower that was running and could knock down the field grass for a game. Lots were measured in acres not square feet in those days. Every kid within a mile came and your mitt was always on the handlebars. Nobody bothered it either. Most days were spent outdoors in the woods or riding everywhere. We played and climbed in almost every new house built within a mile! And the builder's "burn piles" provide ample pieces for all of us to build forts and treehouses.

Over the decades subdivided into 1/2 ever 1/4 acre "lots" the rolling hills and woods attracted the once high paid auto company crowd to build ranch homes. As an adult, we built our first 1,008 house too on a tiny little lot. Raised 4 kids there then moved to a 1 acre ranch of about 1,400 sf where we lived for 34 years until 2021. In that time my great old neighborhood of mature forested, rolling hills, with 1950s ranches and 2 story homes, began to attract remodelers. Soon that became buy and tear down "investors". First thing they do is demolish great homes in perfect shape, then down come all trees...literally. Then up go white brick mansions that are $1 - $3 million places on acre lots. It is very disheartening to see this transition over the many years. Heck we used to have summer hay rides around our neighborhood for the kids, tractors and all. I drove my X500 down to the neighbor's to help him with some snow banks left by the county plow. Got ran off the road by a neighbor on the cell phone who then gave me the "one" salute. Suddenly you and your home, while in perfect repair, is the "odd one out". Few of the old neighbors left, and the new ones are never home, and when you do see them, they are down right rude even though they live across the street. The guy who bought the neighbor's house in 2020 stopped in his $70k SUV to say, "hey I'm John your new neighbor, when can we chat about your trees?" What?. He wanted me to cut my back yard trees down as he was planning on a pool in his back yard and the leaves could pose a problem for him. Stunned, I was speechless. NO KIDDING, NO EMBELLISHMENT. Don't get started on their kids, their sports cars and parties. Parking? My front ditch became barren ground from the cars parked there. Gave up on reseeding 2 years before we left.

Decided this is not the way we were brought up or wanted to live, this was not what it once was and that was NOT good. Off we went looking for a year and a half. Back to the country we used to know at the old place. Hopefully, now being almost surrounded by a few thousand acres of State land will keep encroaching "civilization" at bay. In this context, I use the term "civilization" sarcastically. Rude, and obnoxious is a more accurate description.

See what I mean by "another story"? I'm quite sure that we are not the only ones "forced out" of what used to be a great area. Out of politeness, we call it "well off suburbia". I'm sure there are some great folks there, but they are truly a tiny minority.

Your story sounds similar to ours. Except we lived in a middle-class neighborhood to begin with in Northern IL. And as the years went on, it declined into a lower middle-class neighborhood, and with it came crime and a different demographic than we had ever had there before. The year before we moved, we had a car full of criminals who had just robbed a convenience store about a mile and a half away, run from the police in a high-speed chase, and end up in our front yard, because we were the last house on a dead-end street, and they didn't know where they were fleeing to. They had actually shot the store clerk before taking off. They pulled into our front yard, and there was nowhere for them to drive, so they bailed out of the car and took off on foot. Our front yard was overrun by city and county police as well as SWAT.

We were paying a little over 8K a year in property taxes for just shy of 1 acre with an 1,800 sq.ft. very average home. When we "escaped" after retiring (the wife is retired, and I'm "mostly" retired) we bought our 40 acres, with about 2/3 of it wooded, and with a 3,000 sq.ft. log home on it, and now pay just shy of 4K in property taxes. They were 2K last year when we moved in, but we've since been reappraised. So, we're still paying less than half of what we were in IL and have a lot more to show for it.

Our quality of life has drastically improved as well. The wife and I couldn't be happier! There are far fewer people here, and the ones that are here are just completely different (in a much better way) than we're used to. We can take our side by side anywhere we want to up here. We can even ride into town to the store in it if we want to. We can snowmobile from our front door. I can shoot off of my back deck. The list goes on and on. We don't hear those idiot kids driving around with their car stereos booming so loud that you can hear the body panels shaking from the bass. Just cutting trees on my own property is therapeutic and good exercise for me. I love it. We often refer to it as "Mayberry"!

I think the whole "urban sprawl" thing is ruining our country. Not necessarily the urban sprawl itself, but the things that go along with it. I'm not going to judge how others live their lives, because how we live our lives, some people would consider "primitive" or "absurd", but it works for us, and we love it. But living in one of those 1M+ homes on a less than one acre lot with no vegetation around me wouldn't be considered "moving up" to us at all. Quite the opposite. We believe that our lives are more conducive to family values. But whatever, it works for us.

 

[mopar65pa]

For what it's worth, I grew up in a farm house made of logs by my ancestors in 1740-ish. Of course it was remodeled several times. My Dad recalls hand digging a new well sometime in the 1940's and digging a basement about the same time. This is the earliest picture of the house that I have ever seen:

View attachment 2580207

And this is a picture of what it looked like around 1962:

View attachment 2580208

And, just in case anyone is interested in returning to firewood work? This is the log I bucked into 25 x 18" long, 24" diameter rounds today. Not a single ax swing was recorded.

View attachment 2580210

Oh my that is an awesome looking place!
I don't know how you ax split some of that stuff. It makes my back hurt just looking at it.

@Just Jeff that post is a hate love post. Yep the urban sprawl is encroaching on us too. Thus the reason we want to move. Farm land around here is slowly getting turned into Urbania with public septic and water, taxes out the ying yang and total control of what you can do on your own land. It's really stinky!

 

[Jere39]

Jere, how do you like the chain tensioner on your Dolmar? The tensioner on my PS7900 seems sloppy and weak compared to the tensioner on my MS362. I wonder if it’s just worn out, or a lesser design, or some of both. I like to run my chains fairly tight, and I struggle to get it tight enough. If you are happy with yours, that would encourage me to see if I can find a replacement.


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I own a PS-421, PS-510, and the PS-6100 in the picture. I have no complaints about the tensioner, though I once broke the pawl off one of them (I am pretty sure that is the 421), but that was an easy replacement.

When I put a new chain, or even a well rested chain on and cut first time, the chain heats up and stretches, so I typically have to adjust to tighten it up after that first tank.

 

[CCMoe]

I own a PS-421, PS-510, and the PS-6100 in the picture. I have no complaints about the tensioner, though I once broke the pawl off one of them (I am pretty sure that is the 421), but that was an easy replacement.

View attachment 2580244

When I put a new chain, or even a well rested chain on and cut first time, the chain heats up and stretches, so I typically have to adjust to tighten it up after that first tank.

Jere,

Does the Dolmar saws use springs for antivibe rather than rubber bushings?

CCMoe

 

[CCMoe]

Your story sounds similar to ours. Except we lived in a middle-class neighborhood to begin with in Northern IL. And as the years went on, it declined into a lower middle-class neighborhood, and with it came crime and a different demographic than we had ever had there before. The year before we moved, we had a car full of criminals who had just robbed a convenience store about a mile and a half away, run from the police in a high-speed chase, and end up in our front yard, because we were the last house on a dead-end street, and they didn't know where they were fleeing to. They had actually shot the store clerk before taking off. They pulled into our front yard, and there was nowhere for them to drive, so they bailed out of the car and took off on foot. Our front yard was overrun by city and county police as well as SWAT.

We were paying a little over 8K a year in property taxes for just shy of 1 acre with an 1,800 sq.ft. very average home. When we "escaped" after retiring (the wife is retired, and I'm "mostly" retired) we bought our 40 acres, with about 2/3 of it wooded, and with a 3,000 sq.ft. log home on it, and now pay just shy of 4K in property taxes. They were 2K last year when we moved in, but we've since been reappraised. So, we're still paying less than half of what we were in IL and have a lot more to show for it.

Our quality of life has drastically improved as well. The wife and I couldn't be happier! There are far fewer people here, and the ones that are here are just completely different (in a much better way) than we're used to. We can take our side by side anywhere we want to up here. We can even ride into town to the store in it if we want to. We can snowmobile from our front door. I can shoot off of my back deck. The list goes on and on. We don't hear those idiot kids driving around with their car stereos booming so loud that you can hear the body panels shaking from the bass. Just cutting trees on my own property is therapeutic and good exercise for me. I love it. We often refer to it as "Mayberry"!

I think the whole "urban sprawl" thing is ruining our country. Not necessarily the urban sprawl itself, but the things that go along with it. I'm not going to judge how others live their lives, because how we live our lives, some people would consider "primitive" or "absurd", but it works for us, and we love it. But living in one of those 1M+ homes on a less than one acre lot with no vegetation around me wouldn't be considered "moving up" to us at all. Quite the opposite. We believe that our lives are more conducive to family values. But whatever, it works for us.

JJ,

Taxes in Illinois are brutal, along with diminishing neighborhoods.

CCMoe

 

[Jere39]

Jere,

Does the Dolmar saws use springs for antivibe rather than rubber bushings?

CCMoe

Looks like they all use springs

510 Top:

6100 Top:

6100 Bottom:

421 Bottom:

Thanks for the good question, and one I could easily answer

 

[CCMoe]

Interesting concept, premium grade saws.

CCMoe

 

[CCMoe]

Jere,

Mid eighties, I bought a Stihl 038 Magnum, dealer said it was replacing the Stihl 041 Farm Boss that was a desired saw then. The 038 Magnum was a 72cc saw, $600,00 back then that was pretty good chunk of change. I cut a lot of firewood with it, heated my house for years with it. One day I go to get it, not there. My son took it along with a Homelite 330, I haven't seen it since.

I did buy a 038 Super which is 62cc, needs serviced but otherwise in good shape. One of my carpenters bought the Stihl MS 500i, he really likes it.

What do you think of Makita taking over Dolmar?

CCMoe

 

[Jere39]

Jere,

Mid eighties, I bought a Stihl 038 Magnum, dealer said it was replacing the Stihl 041 Farm Boss that was a desired saw then. The 038 Magnum was a 72cc saw, $600,00 back then that was pretty good chunk of change. I cut a lot of firewood with it, heated my house for years with it. One day I go to get it, not there. My son took it along with a Homelite 330, I haven't seen it since.

I did buy a 038 Super which is 62cc, needs serviced but otherwise in good shape. One of my carpenters bought the Stihl MS 500i, he really likes it.

What do you think of Makita taking over Dolmar?

CCMoe

I've had no experience with Makita saws, nor any of my Dolmar saws since Makita took over. The Sole proprietor of the saw shop I use when I need to, believes Makita has and will have a better parts distribution system than Dolmar had, although he dropped the line at that time and now carries Husqvarna. But, I've got quite a few years and operating hours on all three of my Dolmar saws and so far I've replaced:

• 1 air filter (I decided it was just too dirty),
• one tensioner pawl (broken, not sure how),
• one bar nut (lost in the field, later found), and
• one gas cap (lost some how).

Those parts were easy to find. I've bought one each of a 16", 18", and 20" bar as spares; also easy.

For what it's worth, I like Dolmar Red better than Makita Teal. At my age, I am not likely ever going to buy another saw, so I am not likely in any brand's target market.

 

[turboaudi80]

I pulled the clutch cover and looked at the tensioner in more detail. It is a different design than the one Gere showed. It has a silly little plastic bushing in the clutch cover that the adjustment screw/gear rides in. It has another bushing integral with the little plastic bracket that holds that gear in the cover. These two bushings hold that adjustment screw, which is also the gear that drives the screw that moves the tensioner. It’s a dumb design on two fronts. Those plastic bushings are both sloppy, which makes the bar adjustment sloppy. This is my main issue. It also means the adjuster pin that pushes on the bar is in the cover and not mounted on the saw like most other designs. This makes it a PITA to install the cover since you have to line up both bar studs as well as the adjustment pin. The problem is that you can’t see how that pin aligns with the hole in the bar when you are installing the cover.

I ordered a new adjuster kit today and will post pics when the new parts arrive.


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[Jere39]

Wrist still has me on injured reserve in the woods, but while Scout and I were scouting the woods for our next dead Red. I had the distinct sense we were being watched.

But, with a smile and general approval.

 

[mikeinri]

I think you might be spending a little too much time out in the woods, @Jere39...

WILSON!!!

Mike

 

[CCMoe]

Jere,

You may have more purchasing power than you think,

GAS CHAIN SAWS | MAKITA (makitatools.com)

CCMoe

 

[CCMoe]

Jere,

This would be comparable to the Stihl 038 Magnum I had........

Amazon.com : Makita EA7300PRZ 73 cc Chain Saw, Power Head Only : Patio, Lawn & Garden

I'm surprised that it comes in at that price, 37 years later and only a couple hundred more, I did get a bar, oil and a chain or two.

CCMoe

 

[Jere39]

Jere,

You may have more purchasing power than you think,

GAS CHAIN SAWS | MAKITA (makitatools.com)

CCMoe

Jere,

This would be comparable to the Stihl 038 Magnum I had........

Amazon.com : Makita EA7300PRZ 73 cc Chain Saw, Power Head Only : Patio, Lawn & Garden

I'm surprised that it comes in at that price, 37 years later and only a couple hundred more, I did get a bar, oil and a chain or two.

CCMoe

I'm out of the market not due to finances, though my finances are stretched pretty thin just now after having bought a lake house. Rather, I am approaching the end of my sawing career, and have plenty of saws to last my foreseeable sawing life.

 

[CCMoe]

I'm out of the market not due to finances, though my finances are stretched pretty thin just now after having bought a lake house. Rather, I am approaching the end of my sawing career, and have plenty of saws to last my foreseeable sawing life.

Jere,

I was referring to the color Makita decided to go with, not that you needed another saw.

The Makita does look appealing though, now if I just had a use for it!

CCMoe

 

[turboaudi80]

That 7300 on Amazon is basically the same saw as my 7900, just with a smaller bore. They sell an aftermarket piston and jug that take it up to 85cc.


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[MARK (LI)]

Jere,

This would be comparable to the Stihl 038 Magnum I had........

Amazon.com : Makita EA7300PRZ 73 cc Chain Saw, Power Head Only : Patio, Lawn & Garden

I'm surprised that it comes in at that price, 37 years later and only a couple hundred more, I did get a bar, oil and a chain or two.

CCMoe

What size bar would you put on that ...24"?

 

[Just Jeff]

That 7300 on Amazon is basically the same saw as my 7900, just with a smaller bore. They sell an aftermarket piston and jug that take it up to 85cc.


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85cc????? I can't even imagine carrying that saw around. My Stihl 462 is 72cc, and they advertise it as their 2nd best power to weight ratio offering, and it's still heavy to me.

Also, you posted about the Stihl 72cc saw costing around 600.00 "back in the day". My 72cc 462 cost me right at a grand two years ago. So I thought, the prices haven't gone up terribly in the last 30 years then. At least that's my take on it.

 

[turboaudi80]

The cool thing is that it doesn’t really weigh any more. All the parts other than the piston and the cylinder are the same.


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