Monday, November 24, 2008

Husqvarna 460 Chainsaw


Living in the woods (a house in the woods that is) I keep three chain saws in good shape. One of my two homelite SLXs came up with a bad 'transformer' So I retired it for parts rather than spend fifty bucks on an old saw, and I bought a Husky 460. I emailed Husky USA for a 'shop'manual and was told that they would not provide one to end users. (A policy which I will forever hold against them.)

While I'm here, let me review the 460:
Good:
1. Light weight,
2. It starts easily. Very acceptable for the small stuff.
Bad: I really hate the chain that comes with it. Specifically the turned over rakers. I use a chain until it reaches half the size of the cutters and I retire it. I sharpen with a file using a bench vise and insist on a reduced raker for the mostly soft wood (soft maple & wild cherry) I cut. Trying to file down the turned over ear is a pain and takes too long. I never have my chains sharpened by a service because by the time I have touched them up with a file repeatedly, they have reached the point where I retire them and replace with chain that I buy by the foot.
2. You would think the 460 would have lots of power, and it does, but the clutch disengages too easily making it prone to binding in larger cuts.
3. The chain brake is engaged (very lightly when disengaged) (especially on a new saw) and causes a slight hesitation when I hit the trigger. Cutting small brush this is annoying to me. I can accept a starting hesitation on a big saw (like my Jonsered 2171) because I reserve that saw for larger cuts and am not hitting and releasing the trigger all that often. I have removed the chain brake spring to disable that feature on the 460 and the saw performs noticeably better, albeit without one of their much touted safety features.


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