Good bang/buck chainsaw?

[C. Kirk]

I have made more money with my ms029, I bought back in 1996. It is heavy and a little slow compared to the Pro saws. The thing with the 029/290 is every one i know has had one still dose around here. For a home owner saw, they last a long time. I had zero problems with it. As for Echo, I all so have the CS300 for trimming in the tree. It cuts well as long as you have a good chain on it, not that junk that came with it and it is light. I paid $225 and has paid for it 100 time over. Now take this with a grain of salt I'm not a pro and i don't do this for a living like most of the guys here, and I do mostly trimming. I do tree work for the enjoyment of being in the tree, a job well done, and spending money for me and my son to do fun things.

 

[HolmenTree]

A while back I did some tree work for a customer that had me tune up his little Stihl MS250.
No B.S. I was really impressed with that little part time saw.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I loved my 026 - some sucker stole it.

 

[Al Smith]

Yoo can find plenty of used saws on Craigslist .Take somone with you that knows saws might be the thing to do .

 

[Cobleskill]

Dealers sometimes have pretty good deals on used saws as well. I know I have been tempted before but decided to buy new. If you use them pretty often they don't take long to pay for themselves.

My bud had a small job to do. He didn't fell like driving 20 mile down to my house and back, so he rented. He told the guy the chain looked dull. It's OK he was told. Saw wouldn't stay running and the chain would hardly cut. Took it back hoping to get a refund. They put a new chain on it and said it seems to run fine. Yeah, for just a little bit. He finally found the plug gap was almost non existent. $50 for all that fun. Once he gapped the plug it ran good.

 

[ch74]

I have a cs-450p im very happy with after i did the MM to it. Mastermind is going to port it this fall for me. but im a fan of it so far starts in 2-3 pulls . only done 3 removals with it so far though. so cant comment on the longevity of it. Its def, not a 346xp or a ms261 but i keep the chain sharp it does ok.