Chainsaw Woes

How is this for a bummer? I was cutting wood the other day and noticed that when the saw was idling, the chain was still moving, which is a big no-no when dealing with dangerous machinery. You want things to work as they're supposed to, and with a sharp chainsaw blade, you want that thing sitting still when that trigger is disengaged. Being the real-man in training that I am, I figured I could fix the thing myself, which of course was a big mistake.

I had a similar problem a year or two back, except back then the chain was spinning quickly and it was a little dangerous. I took it in and the repair was expensive because they had to disassemble the machine and replace the seals. It's happens when your saw gets stuck in some wood and you dislodge it by tweaking it side to side, so I'm hyper-vigilant to avoid this sort of motion. This time around the chain wasn't moving as fast, but moving nonetheless.

One of the possible sources of this problem is the idle adjustments, and the manufacturers were nice enough to provide the means for clueless novices like me to play with said adjusters, so play with them I did. I figured turning it back a little would solve all my problems, but of course it opened the floodgate of woe. Upon turning the screws back, the saw stopped idling altogether. I then proceeded to turn every screw I could get my hands on until the saw basically stopped working altogether. What a complete bummer.

I ended up taking back to Joe's Equipment hoping the guys in the front could simply turn the screws properly and get it fixed within minutes. They'd helped me in this way in the past, and I didn't want to shell out the big bucks to fix it. The first they asked (humorously) was why I messed with the adjusters in the first place. When I said I was following the instructions in the manual, they then told me not to listen to the manual. I wasn't sure if they were being serious because they are all jokesters over there, but I decided I didn't want to go there, anyway.

My heart sank when he said they'd need to hold onto the saw and have it checked by the mechanic, and I saw dollar signs flying out of the machine. Couldn't they just turn the screws a little and make it work? I left the shop bummed because I didn't want to shell out the big bucks to fix it, but I don't want to shell out the big bucks for pretty much everything in life, so what are you going to do?

For now I'll wait and see what the damage is. Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Michael Davison for the pic.