As an archaeologist, I love testing out new tools and technologies. This love includes testing out ancient technologies to better understand how they work. As a writer, I love to write about my experiences with tools and technologies (reviews). So, with my recent book and short story projects wrapped up, I'm off for more experimentation with... you guessed it... tools and technologies. Now, given the ridiculous gas prices, I had switched to battery-powered tools while also building up a solar power station of sorts to cut fuel prices. With that in mind, my first experiment leads me back to Green Works tools. This time... a chainsaw.
Now almost 20 years ago, my wife and I purchased a wooded lot in the Niagara Frontier of New York, and I mean a really wooded lot. I love trees, and I love that our property borders a woodland. That location means we get a lot of animal visitors: deer, fox, skunks, chipmunks, snapping turtles, possum, bats, and a huge range of birds. As for the trees, I have needed to remove a few after the elements caused substantial damage. A few of the trees were monster-sized requiring professionals (silver and Norway maples aplenty). Yet, there is a lot of tree falls, especially in the form of large branches, which I can manage. I purchased a Remington electric chainsaw years ago, which came with an extender to reach up into the tree canopies for trimming. That 12" chainsaw did OK, but it had a significant amount of difficulty with anything beyond medium sized branches. The tool itself wore out after a few years, which meant I needed a replacement. Now, having already purchased a Green Works 40V lawnmower, I looked to see what options they had so I could reuse the batteries instead of purchasing a different sized batter. Fortunately, Green Works did have a 40V chainsaw. I decided to go with the Green Works 12" as money was a little tight. This tool did well the first year managing some significantly sized branches from maples and pines and spruce trees throughout our property. The item's saw is easy to tighten and self lubricates (you just need to keep the bar oil reserve filled). This feature was a great add that made the process easier. Based on that first year, I would have given it 5 stars. As for this year, the tests the chainsaw faced were greater.
I trimmed back a spruce tree last fall with the intent of trimming it further over the course of the winter. Yeah, that didn't happen. So, as we entered Spring, I needed to cut down the remaining part of the tree in preparation for a company to come in and grind the stump. So, yesterday I took the day off to focus on the tree... with my 12" chainsaw. Did I mention that the tree had a 19" diameter? Yes, I planned to tackle this not-so-tiny tree with my Green Works, 40V chainsaw, using my John Deere riding lawn mower as a backup (in other words, the lawn tractor served as a tie off and to pull the tree down when I had cut into a sufficient amount of the tree. So, armed with battery with little juice left, I started to cut into the tree, and when standing in front of the tree, that 12" chainsaw immediately seemed ill-equipped for the task. Boy, I was wrong in that moment. Now, a 19" diameter tree doesn't come down easy when your chainsaw only has a 12" blade. It takes time.
In total, it took about 45 minutes with a couple breaks spread throughout to let me and my arms rest a bit. Yet, that tree did give way to the chainsaw blade. Ultimately, the tree fell without needing a lot of battery power. Sure, my arms were tired at the end, but the Green Works 40V chainsaw cut through a not so dead tree with little difficulty.
***For my review, the Green Works chainsaw gets 5 Trowels (stars) out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment