Starting a Chainsaw

Series Summary

Home remodeling is a great way to repair and replace broken items in a home. Additionally, home remodeling can bring an outdated home to contemporary standards, or can simply maintain the classic or historical look of the home. Home repair is often the last thing homeowners want to spend money and time on. However, as many DIYers know, homeowners can do their own home repairs with instructions from home renovation and construction professionals. In this free video series, a certified home inspector provides information on a variety of tools, including chainsaws, screwdrivers and tape measures. Find out how to tighten a chainsaw chain, how to shorten a chainsaw chain, and how to magnetize a screwdriver. Learn about the parts of a chainsaw, reading a tape measure, and using router bits. Improve home repair skills instantly by gaining a better understanding of tools.

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Mark Blocker and in this segment we're going to cover how to start a chainsaw. Okay, first I'm going to go over how the chainsaw starting procedures work and the basic functions of the chainsaw and become familiar with it. I recommend you to read the owner's manual for your specific saw because each one of them is a little bit different. Okay, first the upper position on this one is the stop position. That is what is going to shut the motor down. In order to move this electric switch, there is a lock out device. So, we need to press safety release which is located on the backside of the handle and then we can pull the throttle trigger. First position down is your standard run position. The next position down is a half choke position and that's used for the actual starting and all the way down last click position is full choke. Generally, what I do and what works best for starting these types of chainsaws is I pull the chaw on full choke until I hear it start attempt to start. It'll just run for just a brief second and sound like it wants to start. At that time, you got to release the lock out. Move it up one click to the half choke position. There we go and then go ahead and pull it again. It should start up and run on half choke position. Let it run on that position for about a minute in a half two minutes something like that until it warms up and then you can just release the trigger and that will automatically bring it up to the full run position. After a few minutes more warm up time, the chainsaw then be ready to use. I'm going to go ahead and switch over and I'll demonstrate how to start it. Okay what I'm going to use for starting procedure first I'm going to use one foot to put it in the handle of the chainsaw it will hold it down. I'm going to use my other hand on the handle up above to hold it. This gives me a good still position where the chainsaw can't move, rock or jump around while I'm attempted to start it. I'm going to release a lockout and go ahead to full choke and I'll pull it until I get a little bark or attempt to start just like that. Go up to the half choke position. I'll generally let it run for about a minute, minute and a half on the half choke position simply by pulling the throttle trigger one time and that will automatically bring it to the run position and allow it to warm up for another minute or two just depending on the outside temperature before I attempt to operate it. Remember always read your owner's manual. Follow all your safety procedures. That's how you start a chainsaw."