Refurbishing the Mac Cat chainsaw and a couple of minor projects

 Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.  Everything we see is perspective, not the truth" - Marcus Aurelius

 Nearly a month ago, I tested out the old Mac Cat chainsaw to see if it would work.  It ran extremely well - idled, rolled on to full throttle with no bogging down.  It was perfect, except for one thing:  The fuel priming bulb was discolored brown and was not very pliable.  The plastic was stiff, and it was pretty obvious that its days were numbered.  

 I ordered a kit from Amazon for $8.  It wasn't exactly what the saw needed, but it was good enough.

 

 

An air filter, priming bulb, fuel line, a spark plug, and a couple of fuel filters - for 8 bucks.  It's amazing how cheap stuff that you don't really need has gotten.

The air filter wasn't going to work.  I could have cut it to match the old one, but it was too thin.

 

Two fuel lines enter the gas tank.  One is from the fuel pickup with the fuel filter attached in this picture.  The other is the return line from the priming bulb after fuel has reached the carburetor.  Neither of these were easy to install, due to clearance issues and tightness of fit.

 

 

It was definitely time to replace all these fuel lines.  Several broke as I removed them.  The spark plug was not the correct size, so it didn't go in either.  Looks like I spent $8 on some tubing and a squeeze bulb.

Meh, she still runs great, got a good cleaning up, and now has the hardware to run until I'm too old to use her!  What a nice-looking priming bulb!

There was another thing that had been weighing on my mind.  Due to a screw-up on my Voigt pipe speaker project, I now had extra plywood to take care of it.  The attic access was just a square cut-out in the vapor barrier that had been taped up again.  It kept coming loose, and I got tired of going upstairs to tape it shut again and again.

 

 

I built a frame and hid the raw plywood edges with some trim, then made a door panel with hinges and a latch.  After I took the picture below of the installation, I noticed how far the insulation had dropped and tacked the vapor barrier back up.

Then it was time for the autumn burn.  I'm not fond of the autumn burn, because the slash pile is very dry.  It's caught me by surprise how fast and hot it burns - once I singed a nearby tree when the breeze shifted.  

On the other hand, spring burns are hard to get started, because the wood has just come out from under snow, and the fire is always really tame.  

Below, later in the evening...

 Oh, and I dragged the little tractor into the shop.  It was quite a project pulling it out of the dirt where it had settled in.  It's heavy.  This winter, I'd like to repair the engine.  

It's kind of a clunker, with 18 horsepower and the weight of a battleship.  Pretty sure the lawnmower has more power.  On the other hand, the lawnmower doesn't have 4x4, a front loader bucket, and a PTO.

It would be good to get this thing working again, use it for some landscaping projects and then sell it.