(ET) Chainsaw used for Isabel -- etc.

[Jeremy Gagliardi com]

I just wanted to let everyone know I got good use out of my elec-trak 
chainsaw
this past weekend in the aftermath of Isabel.  Thankfully, after being 
repaired
earlier in the year by Steve Sawtelle (Thanks Steve!), I was able to use 
it to
carve up a 70 footer than uprooted in my backyard.  Keeping the chain bar 
well
tensioned (i.e., firm but not too tight) and well-oiled will keep it 
cutting
well.  I cut off all the branches and sectioned up the trunk in about 5 
hours
(including breaks).  It got a little rough at the base of the trunk where 
the
diameter was about the same as the length of the saw, but I found that 
cutting
out wedges rather than going straight through helped a lot.

I was wondering after heavy use like this, what maintenance should be 
performed?

In other news, I had my power disconnect switch go bad.  I ordered the new 
part
(by that I mean not a refurbished old part) from Bill Gunn, and I'm still
waiting for it.  I'm sure many of you have experienced or heard of this 
problem
before, but when you start losing power on your ET or notice weird 
behavior like
one component working, but not another, it may be a faulty disconnect 
switch
(either it's providing limited current or no current).  My symptoms 
started as
the tractor would drive, but occassionally the mower would drag or not 
turn on;
after resetting all switches, it would start working again.  At first, I 
thought
it was a sticky relay, and that it would unstick after I turned everything 
off
and on again.  BUT, what it really turned out to be was the power 
disconnect
switch was slipping out of position.  After I turned it off and on again,
everything would work again.  Then, about a couple of weeks ago, it 
started not
working at all.  The whole switch just didn't stay in position anymore.  
So, I'm
just waiting for my new switch...

To use my chainsaw with the bad disconnect switch, I had to have my wife 
hold in
the switch while I sawed.  She wasn't too thrilled, but realized we had to 
do
it...this with a 7-week-old snoozing in her stroller and our 3-year-old 
running
around doing what 3yo's do (I kept proper saw safety, of course; afterall, 
I did
earn Tot'n Chip as a Boy Scout).  She told me my first priority was 
getting the
new switch installed as soon as it gets here...

On yet another subject, after a long and exhaustive search trying to find 
either
a 12V or 36V inverter (rotary or otherwise) that could power a 
refrigerator I
finally gave up and bought a 3.75kW gas generator for emergency power 
(Note,
Bethesda, MD has suffered several power outages this year, and the 
generator
already paid for itself in food we did NOT have to replace from our
refirigerators).  I tried to go the green route, but just couldn't find 
any good
inverters.  By the way, Home Depot was dumb enough to have a $700 portable
generator on sale for $399 during the last major blackout (prior to 
Isabel).  It
came in handy for 2 days then and for 1 day this time, plus 1 day at my 
mother's
house.

E20
Bethesda, Md

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