TRINITY'S 3rd annual 2012/2013 icing challenge

[Terry]

                I wanted to title this, "THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF OPERATING A HUGE TOOL",,,, but decded to just tell you guys about it instead. I thought, after Millacs I needed a longer blade so I opted for a 42" Oregon, (up from my 32" Huskavarna, which is actually manufactured by Oregon). First thing I noticed was the blade gets thicker, from .050" to .063",,,,, not a big factor, and you keep the same pitch so you keep the same drive gear, pretty simple so far. The big change come when your looking down at that monster, ITS HUGE!!!! But then I remembered that was how a couple years ago the Mpls Star described,,,, me, in "Meet the Monster" so I figuired it was,,, monster to monster. I held my nerve, and fired her up, I could feel the power, it wasn't some wispy little saw like Johns, or Roberts, or even a respectable saw like Young Joes at 87 ccs, this was 95ccs of pure wild ice ripping animal! I felt my knees start to shake, was it the size of my huge tool I was holding??, or was it that I was in a rental suit from John at Scuba Center, without a relief zipper, with only one kidney? I decided from now on, only one can of Coke before cutting the hole. Turned out to plunge cut a 42" blade with an unmodified chain is more work then my 32" modified chain but only really in the amount of force needed to drive the tip in, after that its about the same amount of work, in 22" of ice. Having full rakers sure brings up a lot of water though.. I'll add a couple pics to let you guys see this monster,,