Dangerous saw

wayoutwest

Local farmer gave me his saw to see if I could get it going for him. Its a 'POWER HAUS 6500' - a Chinese saw based on a Stihl ms440. After quick google, I found that they were recalled because they are dangerous. Weak construction means the chainbreak can snap off, handles bend etc.
Got saw going nicely - but knowing that the farmer is a tightass and likes using equipment until its beyond shagged, I'm thinking of repacing sparkplug with large screwdriver, belting with club hammer and tell him that piston must have overheated and cracked into lots of small pieces.
20180325_102131.jpg

Just put straight petrol into it and let it roast.

Mississippi.

What's the chances of him being a "boardsie" on here and recognising his saw? !!

Look at the video, bottom right hand side of this page:

https://www.stihl.com/europe-non-compliant-chains-saws-dangerous.aspx

Here's the offical EU wide Sales Ban/Recall notice.

https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumers_safety/safety_products/rapex/alerts/?event=main.notification&search_term=1747/10&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2010

100% pure sh**.

If yer man is reading this, wayoutwest is doing you a favour by trying to stop you using that ball of dirt saw.

I'd like to see people get hefty fines for selling that kind of junk. Dangerous thing to be putting into anyones hands except the binman's.

wayoutwest

JayZeus wrote: »

Just put straight petrol into it and let it roast.

evolving_doors

Could he not try for the recall option?
Even if his warranty is up his consumer rights could still override a potentially expired warranty.

If there's a chance you kaibosh it he might -being a tightwad- take it to someone else and they'll spot yer shenanigans.

If you do spoil it, make sure to tell him there's a recall on it and that he should get ALLLL his money back even if his warranty is expired. He will actually be delighted with this news.

wayoutwest

Mississippi. wrote: »

What's the chances of him being a "boardsie" on here and recognising his saw? !!

Nil - i don't think he's even got a phone, let alone one of those fancy internet box yokes. I do have a bit of a dilemma as i don't like messing with another persons tools, and wouldn't like to be lying to the fellah. If I 'de-commissioned' it, and he found out, then he would (understandably) 'lose the head' with me......but if I return it running, he might end up losing his head anyways. :eek:

Melodeon

The legally correct thing to do is to give the owner his property back and make him fully aware of your concerns. Give him the links posted above (perhaps print out the RAPEX alert and attach your own concerns in writing too) and let him off with it to make his own decisions. If you can, get him to sign a copy to acknowledge you've made him aware of all this.
Here's a different link to the RAPEX alert, the one above isn't working for me: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumers_safety/safety_products/rapex/alerts/?event=viewProduct&reference=1747/10

On the other hand, if the saw might perhaps be beyond economic repair...

wayoutwest

evolving_doors wrote: »

Could he not try for the recall option?
Even if his warranty is up his consumer rights could still override a potentially expired warranty.

If there's a chance you kaibosh it he might -being a tightwad- take it to someone else and they'll spot yer shenanigans.

If you do spoil it, make sure to tell him there's a recall on it and that he should get ALLLL his money back even if his warranty is expired. He will actually be delighted with this news.

Got a feeling he might not have a warranty, as he bought it off a member of the Indigenous Discount Tool Community some years back.

Melodeon

evolving_doors wrote: »

If there's a chance you kaibosh it he might -being a tightwad- take it to someone else and they'll spot yer shenanigans.

^
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This.

The ethically correct thing to do is to render the thing useless, but you'd then be open to all sorts of repercussions if he finds out about it.

ford2600

OP it's a matter for yourself, but I have a neighbour who runs a nice sideline working on quads, 2 stroke engines etc and he straight up refuses to work on junk.

He'll rebuild 30 yr old huskys etc but won't touch your typical 200 saw

Tell him you looked it up; saw is a dangerous piece of sh1t and highly recommend he dumps it

Melodeon

wayoutwest wrote: »

Got a feeling he might not have a warranty, as he bought it off a member of the Indigenous Discount Tool Community some years back.

I though those guys offered the best warranty you could ever hear of?
No questions asked straight exchange like-for-like forever. Boss.

Anyhow, I don't know if you're in the chainsaw trade or not, but be careful too that your customer doesn't think you're trying to talk down his fine saw in order to sell him a new one. He sounds from your description to be the sort who would be delighted to 'catch' someone trying to cod him and would revel in badmouthing you at every opportunity, with the story becoming more and more outrageous with every telling.

Suckler

wayoutwest wrote: »

If I 'de-commissioned' it, and he found out, then he would (understandably) 'lose the head' with me......but if I return it running, he might end up losing his head anyways. :eek:

If he lost "the head" or a finger would he be around to your door with a claim though? Are you insured to do the repair work if something like that happened or just as a favour? If it did go wrong for him any work you had done mightn't be linked but why put that worry on yourself. I'd land it back to him and tell him honestly why you aren't touching it.

_Brian

Jesus just tell him the truth.

He’s an adult, tell him the saw was called off the market due to major safety incidents.

Leave it with him from there.

I would take a dim view of intentionally damaging the saw and then telling him a lie, that’s just wrong.

Defunkd

Be honest. Refuse to repair it due to your grave concerns about that brand, or repair it and highlight your misgivings.

the_pen_turner

undo what you did to repair it. then tell him you noticed the blade break is broken and that the saw isnt worth fixing and is too dangerous to use. let him do what he wants with it afterwards.

you could be liable if (when) he gets hurt . people are very fast to shift blame if they can or see doller signs