Bosch AKE 35 S electric chainsaw. Still better?

Let’s talk about…washing the saw, what it was for and my feelings after 6 years of using this saw

I try to carefully select the equipment I use, reading various articles and reviews on the Internet. It so happened that when it came to saws, my choice fell on the Bosch model, namely the AKE 35 S. And although this saw is already semi-archive, because an updated model has been released – the Bosch UniversalChain 35, I still consider it the best. So I will share the washing process and a mini-review.

The essence of washing

There was no such thing. From time to time you should service your equipment, and it turned out that over those 6 years, I did it only a few times. On the one hand, my negligence, on the other… why? The saw works, my “season” is floating, because it depends on when the firewood was brought, so such a thing as “service at the end of the season” is useless for me. But a problem happened – the cord was damaged, so I had to disassemble the saw and replace it. Looking inside, I somehow didn’t really look at this:

and it was decided to immediately, “on the sly,” put the whole saw in order, cleaning out all the insides. And there was so much to clean:

Cleaning, Repair and Thoughts

In fact, this saw has only been “repaired” once. It happened when the original power cord was damaged and, accordingly, there was a need for a replacement. I found a slightly longer one (albeit white) and decided that this would be the best option from what was available. This was my main saw, so every year it sawed through an average of 2-3 cars of 1.5-meter firewood. During this time, about 5-6 flails were changed, but what is interesting is that my native Bosсh flail, is still alive. Of course, it has been sharpened many times, but I noticed that in terms of quality, it lasted much longer compared to other flails that I used. There were no problems with other components, so the saw was used all this time without any repairs.

What is a clear advantage of any electric saw is the simplicity of the design. That is, these pictures in the article were taken to remember where and what, but, in general, everything is intuitive and it is not very difficult to disassemble/assemble. However, in this model there are certain points when removing the cover that you should remember – for example, the oil pump hose, which is attached to the side cover. So caution will not hurt.

One of the things I was interested in was getting to the motor. I hadn’t been able to get to it in the past and was wondering if there was any dirt on it and if there were any visual problems. Everything seems to be OK. The motor winding is a bit dark, although it is not known what colour it came from the factory. In any case, the saw was not overloaded or overheated.

There’s also a place for a smiley face on the ring that holds the cables near the motor. This element looks quite strange on the motor, so there’s an idea that the smiley face is there to draw attention to it and remember how exactly this ring should be installed.

The motor is relatively clean. Don’t be fooled by the four screws that are screwed into it. I saw this motor on sale right away in the same form as it is in the photo, already with a gear. The gear cannot be removed, so climbing inside is probably not advisable. I think there may be something like a gearbox with an oil bath, and the design is made non-dismantling so that people don’t climb inside, however, maybe these are just my guesses.

When all the parts of the saw were removed, it remained to wash them. I don’t have a compressor with which I could blow the dust off the parts, so the option with washing out the debris seemed more successful. And in general, I wanted to bring the body to some kind of normal appearance.

Despite the many pictures taken, the reverse assembly was not without its problems. However, nothing criminal happened. A little attention and everything will work out. The motor in the saw has brushes. Again, the interesting fact is that they have not yet had to be changed, although it is probably time to replace the brushes on the Dnipro-M grinder.

The unpleasant moment was the broken core of the flail tensioning handle. The handle itself is fixed in a special groove, so this part does nothing physically, but it’s a shame that this happened. The good news is that it can be purchased without any problems. Although the model has been updated, I found a store in Ukraine on the Internet where you can order any parts for this saw. The bad news is that the plastic handle costs about $9, but that’s the price for the fact that it’s Bosch. You probably won’t find any spare parts for Chinese saws, but here you can do it without any problems.

The updated saw had a completely different look – as if it had just come from the store. I lubricated all the joints where there are gears with silicone grease. I’m not sure what kind of grease should be there in general, but I’ve lubricated it before and there were no problems. The saw works as it should, without unnecessary noise, and everything was done correctly.

There is a place near the star that is covered with a special sticker from the factory to prevent dirt from getting inside the saw through the flail tensioning mechanism. This sticker has long since worn out, so I decided to change it too. I used double-sided tape for this. I don’t know how long it will last, but it’s better than nothing. And it can be replaced without any problems.

More of a visual component, but over time the original sticker came off. I decided to solve the issue a little with it.

It was partially held on its own glue (left), the right side was peeled off. I put it on, um…phone glue. The kind you use to glue cases. Black, reminds me of Moment. It didn’t turn out perfectly, but it’s better than having to deal with “moments” after using superglue 🙂

Result

The saw is working again. The wire is intact, visually the body has become something similar again. Again, do you see the wear on the tire? This is the wear of the original tire for all this time. On the saw from Dnipro-M, the paint on the tire peeled off already on the second chain. So quality is quality.

Although some scuffs and scratches show that the electric saw has already “seen life”, this does not affect work in any way and the tool works no worse than the day it was purchased. And although it costs more than its Chinese competitors, I would advise you to take it. Reliable design, reliable body, all possible protections (and there is a flail brake for rebound, and in general the flail stops immediately after releasing the “gas” button) – this is what makes this particular saw the right choice.

There are much more options for the tool today than when I took this Bosch. Back then it cost about 3300-3500, and among other models it had a very positive reputation. As far as I remember, this saw is also available in a version with a 40 cm bar. I won’t say how much this is a normal bar length for its engine, but the “35” with a width of 1.1 mm cuts all 35 cm without any problems. I only had problems when the firewood was of a larger diameter and then I was forced to take a chainsaw with a 45 cm bar and a powerful engine, but that’s a completely different story 🙂

Author: Sa Crea

Hellmin