it is my understanding that the first saws McCulloch made were about 6 or 7 pounds lighter than their nearest competitor, also as a proud owner of an old McCulloch 1-76, I find no truth in your comments, the saw is by far one of the simplest things I have ever worked on. I have no manuals for the saw yet I have no problem working on it. Oh yeah almost forgot to mention the saw still runs save a bad gasket in the tank and need of a new chain.
"The factory was completed in 1946 , costing around $1 million, and McCulloch Aviation became McCulloch Motors Corporation, and after evaluation of the product line Bob McCulloch dropped the heaters and development work for the Kaiser-Frazer two-cycle opposed piston engine, and decided to concentrate on the lawn mower and chainsaw engine product lines. These were built by McCulloch Motors Corp. and were supplied to Sears, Roebuck and Reed-Prentice respectively, and after extensive research by McCullochs engineers (and Vice-presidents) John Ryde and Gerald Robechaud, McCulloch found that he would could produce a better and lighter chainsaw by himself. As a result of this development McCulloch produced his first chainsaw the 5-49, which was 5Hp and weighed 49 pounds, was two-thirds the weight of it?s nearest rival, and cost $50 less, and sold in such volumes that McCulloch Motors 1947 sales of $4 million increased to $40 million by 1951,"
here is a link to that info:
http://www.vs57.com/history.htm I stumbled upon this by accident after hearing of McCulloch super chargers so I followed the link to see if it was the same company.
