Strimmer with fixed cord

[shirlthegirl43]

Some grapes were asking about strimmers with stronger cord on the Sunday chat last night (after I had left for bed).

I have a Black and Decker 630W electric strimmer. It is length adjustable and I find it brilliant to use - I am only 5'2" tall and it is easy to make short enough for me. It has HDL (heavy duty line) option whereby the regular nylon line reel is switched for a reel with a slot which takes a 7 inch wire strengthened nylon line. It works great for brambles, nettles and most stuff.

I expect the one drawback is that it is electric, I only need it for the garden and I can't start a petrol strimmer for the life of me as I find the start cord is longer than my arm can reach!

I bought it from Focus a couple of years back and many people have borrowed it and been very impressed. By far the most powerful electric strimmer I have ever seen anyway.

[JennieAtkinson]

Peter had some great info on strimmers late last night. Hopefully he'll be along later ................... ?

[Farmer_Gyles]

well i want a new strimmer ..........
don't want to mess about with extension leads
don't want to mess about with manually feeding line

ideally a petrol strimmer with a fixed plastic blade that can cut through thick weeds and won't snap like line does and won't need me to keep stopping to manually feed the line - prefer a plastic blade to metal cos i don't fancy cutting my toes off!
or a petrol strimmer with strong line and auto-feed
or just a flamethrower ....

[jacob marley]

well i want a new strimmer ..........


- prefer a plastic blade to metal cos i don't fancy cutting my toes off!
or a petrol strimmer with strong line and auto-feed
or just a flamethrower ....

I was wondering how long are your toes i was doing some strimming this morning and noticed that the cutting head was three feet in front of my toes so how long are yours jacob

[Peter]

well i want a new strimmer ..........
don't want to mess about with extension leads
don't want to mess about with manually feeding line

ideally a petrol strimmer with a fixed plastic blade that can cut through thick weeds and won't snap like line does and won't need me to keep stopping to manually feed the line - prefer a plastic blade to metal cos i don't fancy cutting my toes off!
or a petrol strimmer with strong line and auto-feed
or just a flamethrower ....

Waste of time.

The plastic blades snap very easily or get blunted by any hard objects, remember they are just a cheap hover mower without a deck.

To try and recreate the advice I gave in the Sunday night chat.

The best thing to do is buy the biggest engine 2-stroke model you can afford in the biggest size strimmer you can comfortably handle.
Aim for the thicker White Nylon wire.
The frame with several grips combined with a clip for a lanyard or harness.

Take a look at what the guy working on the road verges for your council uses, that will be the best.

Weight taken and shared between two hands/arms and a shoulder via the lanyard. control by at least two opposite angled grips allows precise control to the inch.

Big engine can be run normally in lazy mode at 75% throttle and not overstress it, with reserve for docks, brambles or thistles. 2-stroke allows engine to go anyway up, so you can spin horizontal for cutting and vertical for edging.

Thicker wire does not wreck shrubs or saplings by stripping the bark off as quickly as the thinner wires do.

I have had the one strimmer since 1980 and it has been in regular use in the growing season every year, it originally had a drum brake at the business end, but the replacement brake lining is no longer available .
Now on it's second plastic drum for holding the wire, after the shoulders, each side of the hole the wire comes out through, wore off.
It had two optional metal saw blades, one really like a circular saw and intended for harvesting christmas trees. The second blade had four cutting edges, hard to describe, but like four circles overlaid off-centre and each with a triangle cut out of the rim, brilliant until the first stone.
To hold there is a big rubber grip round the shaft just next to the engine, a lanyard clip at the balance point (sort of approximately) and a thing like half an oldfashioned bicycle handle bar, about a foot further down the shaft, with the grip at right angles to the shaft. It is like picking up a pushbike to lift up some steps.

When the grass/weeds move about a foot or so away from where you are actually cutting it is porbably wildlife so remember that frogs and toads do not survive being strimmed and watch out for them allowing them time and space to get out of the way. This year I have encountered them every time I have strimmed.

A pair of ear defenders can be useful, but ALWAYS remember to be alert for people approaching, for their safety and your own, I have once had a couple of youths decide that I was a good golf ball target while I was strimming on the allotment site.

Always wear safety glasses, goggles are ok but steam up very fast.
Also wear : leather gloves, long sleeved top, long trousers and stout footwear, (safety boots or wellies), optionally wear a hat. For choice wear tough old clothing that does not matter if it gets dirty & stained.

• Any bit of anything travelling at many miles an hour could loose or damage your eyesight
• Bits of nettle can still sting.
• Bits of hogweed (and parsnip) will cause chemical burns manifested as thin-skinned watery blisters which burst, regrow, burst, regrow..... for days if not weeks.
• Bits of stone or sand can cut.
• Bits of everything stick to you and get everywhere.
• Bits of greenery will stain what they hit.
• **** of any sort hidden in the vegetation (****ing cats) is most unwelcome, so breathe through your nose not your mouth.

Wellies will take about 80 to 90 percent of all the above.
A stiff household brush combining yard broom bristles with dustpan-n-brush shape/size/style is brilliant for getting the bits off the rest of you before your OH congratulates you for covering the house in *****ing filthy bits of **** from your ruddy garden.

Oh, I forgot, watch out for wasp nests.

[Farmer_Gyles]

I was wondering how long are your toes i was doing some strimming this morning and noticed that the cutting head was three feet in front of my toes so how long are yours jacob

they're normal - but i was strimming yesterday around the greenhouse and meant standing in awkward position so i didn't fire bits of crap at the greenhouse and yes, i did strim across my toes! was using a bosch strimmer with "heavy duty fixed line" - didn't hurt, but i did feel it - must be more careful!

[Farmer_Gyles]

cheers for the info peter
i've had a look around - the bigger / better petrol strimmers are a bit out of price range at the moment - theres a smaller one in b&q for £130 with the 2 cutting blades and the normal line (think it's bump feed) - will take another look next week ........

[TonyF]

Living where I do I originally bought an electric and a petrol strimmer with a bump feed on both, both from B&Q - cos I was working there and got 20% off.

Been in France for almost 3 years now and have actually turned on the electric one once - the petrol strimmer is worth it's weight in gold as far as I'm concerned, just had a new 'bobbin' fitted and an overhaul, and it works just brilliant.

Also just bought a very expensive Stihl hedge trimmer to replace the electic one I knackered - though my front hedge is 150 ft long - cutting my hedges.

For me it's petrol over electric every time rather than buy an electric machine and B&Q do a range of relatively inexpensive petrol driven tools.

[ChrisB]

Hi FG

I've just started looking at petrol strimmers and can only suggest you shop around

Focus has a two stroke one, bump feed for £80. What line it has I couldn't tell you though. It is definitely a strimmer and not a brush cutter

Keeps us posted with your findings, it might save me some leg work