Petrol strimmers

[The Medway Handyman]

Leicester is a great city. Fantastic market, great shopping, nice pubs with god beer.

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

god beer? It's that good is it?

Si

[Andrew Mawson]

I reckon he'll find anywhere good compared to Gravesend

AWEM

[Bob Eager]

And Gravesend is great..compared to Milton Regis, apparently.

[Jim Ford]

To Nottingham!? Gosh, that's further north than Luton - I'd love to travel one day!

[Steve Firth]

Oh well, the query prompted me to go and buy one because the Stihl is about 1000 miles away from here and I need something to clear the drive and paths which overgrew while I was away. I got the S&J brushcutter because the Partner briushcutters are "Home Delivery only" and it cost £69 which seemed OK. It took a little time to assemble, more fiddly than the Stihl or Partner. It feels flimsy.

The instructions aren't good, but can be followed. It says you need a torque driver, you don't you need a Torx driver and you need an Allen key. Neither is supplied. There is an Allen key in the pack, it's the wrong size. The instructions say you will need an Allen key but don't mention which size. Fortunately I had a keyring full of them.

Anyway with it all nailed togther I started it which was easy and set about tackling the weeds. By comparison with anything else I own it's poor, and it certainly would not cope with hedgerows. Also the bump and go isn't great by comparison with the Stihl so three or four times I had to stop and rethread the line because it wasn't feeding properly.

All in all it feels like it won't last for long but it is light, comfortable to hold and it did the job. Mrs F likes it because she can't cope with the weight of the Stihl.

[The Medway Handyman]

True enough - except that I live in Rochester

[The Medway Handyman]

And Milton Regis is great compared to Halfway.......

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

Steady!! The air was getting a bit thin, I noticed.

Si

[Andrew Mawson]

Dangerously close I reckon !

AWEM

[Kaiser]

I bought the strimmer version was £59 at the time. Just needed it for trimming grass around the edges and around trees ( I would need 100+ meters of cable if I used an electric one) where the mower can't get to. Never had any problem with assembly, and all of the Allan keys fitted OK.

Just one word of advice, if it's put it away with the tank more than half full, mine tends to flood the carburetor (noticed a smell of petrol in the shed after a couple of days).

[fred]

In article , Tim.. writes

Interesting, ever thought of using a DIY made cable head using something akin to bicycle control cable, I've often thought of trying it as an uber hard wearing strimming cord (obviously fixed length and not for use against fragile items).

[AJH]

I did this in 1974, on a husqvarna brush cutter to whip bracken in a young plantation, before I'd ever heard of strimmers, it lasted a few minutes before it fatigued and broke off.

AJH

[normanwisdom]

I'd go for a scythe - cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, faster, lasts for life almost- you might need a new blade eventually but a blade will outlive any strimmer or powered mower, keeps you fit, highly effective. For fiddly bits you could try a sickle.

cheers Jacob

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

I'll change the car's wheels for wooden ones too while I'm at it, live in a house made of cow shit, and die of consumption at the age of 14.

Si

[Steve Firth]

Thanks, I'll see what happens. It looks like there's one pwoer head to fit a number of shaft/cutter types so this one will probably suffer the same problem.

[S Viemeister]

Requires a fair bit of skill to use a scythe effectively. It helps ro be taught by an experienced user.

[Andy Hall]

Mmm.. I'm not really interested in mucking about with junk.

OK. This one seems to be in the 330-400 range.

Is it basically that the FS38,45,55 (lightweight) are the basic machines and FS80 and above are professional?

I'm also in the market for a hedge trimmer. Are Stihl products good here also?

[clot]

Ignorant sarfaners, the pair of you. Some of us Noorfarners travel and are open to experience the difficulties of travel in other regions. Parked regularly at Luton Parkway (fortunately not on those dates) and travelled into the deep South to see St Pancras and sooo many peoople. Give me north of ... well at least Northants! :)

[Dave A]

When you do, can I have one of your sheds, please?

Dave