Self advancing strimmer - a myth?

Well the idea works to some extent, ie clobber the ground and the looser spool of wire unwinds a bit. the problem in my oppinion is that if the grass is wet or juicy, it gums up the works making the whole thing useless. then when you reload if you do not get the winding exactly right it all gets jammed up in the crevices between the windings as they tighten back up. It seems that the alternative version just uses a plunger to do the job of banging it on the ground and the underlying gummed up issue is still there!

Brian

I think I'll just use stronger wire so I don't have the problem in the first place.

I've got some military grade explosives signal wire which is made of reinforced steel. 80 lbs breaking strength or something.

Mine works perfectly. The only thing that buggers it is stinging nettles round the shaft. These are like hemp string ..

I do use a petrol one with substantial (2mm) cord..

Would steel toe caps keep that out?

Ours used to be like that until I realised that I'd loaded the new string the wrong way round. Worked perfectly ever since.

Tim

I've tried every possible combination.

It works very well on mine[1] - just tap it on the ground - does not matter if its soggy grass or concrete and it feeds out more.

You must have figured out the special way to put the wire in that nobody else knows about!

It only really goes in one way - wind one half of the spool in one direction, and the other in the reverse direction.

I've never read anything to suggest it should be wound in two directions. Why would this be the case? Surely that would just make it do something different once you've used half the spool?

That may be why your having difficulty! There are two "ends" of the line deployed at any one time. Hence if you plan to unwind more by rotating the spool in just one direction, then you want both ends to get longer, they need to be counter wound.

Er no. wind them both in the same way

Or it doesn't work at all.

I had to check you weren't harry or dennis.

No they need to be wound in the same direction.

Agreed, that would make more sense.

BUT! I don't have a double end. There is only ONE hole for the string to come out of the spool casing. This was true for both my electric strimmers (one cheap, one decent) and both petrol strimmers (both decent) belonging to other people which I have used.

Yes but in that case it can become very lethal if you accidentally strim your foot, the leg or the cat.

Brian

The blokes from the council use some strimmer like gadget that appears to have a couple of small chains whizzing around, and yes, they wear steel capped boots!

Brian

The problem with the electric ones is inertia, or lack of it. When you get a seize up its then that all the gunge gets in the works.

Brian

Wrong type of grass?

Brian

One word of warning though. I have found that keeping cheap strimmers in the garage or shed through a cold winter buggers the cutting line, making it so brittle it breaks at the slightest hint of impact.

Brian