A fairly busy day this morning. Started things off by doing the lawn work, though it was HOT out there. Near 100 by the time I finished. After cooling off and getting showered and ready to go again, Dudette and I dropped off her car to have it serviced and the oil changed. During the wait, we checked out the local Sears for gas trimmers.
If you haven't gone shopping for gas, or electric trimmers lately, there are a bunch of them. They even had one that the end could be removed for optional heads. I don't mean the typical leaf blower attachment or the edger, I mean LOTS of other attachments. With one model, you could even hook up a mini garden tiller or an extended chain saw for branch trimming. Way more than I need.
Now it is a toss up between a 25cc with bump and go string feed or a 32cc with insertable strips. Pros and cons;
Pros:25cc is lighter, trim string is thinner and won't cut through the down spouts, string is advanced by "bumping".
Cons:25cc has a lot less power, string spool is a bear to reload with string, prestrung heads are expensive.
Pros:32cc is more powerful, insertable strings are easy and quick to replace, strings last longer and size ranges that can be used is impressive, replacement string can be bought in bulk spools and cut to length.
Cons:32cc is heavier hence more weight fatigue, string can cut through dpown spouts, small trees and the neighbors fence (not a bad idea really, sorry, I digress), if string is too short you have to stop working and replace string at the head itself.
A pretty balanced mix to cause severe headscratching. If only all things in life were so simple. Still thinking about it.
Dudette did find a coffee maker for her work at Sears. They have been looking for just the right maker for a couple months now. Their old one blew up and all the repalcements so far haven't lived up to expectations. This one ought to do it though. Let's hope.
Back home again and catching up on taped shows of Cops and Wildest Police Chases. Now these are reality shows. The people in those shows floor me. They know they are being or have been taped and they still act like they have no clue why the police are talking to them;
"No occifer, I was jus' stannen here minnen my own bizness. Why you got to put cuffs on me?"
"Chief, thirteen other officers and me have been chasing you in a stolen car for 20 minutes. You are pretty out of it, there are open containers, drugs and drug paraphernalia on the front seat of the car."
"Oh no occifer, I was..., I was'n drivin that car. I was a hostage. Iz all the otha guys stuff. Honess."
"Bud, we have it all on tape. You were driving and your busted."
"No, yur makin a mistake. Yur wrong. It wazn me!"
Forget "Joe Millionare" and "Paradise Hotel", I'll take mine raw, uncut and unscripted. Except for wrestling, though that's like all the "reality" shows, but everyone knows that's fake.
We're in the market for a weed wacker too. WS seized up the motor on ours before he left for Sturgis. We need to find one that is compatible with the mini-tiller head that we have (it works really nicely). Oh, by the way, I use the work "we" loosely. This is something WS is probably going to pick out (although I did help pick out the last one).
Posted by: bogie | August 21, 2003 at 04:30 AM
One thing that they don't tell us about weed whackers is that one winds up with 1/8-inch pieces of plastic all over the place. I was puzzled the first time I ran into a little piece of green plastic while weeding. It's the little tips that keep breaking off of the end of the line. We don't have to "bump" to advance the line in ours--a Craftsman 25cc model. HH maintains the whacker (it took me a season before I could even start the thing, myself); but, I run it (usually). This season, it's been giving us fits because, instead of the line's advancing as it's supposed to, once in a while the line just disappears inside the spool (well, the first couple of times, the head actually flew off!) It now pulls the disappearing line trick about once for each hour of use. You can imagine with our woods and large lawn that it gets a real workout (it would get a humongous workout if it would keep working so that I could get more done before frustration sets in).
Posted by: Cop Car | August 21, 2003 at 05:46 AM
Yeah, I've done the "flying head" trick and the "disappearing line" trick a few times. I've learned that once the string gets "so" short, it's time to bump it even if you don't think it needs it. I also learned, through trial and error, how to wind the spool so the line doesn't "heat weld" itself inside or get tangled. I screwed up once and counter wound the string. I WISHED the head would have flown off that time. With all the string UNWOUND inside, I thought I would have to use a hammer to get the head off.
Posted by: Wichi Dude | August 21, 2003 at 06:33 PM
We have three acres of grove and lawn to manage. Dear Husband went out and chose the best professional model gas trimmer he could find. It comes with four different heads, one of which will cut down small trees. Now, if only he had hired the HULK to use it, things would be fine. I don't have the upper body strength to do the string pull start, and my arms are quivering after an hour of use, just from trying to keep the head at the right height and angle.
I finally went out and bought a little Toro electric string trimmer, and I do all the trimming for the acre around the house and gardens. DH hasn't taken the other trimmer down in a couple of years.
When you have a moment, I could use some instruction on winding my own reels....
Posted by: Buffy | August 22, 2003 at 09:19 AM
Buffy, Instuctions are fairly easy depending if you have a single or dual feed advance head (single string or two). Winding the string I can help you with, getting the head off the machine differs between trimmers.The process is simple but "I" may get lengthy, so drop me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do.
Posted by: Wichi Dude | August 22, 2003 at 10:34 PM
32cc Craftsman WeedWhacker that I bought last year at Sears: Had to adjust fuel ratio to get it to run. It performed flawlessly until the other day, when it promptly died. Upon diagnosing the problem (plenty of gas, compression - no spark), found the ignition module to have failed.
Went to Sears website: $26 plus shipping - or take to local small engine shop and let them make repair for about $75
Weedwhacker is JUST out of warranty. Won't shop Sears again for one.
Had a Paramount (commercial Poulon Pro) for 12 years - only added fuel mixture, never even changed the spark plug. Kill switch stopped it, going to repair it for a backup (didn't mess with it as long as the Craftsman was running).
Bought Echo trimmer, lesson learned.
Posted by: WebbFeet | September 14, 2003 at 10:28 AM
I've heard Echo is a good brand, but for the prices I've seen around here, I could BUY a couple Craftsman, or other trimmers, for the cost of one Echo. Maybe they were just designed to be disposable, like lighters or computers.
Posted by: Wichi Dude | September 14, 2003 at 01:44 PM
i have an older 21cc craftsman wedwhacker, 16"...
my mom gave me, but i dont know the fuel/oil mixture..
Any help out there?
Posted by: dan | February 01, 2004 at 08:02 PM
dan--We have a Craftsman 21 cc 17-inch weedwhacker and it takes 40:1 gasoline:2-cycle air-cooled engine oil, per the instruction booklet. Hope that helps.
Posted by: Cop Car | February 01, 2004 at 08:08 PM