PR wrote:

How do the tubes lock together (and unlock easily) in telescopic lopers,
pruners, etc.
e.g. http://www.lidl.co.uk/gb/home.nsf/pa...escopic_Lopper




Sometimes not well enough...

A couple of years ago I couldn't resist buying one of those little
Remington electric chain saws on a telescoping pole so I could play Paul
Bunyan in the back yard and trim some overhanging tree branches.

The #$@&X$% telescoping lock just wouldn't hold, even when I tightened
the collet with Channelocks. (Something the instructions said NOT to do.)

The upper pole kept twisting relative to the lower one, because the saw
blade at the top was off center and exerted a torque when pulled down
against a limb in use. That and the vibration from the saw made the
joint twist. Since the lower pole had a pistol grip handle with the
saw's trigger switch on it, I couldn't just move my hands around the
pole and ended up with my wrist and forearm coiled up well before I got
through anything but the skinny branches. Then I had to lower the damn
thing and readjust the handles.

I got so mad at it I returned it to Home Cheepo the next day and took
Don Foreman's advice about getting a high limb rope saw:

http://www.right-tool.com/right-tool/higlimhancha.html

It's really sort of fun to use, you just have to remember not to get so
entranced by what you're doing that you forget to dash away when the
limb falls off. G

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."