Following on from my motorised brush cutter thread of earlier today...

I have been using it to try to catch up with the over grown bits of
garden, using the auto line feed strimmer. It was just far too wet last
year to do much.

I've never had much luck with these, any of them. This one worked for a
short while before it flew apart leaving me to search through the long
grass for the missing bits. Once back together despite being sure I had
put it back together correctly it was reluctant to feed - one where you
tap it on the ground.

I'm fairly sure its backwards threaded mounting bolt is a standard for
this type of thing, so what do others think of these auto feeds?

Would a simpler manual line feed be better, quicker to use and more
reliable?

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Following on from my motorised brush cutter thread of earlier today...

I have been using it to try to catch up with the over grown bits of
garden, using the auto line feed strimmer. It was just far too wet last
year to do much.

I've never had much luck with these, any of them. This one worked for a
short while before it flew apart leaving me to search through the long
grass for the missing bits. Once back together despite being sure I had
put it back together correctly it was reluctant to feed - one where you
tap it on the ground.

I'm fairly sure its backwards threaded mounting bolt is a standard for
this type of thing, so what do others think of these auto feeds?

Would a simpler manual line feed be better, quicker to use and more
reliable?

I've had no real problems with them, the heads do eventually wear out
but that's only after a *lot* of use (we have 9 acres of varied land).

I have a really little B&D "reflex" strimmer which feeds line
completely automatically, no bouncing the head on the ground. For
awkward corners and close to wire fencing (which the big strimmer rips
apart) the little B&D is excellent. I've had it for two or three
seasons now.

My bigger strimmer is a Ryobi which has the "bang the head" feed
mechanism and, so far, after a year's use that it fine too.

--
Chris Green

On 18 Apr 2009 15:37:54 GMT, wrote:

My bigger strimmer is a Ryobi which has the "bang the head" feed
mechanism and, so far, after a year's use that it fine too.

I have a Ryobi but the bump feed doesn't. Normally have to slacken the
spool holding bolt and manually waggle the spool around and pull the line
out.

Which way do you wind the line onto the spool when refilling? There are
arrows on the spool and I follow those with the line but are they refering
to line direction or the direction to rotate the spool to refill it?

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On 18 Apr 2009 15:37:54 GMT, wrote:

My bigger strimmer is a Ryobi which has the "bang the head" feed
mechanism and, so far, after a year's use that it fine too.

I have a Ryobi but the bump feed doesn't. Normally have to slacken the
spool holding bolt and manually waggle the spool around and pull the line
out.

Which way do you wind the line onto the spool when refilling? There are
arrows on the spool and I follow those with the line but are they refering
to line direction or the direction to rotate the spool to refill it?


The arrows indicate the direction to wind the line on to the spool
assuming you keep the spool still and wind the line on by hand.

Note that the arrows have a downward pointing tail. This actually
graphically represents the line coming out of the hole, turning through
90 degrees and winding in the direction of the arrowhead.

Try to wind the line evenly in layers, don't wind it too tightly and
don't try and wind too much on at once. Jam the end of the first line
in one of the little notches around the perimeter of the spool to hold
it in place while you wind the second line. Be careful about how you
feed the lines into the holes in the spool cover to ensure that you
don't trap or tangle them.

Dave Osborne wrote:

Jam the end of the first line
in one of the little notches around the perimeter of the spool to hold
it in place while you wind the second line.

Errm. On all of ours (Stihl) you wind both lines at the same time. Cut a
length of line and fold it in half. Put the apex of the loop into the
central notch on the spool and then rotate the spool to take up the line
keeping tension on both lines. Once the line is wound onto the spool,
secure each end in the notch and feed the tails through the eyelets.
Drop the spool into place, pull both tails at the same time to snap them
out of the notches and slam on the cover.

Harry Bloomfield wrote:

I'm fairly sure its backwards threaded mounting bolt is a standard for
this type of thing, so what do others think of these auto feeds?

Would a simpler manual line feed be better, quicker to use and more
reliable?

Perhaps you should either (a) stop buying cheap **** or (b) learn how to
care for tools? I use brushcutters on the farm runnng over an 8-14 hour
day for seven days a week in spring. The number of times that any of
them have flown apart is nil.

Without auto-feed the work would be more difficult than it is now.
Although we do borrow a big (50bhp) brushcutter from time to time which
uses a huge spool or braided wire rather than a plastic line. That's
necessary to cope with brambles and other woody scrub.

With Autofeed you need to learn not to smack the button so hard that you
break the spool, to clean the spool whenever you change the line and to
use a line of appropriate diameter carefully wound onto the spool so
that it doesn't jam.

Other than that, only a klutz could break a decent brushcutter.

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On 18 Apr 2009 15:37:54 GMT, wrote:

My bigger strimmer is a Ryobi which has the "bang the head" feed
mechanism and, so far, after a year's use that it fine too.

I have a Ryobi but the bump feed doesn't. Normally have to slacken the
spool holding bolt and manually waggle the spool around and pull the line
out.

Which way do you wind the line onto the spool when refilling? There are
arrows on the spool and I follow those with the line but are they refering
to line direction or the direction to rotate the spool to refill it?

My spools don't require you to wind the line on like that. You cut a
5 metre length, poke it through a hole in the head and pull it so it's
centred with equal amounts each side. Then you wind it into the head
by turning the part you bang on when you 'bounce' it.

--
Chris Green

Dave Osborne wrote on 18/04/2009 :

Try to wind the line evenly in layers, don't wind it too tightly and don't
try and wind too much on at once. Jam the end of the first line in one of
the little notches around the perimeter of the spool to hold it in place
while you wind the second line. Be careful about how you feed the lines into
the holes in the spool cover to ensure that you don't trap or tangle them.

I have never seen any instructions for these heads or for refilling
them. The only way I have found to refill them is to hook a length of
of the 'wire' onto the spool, drop the spool into the drum casing,
threading the end of the wire through the exit hole. I then wind the
spool around until the wire is wound fully back.

If I wind the wire around the spool out of the case, the wire flies out
of control back off the spool before I can get it into the drum.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Dave Osborne wrote on 18/04/2009 :



If I wind the wire around the spool out of the case, the wire flies out
of control back off the spool before I can get it into the drum.


There is a knack to it. Once you get the knack, it's pretty quick. If
you accidentally let an end go so that it unravels, just start again -
it's worth it in the end, trust me.

Dave Osborne expressed precisely :
There is a knack to it. Once you get the knack, it's pretty quick. If you
accidentally let an end go so that it unravels, just start again - it's worth
it in the end, trust me.

So you are the one with four hands

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

On Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:23:55 +0100, Dave Osborne wrote:

The arrows indicate the direction to wind the line on to the spool
assuming you keep the spool still and wind the line on by hand.

That's what I do. B-)

Note that the arrows have a downward pointing tail. This actually
graphically represents the line coming out of the hole, turning through
90 degrees and winding in the direction of the arrowhead.

IIRC from last season these are just a couple of arrows on the side of the
spool with no relation to the double hole to loop the line through.

Try to wind the line evenly in layers, don't wind it too tightly and
don't try and wind too much on at once. Jam the end of the first line
in one of the little notches around the perimeter of the spool to hold
it in place while you wind the second line. Be careful about how you
feed the lines into the holes in the spool cover to ensure that you
don't trap or tangle them.

I put the center of a length of line in the double hole and wind both on
evenly and together. Surely if you wind one on first then the second the
first can't unwind during use as it has the second on top of it. The spool
only has one "chamber" for both bits of line.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:23:55 +0100, Dave Osborne wrote:

The arrows indicate the direction to wind the line on to the spool
assuming you keep the spool still and wind the line on by hand.

That's what I do. B-)

Note that the arrows have a downward pointing tail. This actually
graphically represents the line coming out of the hole, turning through
90 degrees and winding in the direction of the arrowhead.

IIRC from last season these are just a couple of arrows on the side of the
spool with no relation to the double hole to loop the line through.

Try to wind the line evenly in layers, don't wind it too tightly and
don't try and wind too much on at once. Jam the end of the first line
in one of the little notches around the perimeter of the spool to hold
it in place while you wind the second line. Be careful about how you
feed the lines into the holes in the spool cover to ensure that you
don't trap or tangle them.

I put the center of a length of line in the double hole and wind both on
evenly and together. Surely if you wind one on first then the second the
first can't unwind during use as it has the second on top of it. The spool
only has one "chamber" for both bits of line.


Ah, mine's a Ryobi as well, but it has two separate lines kind of like
this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg

Sounds like you have a different system. My bad.