So what did you do this morning?

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So what did you do this morning?

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Edinburgh Scotland
Last week, returning from our lengthy road trip south, My youngest boy told me "I think the hedge cutter motor has burnt out Dad". Two days ago we were child minding again so I brought it home with me. This morning I decided to investigate.

There was no obvious signs of anything having burnt out and the fuse in the plug was still OK - rang him and he had not fitted a new one. As I have an RCD on my garage plug I risked plugging it in and briefly pulling the trigger. It made that sort of buzzing noise that stalled electric motors often make and I could see the armature turning just a little.

OK. That may mean that it's a mechanical rather than electrical problem so I whipped the cover off the bottom of the gearbox:

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Actually this picture was taken as I was reassembling - hence the liberal quantities of moly grease. I tried to move the gears with my fingers and a big screwdriver but it was solid. I thought if I removed the big (13mm spanner) nut on the end of the spindle and the two Allen bolts holding the blade bar in place then I would be able to strip the gears and eccentric blade drive hub out of the casing.

The two Allen bolts came out easily but the nut would not move. It seemed ridiculously tight, but why? What am I missing? Is there some locking tab? Special locking washer? Nope! Ok, have a cup of tea!

Sitting with my cup of tea I thought "with the blade bar bolts slackened if it's the blades that are jammed it should now spin?" so I triggered the motor again (No, it was not plugged in whilst I was working on it!) Still jammed! B****r! But at least the main gear did move by a couple of teeth! Hang on though, it was trying to turn ANTICLOCKWISE. I bet that nut is a left hand thread! So it is, it came off a treat once I put a clockwise force on it! You know, 50 plus years of earning my living and generally messing about with cars. motorbikes, horticultural machines, etc, etc, and left hand threads still catch me out!

So now the nut and blade bar are out of the way all I have to do is lift the big drive gear/eccentric hub out of the casing. But no! The black thread inserts on either side of the casing are in the way:

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Whipped them out and removed the gear. Triggered the motor and it spins enthusiastically! whoo hoo! In the bottom of the gear is a separate bearing housing which engages with the tang of a spring and can be just pulled out leaving the spring behind:

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Trying to understand what's going on here I stuck this bearing housing back into the casing:

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Immediately noticed that there's a metal peg sticking up from the bottom of the housing which now stops the bearing and housing from being able to rotate. Why? Oh, some sort of safety interlock maybe? Yes, When you compress the handhold and trigger at the same time two things happen simultaneously, The metal peg is withdrawn into the bottom of the casing so the bearing and housing can rotate and the power is switched on:

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Releasing either of the controls kills the power and lets this peg pop out. So it's a quick stop control for the blade? Now I understand what the spring in the main gear is for, it tries to take the shock out of this quick stop. Now take a look at the bottom of the bearing casting:

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Oops, bits missing? In fact there were shards of metal stuck under the bearing casing which was forcing the main gear/eccentric cluster up and pinching it against the bar which is held in place by the big nut (that one with the left hand thread) So the main gear cluster was jammed and unable to turn - in fact there was pickup and galling visible on the face of the gear and on the support bar which I had to grind off and polish up with some fine emery cloth.

Slapped lots of moly grease on it and reassembled it all but left the bottom cover off. Triggered the switch, with safety interlock compressed, and it leapt, enthusiastically, into life, Hurrah! Went to put the bottom cover on and, It doesn't fit:

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Oh no, I've put the thread inserts back in upside down.

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So that means taking the blade bar and main gear out again because the inserts slide in sideways from the inside and there's not enough clearance between the mechanicals and the case to do it.

So fifteen minutes (or so) later and after muttering a few calming obscenities the cover is on:

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And the hedgecutter is ready to go home:

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Don't know how long it'll last with the broken bits on that bearing casting? but I think it'll do for some time yet. Mind you, looking at that casting (bearing housing) with the broken lugs, it just doesn't look robust enough to withstand the forces acting on it does it?

So there we are. Think I've earned the afternoon off. Going to make a nice Lidl/Aldi cappuccino, check if there's a film worth recording on "Talking Pictures" and spend some time in the garden.

Take care all
regards
Jock
 
Well done. :)

I'm not one for accepting defeat on broken stuff but after (very) nearly tangling myself in a hedge cutter mains cable while on top of a step ladder, I decided they were just too dangerous. The solution was a Stihl petrol hedge cutter. It's great and I still have it but if the same event happened today I'd go for battery power

Aldi are running a line of battery powered tools including a hedge cutter and chain saw. ;)
 
Well done. :)
after (very) nearly tangling myself in a hedge cutter mains cable while on top of a step ladder, I decided they were just too dangerous. The solution was a Stihl petrol hedge cutter. It's great and I still have it but if the same event happened today I'd go for battery power

Aldi are running a line of battery powered tools including a hedge cutter and chain saw. ;)

I have to tell you the solution is not in the machine but in the "idiot" at the top of the ladder. I am that idiot! Nearly two years ago I came off the top rung of my ladder whilst trimming the top of my younger boy's 8 ft high hedge - so my shoulder line would have been about 9 ft off the ground! I was very dangerously straddling the "A" top two steps with one foot on one side of the ladder and one foot on the other. I'd done it many times before without incident and just got too cocky, but this time, unbeknownst to me, I had one foot of the ladder in a soft spot of earth. Over she went with my feet tangled in the top rungs of the ladder. Luckily the initial toppling was relatively slow so I managed to throw the hedge cutter away (it's engine was still running of course) Then down I went with increasing speed, like a felled tree. Luckily, well my Daughter-in-law says I was lucky, I landed mostly in a large Berberis bush (Darwinii - so nice and prickly) which took the worst of the impact but I was very groggy for some time afterwards and I really hurt my left shoulder which took nearly 18 months to fully recover - nothing broken! I'm now banned from doing the top of this hedge and fully realize how lucky I was not to have sustained any permanent damage. My grand daughter still recounts with glee how she found my glasses in the "prickly bush" and then picked all the sticky willow seeds out of Granddad's hair and shirt whilst I drank the cup of tea my Daughter-in-law made for me.

Regarding battery powered "things", I'm not a convert. Seems to me the batteries, especially on the cheaper tools, are the weak link - Of course the battery is a big part of the cost. I started to buy into it when I bought a cheap drill/driver out of Lidls. It worked fine for a while then the bearing behind the chuck collapsed. I tried to source a new bearing without success (it was a linear thrust type) but when I couldn't get one I bought into the Ryobi 18volt one plus system with an 18v drill/driver and a circular saw. (I gave the Lidl battery to my boy who had the same drill but it stopped taking a charge within the year.) The Ryobi machines have actually been rather good with the drill driver seeing extensive use renovating my older boy's flat and my younger boy's kitchen and many other tasks. The saw is not so handy as it's very power hungry and flattens batteries quickly. The other thing is that I never seem to have a battery with charge in it when I need it (they are NiCads though and now you can buy LiIon in the same format so they are interchangeable which might be a partial solution)

My gardening power tools are all IC powered, bought second hand. The hedge cutter is a Kawasaki engined Danarm which was being sold off by a gardening business because it didn't comply with legal vibration regulations. Paid £25 for it over 15 years ago and I've never had any trouble accessing spares. I looked for a brush cutter for quite a while before finding a non runner in a garden machinery repair business workshop. ("Ideal" brand, made in Japan, never heard of that one but the engine is a Kawasaki - oh goody!) It had been abandoned by a business which had ceased trading and didn't run. I was allowed to take it away and see if I could get it to go on the understanding that I bring it back to negotiate a price if I wanted it. I completely stripped it and was amazed to find it was mechanically almost new, but completely gummed up with fuel deposits etc and needed a new spark plug. I had it going great within a couple of days - another £25 well spent and still going strong. Leaf Blower? an "Echo" brand needing a silencer and service - another £25. Echo seem to make their own engines and parts for old ones like this have to come from America but all still available. Then there's my lawn mower. It's a "Harry" brand chassis (cast aluminium) on which the original motor failed (another interesting story there) It lay about in our machine shed for a couple of years until I was given an old Tecumseh "professional quality" (ie, cast iron bore etc) engine. This engine actually came off a larger machine (18 or 20" cut I think) so now fitted to this little 16" cut chassis, which my boss let me have for £10, it's got more than enough power to beast through anything and even mows well in the rain! Here's the mower and hedge cutter sitting in my trailer:

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Unless something unexpected happens I think they'll outlive me! By the way I run all these 2 strokes on somewhere around 25:1 to 33:1 oil fuel mix. It sometimes makes them just a little smokey when working hard and, very occasionally, I'll get a "whisker" on a plug but I never get any lube related problems no matter how hard I push them. Some of the newer oil tins and machinery manuals recommend 50:1 but I would be very wary of this, I've seen a number of these small engines with ruined pistons and cylinder bores in repair shops - maybe the owners weren't mixing the fuel/oil properly (possibly trying to run on petrol alone) - I only know my way works and all my engines are at least 15 years old now!

Having said all this Mrs Jock's sister has had a Stiga 80 volt lawn mower and hedgecutter for nearly a year now. She has a large garden and employs a gardener to look after it. He was there when we were down at Easter - nice chap - and says he rather likes using it as it's much quieter than his own machines. Mind you the mower alone was in the £700 region and then the hedgecutter! Wonder what it'll be like in 15 years time? doubt if I'll live to see that?
 
My hedge was similar height but other than using a staging/scaffold I had no choice but to stand either side at top of the step ladder. When the Black & Decker blew up, I borrowed a professional spec electric hedge cutter and realised the power cable was just plan dangerous for anything other than ground level work.


The Stihl being not a great deal heavier solved the problem.
 
This morning I sent off a motorbike luggage case that sold on eBay.

So what? Big deal. I had clicked the new eBay delivery service for foreign buyers. So the case is now off to Estonia. All I had to do was send the parcel to eBay's sorting centre and they do the rest. Buyer pays the international postage. I pay the UK postage.

Win Win.
 
I ve got a 240v chainsaw.. could well be 1980's

Weird thing though.. BOSCH branded
But a lighter 'Makota'green.. and Made in Japan vast in the plastic.

Still working well.. but noticed how vibey it was on last use.

Will investigate properly on next use.
 
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