There's No Substitute

Strimmer Dilemma

The grass has been neglected for the best part of the summer and needed cutting.  It’s not because I like it tidy; it’s more that we were losing the ability to see dog mess- and garden tools. So I ventured out on this sunny autumn morning to tackle it with my trusty strimmer.  It’s not a large area of green, so it wasn’t going to take me too long and I could get back to other outdoor pursuits like chopping wood and cutting back the brambles. 

It took only a minute to strap on my harness, fill the tank with the petrol and oil mix, and pull the rip cord, kicking the two stroke engine into life.  Not bad seeing as the machine has been sitting in the garage all summer.  There were two chewed up pieces of strimmer cord attached to the head, which were left over from the last outing so I needed to replace these as the engine warmed up.  The head I have on the strimmer uses two six inch pieces of cut plastic cord, which needs to be pushed into the sides and kept in place by serrated discs. It sounds a bit complicated but it’s the same as giving my dog a ball then trying to take it out of its mouth.  You just can’t.  I searched around the garage and could only find three pieces of cord, which is about 30 pieces less than I need to tackle the grass, but I carried on regardless.  

Make it last

I used the first two really quickly, sometimes you can be lucky and the cord lasts a good while, but if it hits concrete of a bit of steel netting it snaps straight away.  I was left with just one bit of cord and seeing as I took the time and trouble to put on the safety clothing, goggles and boots, I wasn’t going to give up easily. And as I only had a small area to do I didn’t think it was necessary to get changed and go to the shop to buy some. I had to find an alternative

Looking around the garage I spotted a few things that I thought might double up as an alternative to the plastic cord.  I eliminated things like nails and metal coat hangers cut to size as these could prove fatal to me or anyone nearby if they dislodged from the heads as they spin around at 5000 rev per minute.  I even dismissed using cut pieces of brake cables from my lad’s bike. I would need to replace those and that would be more expensive than going to the hardware shop and buying new cord, defeating the objective of me making do and mending.

Make do and Mend, if it’s safe

I did find a couple of things that I thought would work.  I had some cable ties, yes good old cable ties, only second to Duck Tape as being the ‘Fix it’ thing you can’t live without in the home.  These didn’t work, after a few seconds attacking a clump of tough grass they just disintegrated.  I then tried stripping some heavy duty electrical cable and using the grey plastic bit that holds the three wires together.  This soon snapped and flew into the neighbour’s garden, the wire from the cable was next and those are still embedded in the fence, it was stiffer than I thought.

There was nothing else for it, after an hour of rummaging around trying to find something that could withstand the rigours of rough tufts of grass I resorted to the one piece of cord I had left in my pocket. I pushed it into the head and gingerly started to slice through the grass. I was so careful in keeping the revs down and making sure that I didn’t hit anything solid.  After ten minutes I achieved the impossible. What would normally have taken 30 pieces of cord I did with just the one six inch piece. It just goes to show what can be achieved with a bit of patience. 

 I missed something though.  I didn’t bother taking down the clean washing that was hanging up on the line.  I also wasn’t as thorough as I thought picking up the dog mess and unfortunately large blobs of it was sent at high velocity all over the clean towels.  Another load of boil washing to do in the washing machine then its back into the garage for the strimmer until next year. I might remember to buy some cord before then. I have found out at my cost that there is no substitute for the real thing.