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.
