All About Petrol Trimmers

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All About Petrol Trimmers
All About Petrol Trimmers

Video: All About Petrol Trimmers

Video: All About Petrol Trimmers
Video: How to Select the Right Trimmer or Brushcutter 2024, March
Anonim
  • Which is better - a hand-held scythe or a brushcutter-trimmer?
  • Gas cutter device
  • The history of lawn mowers
  • Benzokosa trimmer is an irreplaceable assistant
  • Trimmer selection
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Which is better - a hand-held scythe or a brushcutter-trimmer?

An incident that happened to me made me wonder about the question in the title. At first glance, the answer is obvious, of course a brushcutter is better in all respects, but this, for example, is clear to me now. And ten years ago, back in 1998, when this question first arose in front of me, the answer to it was completely unknown, because then this type of tool - motocars, came to Russia in single copies, and no one could say anything about them.

I have a summer cottage - not a summer cottage, a vegetable garden - not a vegetable garden. In general, a piece of land where I rest is 10 acres with a hut. Due to the lack of a special desire to swarm around in the ground, growing natural products, it grows on these ten acres mainly - grass, well, rare bushes, and the wife breaks a couple of flower beds with flowers. To give the plot a noble look, I mowed this grass for several years with an old-fashioned tool and the usual one in use - an oblique-Lithuanian, a couple of hours a week to wave a Lithuanian one is not work, but a sheer pleasure.

But I got into trouble - I seriously injured my leg, and the whole summer the site was not mown. I come next summer - my God, the grass is above my head. I take a Lithuanian braid and start to mow. But it was not there. New grass is interspersed with dry old, and even the whole area is overgrown with small annual willow. In general, after three strokes, the scythe had to be corrected, and after a dozen - the old handle cracked. Not pleasure, but rough work turned out. He spat, threw such a mow, and moved home in the evening. And the next day I went to the hardware store to buy a new braid. And there I saw a completely unfamiliar-looking instrument, standing alone against the wall, on the price tag of which was written the unfamiliar word "Trimmer", and under it, finely - "Benzokos". Of course, I was very interested, carefully examined the device, and then asked the seller,who told everything he could about this unit. So I first learned about the existence of a petrol cutter, a device that makes it easy to mow the grass and replaces the hand-held mowing tool, invented in ancient times and remained unchanged for many centuries - the scythe.

Gas cutter device

The petrol cutter device turned out to be very simple.

A conventional gasoline internal combustion engine is about the same as in a chainsaw, but instead of a chainsaw tire, a long tubular rod is attached to the engine gearbox, inside which there is a shaft that transfers torque from the engine to a working tool attached to the end of this shaft. This whole structure is suspended on a belt thrown over the shoulder, so that it does not need to be held on the weight by hands, which is very important with the sensitive weight of the chainsaw - about 5 kilograms. A handle is attached to the bar, with which you can conveniently move the end of the bar with the tool attached to it along the surface of the earth. From the side facing the feet of the person, the tool is protected by a light protective shield - a casing so as not to accidentally touch it during operation.

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Well, about the instrument itself. It was very new to me - they cut the grass with fishing line! That is, the tool is a round drum, on both sides of which a thick nylon line comes out of the holes about 15 centimeters. When the drum is spinning at a high speed, the line is pulled by a string under the action of centrifugal force and, striking a blade of grass, it easily cuts it. Since the fishing line is nylon, that is, it is plastic, it wears out rather quickly, so it is possible to extend it on the go, unwinding from a reel located inside the drum.

The seller called the petrol cutter in a foreign language - "trimmer". Subsequently, I inquired about the origin of this word, referring to the "primary source" - the English-Russian dictionary. The English verb "to trim", from which the word "trimmer" comes from, is translated into Russian as "trim, trim, trim". So the word "trimmer" literally translates as "trimmer", "trimmer", "trimmer". And since in the Russian language there are the words "mow" and "scythe", then this tool can be called a brushcutter or, by analogy with a chainsaw, a petrol cutter.

Accordingly, the working tool attached to the bar of a petrol cutter - trimmer is called a trimmer head.

The fact that trimmer heads are different, I found out right there in the store. The seller, having heard about my difficulties with mowing, said that the trimmer head with a knife is included in the gas cutter kit, which is up to the shoulder to mow dry grass and small bushes. Replacing the head with a fishing line with a head with a knife took 10 minutes, along with the search for a lost key somewhere. In general, I left the store as the happy owner of a new tool - RUOBY petrol cutters. Now it is almost impossible to find trimmers of this company with us, but then - 10 years ago, it turned out to be the only model in the store.

The next day off, in the morning, I began practical testing of the new acquisition. I prepared a gasoline mixture with oil, as for a chainsaw, and poured it into the gas tank. Having put on a sling, I first tried on and adjusted the height of the chainsaw suspension, according to my height. I moved the end of the bar with a knife above the ground, the movements do not require any significant effort. I pull the handle of the starter, similar to the starter of a long-familiar tool - a chainsaw, the engine starts. The sound is quite loud, like all two-stroke engines, and the engine is located high, but this inconvenience can be tolerated. And I start mowing. The feeling is wonderful, close to delight. The grass lays down obediently, being cut off by a rapidly rotating two-blade knife shaped like an airplane propeller.

If manual scythe mowing is hard work that requires a lot of effort to "pull" the scythe when cutting the grass, especially thick and tall, then here - practically no effort is needed. The mototrimmer mows itself, you just have to guide it into the thick of grass. For a trimmer head with a knife, both old dried grass, young willow shoots, and thick trunks of a bear's pipe turned out to be within their power. In general, after a couple of hours of work, my entire area, overgrown with wild grass, was carefully mowed and began to resemble an English lawn, and not a meadow in the taiga. It took me three to four days to mow this area with a hand scythe, even though I had not allowed it to grow so much before.

Since then, I literally fell in love with this wonderful tool, whatever you call it - a petrol cutter, a motorcycle trimmer or simply a trimmer. This petrol cutter served me for four years, and after the muffler burned out and the sound of the engine became unbearable, I bought myself a new trimmer. The choice in 2002 was already much larger, and I managed to buy a completely new at that time model MTD 890. The engine of this trimmer is four-stroke and makes much less noise than two-stroke engines of most petrol cutters, which actually served as the main argument when buying - to the noise of the previous I didn't manage to get used to the trimmer, I even bought headphones to work with it. This trimmer still works in my country house, and in stores you can buy its younger brothers - new models that have replaced the old one.

And the question of which is better - a hand-held scythe, or a petrol cutter - a trimmer for me no longer exists. The answer to it is now completely trivial - well, of course, a petrol brush.

The history of lawn mowers

Having got acquainted, bought and regularly use a wonderful tool - a petrol cutter - a trimmer, I became interested in the history of lawn mowing with the help of power tools. Abroad, park lawns and lawns with short, well-groomed grass have been known since the 17th century. But before, only aristocrats could enjoy the beauty of lawns, since the maintenance of the lawn required a lot of human effort and time. Therefore, lawns were quite rare, and they fought with the grass in a variety of ways - grazing domestic animals, mowing with a scythe, sickle or cutting with scissors.

The first patent for the so-called "lawn mower" was received on August 31, 1830 by the Englishman Edwin Buding, and this was the prototype of the modern lawn mower.

Bading spied on the design at a weaving factory where he worked as a foreman. There, a device was used for a uniform shearing of carpet pile, which is a rotating cylinder with knives, stationary fixed on the bed. Buding realized that this wheel-mounted structure could be used to mow grass. Together with engineer John Ferrabi, he made the first lawn mower and began mass production of it. All the first lawn mowers were made of cast iron, and a cylinder with knives was driven by gears from the rear wheels that rotated when the mower was moving. The mower was pushed across the lawn by the mower using handles similar to those of a wheelbarrow. They also used donkeys and horses harnessed to such mowers. Subsequently, quite a few design options for the mechanics of lawn mowers were invented,but they were all set in motion by the muscular power of humans or animals.

Bading and Ferrabi sold the license to manufacture their mower to everyone. The Ipswich-based company Ransomes began manufacturing lawn mowers in 1832 and became the most successful. "Ransomes" remained the only company that has existed since then, which is still the most famous manufacturer of garden equipment today.

The 1890s saw the introduction of lawn mowers powered by a steam or gasoline engine. At first, steam-powered lawn mowers were more popular, but it soon became clear that it took a lot longer to fire a lawnmower on a steam engine than mowing a lawn itself, and by 1900 the gasoline engine won out.

In 1902, Ransomes, already known as Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies, began producing gasoline-powered lawnmowers and dominated the gardening market until the First World War.

After the First World War, there was a surge in lawn mower production. Technologies stepped forward, companies needed new sales markets, consumers moved to new country houses, an integral addition to which was a small garden.

The most successful company to emerge at that time was the British company Atco. Atco's petrol lawn mowers, launched in 1921, were a huge success. In the same twenties and thirties, many manufacturers tried to make electric lawn mowers, but the need for them came much later.

In the fifties, progress took a huge step forward, lawn mowers became inexpensive and very reliable. And in the sixties, after the start of their use in the plastics industry, lawn mowers became even cheaper, and became an indispensable accessory to almost every English and American home with a lawn.

The first garden trimmer was invented in 1972 by businessman George Ballas from Houston.

For a long time he puzzled over how to cut the grass around trees and bushes without damaging them. The idea came to him while he was washing the car in a car wash. He loved that the nylon bristle rollers that wash the car don't scratch the car's paintwork. Returning home, he immediately set up an experiment. Taking an empty corn can, Bollas punched holes in it and fastened short lengths of thick fishing line into them. Then he screwed this attachment to the rotor of his garden cultivator and in a few seconds he neatly cut the grass without the slightest damage to the trees. Very quickly, the invention was appreciated by manufacturers, and its mass production began, first as an additional tool for existing lawn mowers. Soon, the new instrument took on a modern look - a small gasoline or electric motor with a long shaft, at the end of which a rotating drum with fishing lines is fixed.

Bollas called his invention "Weed Eater" - "weed killer", but the name did not catch on, and now devices for mowing with a rotating line are commonly called trimmers.

Benzokosa trimmer is an irreplaceable assistant

A modern trimmer can become an assistant when performing a wide variety of work performed both in the summer cottage, and in the garden, and in the home farm. From a device designed for one purpose - mowing, thanks to a variety of replaceable heads, it has turned into a multifunctional unit that can handle pruning trees and shrubs, forming hedge crowns, cultivating the soil, and removing snow. And for the main work - mowing grass, they have invented and produced many trimmer heads and knives. The number of cutting lines in the trimmer head can be from one to twelve. The line can be released to replace worn out manually, semi-automatically and automatically. It can be wound in a drum on one or two reels. Trimmer knives can be made of plastic or steel and have a wide variety of shapes.

The trimmer engine can be not only gasoline, but also electric. Electric trimmers are not as widespread as gasoline trimmers. The reason is clear - firstly, the electric trimmer is tied to the mains with a power cord, which is far behind the petrol trimmer in mobility. Secondly, there is a great danger of electric shock, the electric trimmer should not be used in the rain and on grass wet after rain or dew. Thirdly, petrol trimmers are more powerful. That is, the electric trimmer is applicable only for small lawns located near the house.

Before buying a petrol cutter, you need to decide what the main work will have to be done. Whether you're making hay for your pets, or your lawn is about the size of a football pitch and covered in weeds and bushes, you definitely need a professional gasoline trimmer. And for periodic mowing of a small lawn and cosmetic care for ornamental bushes, you can purchase a semi-professional or amateur (household) model of a petrol cutter.

The cutting head is chosen on the basis of what grows in the cultivated area - if there are many fruit trees, stones, bushes in the cultivated area, you need a trimmer head with a cutting line so as not to damage trees and break knives. And if there are no trees and stones, a plastic or metal knife is used - a milling cutter. The shape of the knife is also chosen depending on whether only grass or grass with bushes will be cut.

Choosing a two-stroke or four-stroke engine is a matter of taste, the power of the engines developed for use on petrol mowers is about the same. A two-stroke engine is more noisy and slightly more vibrating. The four-stroke engine is more expensive, but I like it better, mainly because of the less noise and vibration.

Numerous additional accessories make it easier to work with the petrol cutter. You can purchase various sling for suspension of the brushcutter, handles of different shapes for installation on the bar, knee pads and protective shields.

And, of course, you can purchase a wide variety of trim heads.

Trimmer selection

The choice of petrol cutters in shops selling tools and garden tools is now the widest. The list of companies producing these devices is quite large. These are Alpina, SunGarden, Homelite, Husgvarna, Makita, McCULLOCH, SOLO, Stiga, Hitachi, my favorite MTD, and many others. All these companies produce a wide range of petrol cutters - from household to professional. The difference is obvious - a household gas brush is designed for occasional work on the backyard lawn, a couple of hours a week, and a professional tool is used for several hours every day. Accordingly, the power of the engine, and the reliability, and the completeness and design of the trimmer heads are different. For example, if in a household petrol cutter it is quite possible to do with a trimmer head with manual line feed,then in professional semiautomatic or automatic line feeding becomes an absolute necessity.

All modern petrol cutters have a device to reduce engine vibration. Almost all of them have an easy start of the engine, that is, they start with a half kick.

Many models in the basic set have several trim heads for different mowing conditions, but even if there is one head in the set, you can buy another in addition. You just need to pay attention to the description of petrol cutters - for some models, the ability to replace the heads is built into the design and does not require any additional devices, and for some, replacing the head with a fishing line with a head with a knife requires the use of a special adapter.

Most modern trimmers use two-stroke internal combustion engines with a power of 1 hp or more. for household models up to 3-4 hp from professional. Sometimes four-stroke engines are also used.

The design of all modern trimmers is almost the same, although there are also very original models - for example, the SOLO 155 gasoline trimmer, the engine of which dresses like a backpack, and the torque is transmitted to the bar with the trimmer head using a flexible shaft.

A typical representative of the household trimmer is the MTD TB 10 CS petrol trimmer. The 2-stroke engine with 1 HP easy start, the system for quick change of multifunctional attachments without the use of tools, make it an indispensable assistant in the garden.

And for workers caring for urban lawns, we can recommend the ALPINA Star 55 DP petrol trimmer with a 2.85 hp engine, equipped with replaceable trimmer heads - with a semi-automatic line release and a metal knife - a cutter that allows you to cut shrubs.

In general, there is plenty to choose from.

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