Weed wacker - extending string life

[Mtsoxfan]

Learning a lot here. I only weedwhack every couple weeks, takes about 45 minutes. 3X a year, I do a hill with periwinkle, cutting weeds/grasses/saplings etc. That takes an additional hour or more. Up until I moved here, I never broke a line. Use a ton of it from hitting rocks and such. Up here, last week as a matter of fact, I had two issues come up. Not being able to bump out, and string cutting off inside. The not bumping out issue was dirt/grass liquid as glue built up. Easy fix. I think the breaking was from crossed lines that were fused together. Never saw or heard of that. And I know my lines are usually crossed, as I didn't know not to. I will check the grommet as well as soaking line for a few days and not cross the line if I can avoid it.
Thanks all...

 

[RayIN]

I buy generic trimmer string. I read about soaking it in water. It got so soft where it doubles around a 1/16" bar it appears to have melted into 2 pieces.
Stopped soaking it in water, now the string will wear down until its perhaps an inch long on each side.

 

[big bubba]

another gripe in addition to line breakage is in early Spring the woody Fescue stems wrap around between rotating head & frame requiring unraveling & cutting, etc. i have found removing the guard shield helps, but certainly do not recommend given safety hazard of flying objects, just works for me.

i always wear glasses & hearing protectors. I trim 3 pond dams + other. most prefer the loop handles, i only consider harness & the heaviest duty Stihl trimmer. I ask a lot of the trimmers, & blaspheme when a string break & weeds bind up the heads. regards

 

[ArlyA]

Arly, how long do you get out the the 3-string head itself -- not the string but the head?
My wife is always complaining that the cams don't hold the string (echo crossfire .155) and she loses the entire string.

The cams do get gunked up with weed juice and stop holding well. So I run some paint thinner or brake cleaner through them and blow them out. If that doesn't help, the metal tooth parts might be worn enough that a new head is warranted.

 

[ning]

The cams do get gunked up with weed juice and stop holding well. So I run some paint thinner or brake cleaner through them and blow them out. If that doesn't help, the metal tooth parts might be worn enough that a new head is warranted.

I did take an old one apart and found pretty worn teeth; it's a shame that they're not built of tougher metal... it could be an instance of planned obsolescence, but it's possible that the vibration coming back up the line to the teeth may cause friction wearing.

 

[ArlyA]

I did take an old one apart and found pretty worn teeth; it's a shame that they're not built of tougher metal... it could be an instance of planned obsolescence, but it's possible that the vibration coming back up the line to the teeth may cause friction wearing.

I'll not take one apart. We get many rolls of string through them before they are retired.

 

[not2old]

Arly, how long do you get out the the 3-string head itself -- not the string but the head?
My wife is always complaining that the cams don't hold the string (echo crossfire .155) and she loses the entire string.

This thread must have jinxed me. I trimmed about 45 minutes today and had to open the spool five times to re thread the line. I haven't done that, that many times in over fifteen years of owning it. I did the last five minutes with only one string.

 

[ArlyA]

This thread must have jinxed me. I trimmed about 45 minutes today and had to open the spool five times to re thread the line. I haven't done that, that many times in over fifteen years of owning it. I did the last five minutes with only one string.

Cam lock heads as we were chatting about are quite different from bump types, or do you know that?

 

[John0829]

I run a cam lock head on my Stihl FS110 and when it gets to where the line does not want to stay I take it apart and touch up the cams with a triangle file. Not to make them sharp, just to clean em' up. Still running the cam lock head I bought the day I bought the trimmer which was quite a few years ago although I do keep a spare on hand.

 

[ning]

I'm curious about this timmer head:

"Oregon Jet Fit" (manufacturer link).

According to a couple forum posts I saw the orientation of the lines going into the header reduces breakage at that point, though to be honest that's not usually how I lose my lines. I kinda like how the end of the twine sticks out and should be easier to yank since the center of the echo head fills up with grass and dirt, though hypothetically having the little end out there in the air could incur extra drag though the velocity isn't that high close in.

There's a 2-line version and a also a 4-line version; the 2-line version has two aluminum disks which have the two lines going through them like this pic, and the 4-line has three disks with the other two lines going through perpendicular to the other two.

A post I read mentioned someone trying a knock-off from ebay for $25+tax/ship so I went looking and sure enough that knock-off is on aliexpress because most likely Oregon has the chinese build them so that company is also selling direct. I ordered two 2-line heads for $23 including shipping... previous experience says they could get here in a few days or a few weeks.