Wedg1e
They call me Mr. Bodge-angles
- Messages
- 7,745
- Location
- Teesside, England
Not today, but on Saturday I welded my petrol strimmer back together 
Now the only reason it needed that was because I'd cut it in two
- BUT there was a good reason. Y'see my pad is next to a field and whatever grows in the field comes through the fence and makes the place look untidy so every now and then I jump the fence armed with my trusty 12-year-old Ryobi strimmer and have at it. I don't clear the whole field, that would be silly; just a swathe along my fence line.
So there I was, strimming merrily away when me end fell off
At first I thought the cutting head had somehow unscrewed itself but it soon became apparent that more sinister forces had been at work and the strimmer had all the appearance of being kefurkled. Why?
Well, you have a petrol engine with a centrifugal clutch, at one end of an alloy tube. Running inside the alloy tube is a flexible drive cable with square ends - think car speedo cable but thicker. At the business end is a shaft that runs through a brass/bronze/Unobtanium bushing. The shaft is threaded at the lower end for the cutter head and has a square socket on the top end for the drive cable. To retain the shaft in the bush there is a bit of friggery involving a washer that sits around the upper end of the shaft, the end of which is then mushroomed over the washer. Nice
Thus the shaft can't pull through the bush, and just to make sure it's not user-serviceable the bush is crimped into the alloy tube. So when the shaft un-mushroomed itself and pulled through the captive washer, the shaft and cutter head fell off leaving the washer inside the alloy tube with no way to get at it that didn't involve destruction.
I destroyed it
I hacksawed through the alloy tube to separate the end section with the bush, retrieved the washer, reinserted the shaft, mushroomed the end over the washer a little more aggressively and welded the tube back together. I'd like to say that it took about as long to do as it did to type this but the reality is that I am to TIG welding what Steven Hawking is to break-dancing so a protracted session of sputtering, fizzing and smelling ensued (and that was just me) before the join was rendered non-visible ( as in, there was no gaping wound, not that the repair was INvisible!). I would post pics but luckily I didn't take any... anyway, should you happen across a self-destructing Ryobi... just fling the f***ing thing for god's sake, life's too short!
Now the only reason it needed that was because I'd cut it in two
- BUT there was a good reason. Y'see my pad is next to a field and whatever grows in the field comes through the fence and makes the place look untidy so every now and then I jump the fence armed with my trusty 12-year-old Ryobi strimmer and have at it. I don't clear the whole field, that would be silly; just a swathe along my fence line.So there I was, strimming merrily away when me end fell off
At first I thought the cutting head had somehow unscrewed itself but it soon became apparent that more sinister forces had been at work and the strimmer had all the appearance of being kefurkled. Why?Well, you have a petrol engine with a centrifugal clutch, at one end of an alloy tube. Running inside the alloy tube is a flexible drive cable with square ends - think car speedo cable but thicker. At the business end is a shaft that runs through a brass/bronze/Unobtanium bushing. The shaft is threaded at the lower end for the cutter head and has a square socket on the top end for the drive cable. To retain the shaft in the bush there is a bit of friggery involving a washer that sits around the upper end of the shaft, the end of which is then mushroomed over the washer. Nice
Thus the shaft can't pull through the bush, and just to make sure it's not user-serviceable the bush is crimped into the alloy tube. So when the shaft un-mushroomed itself and pulled through the captive washer, the shaft and cutter head fell off leaving the washer inside the alloy tube with no way to get at it that didn't involve destruction.
I destroyed it
I hacksawed through the alloy tube to separate the end section with the bush, retrieved the washer, reinserted the shaft, mushroomed the end over the washer a little more aggressively and welded the tube back together. I'd like to say that it took about as long to do as it did to type this but the reality is that I am to TIG welding what Steven Hawking is to break-dancing so a protracted session of sputtering, fizzing and smelling ensued (and that was just me
) before the join was rendered non-visible ( as in, there was no gaping wound, not that the repair was INvisible!). I would post pics but luckily I didn't take any... anyway, should you happen across a self-destructing Ryobi... just fling the f***ing thing for god's sake, life's too short! 
