\nI generally like to solve problems from a pragmatic point of view, perhaps somewhat like the farmers I lived around as a kid. To them, results were all that mattered.<\/p>\n
I had a weed whipper from around 1980 – a hand-me-down – that finally gave up the ghost in maybe 2017. (Why I couldn’t fix the old weed whipper I guess I’ll mention in another post.) Therefore, a few years back, I bought a new one. It was more elegant, had analog speed control, and was much more appealing than the 37-year-old one it replaced. However, right out of the box, the new one didn’t work properly.<\/p>\n
What everyone would have suggested was, “Take it back.” However, I didn’t immediately want to, for the following reasons:<\/p>\n
I decided to take it apart – maybe I could do something. (A lifetime ago I took a mechanics course.) Within five minutes I realized the problem: the filament would feed when a piece of plastic inside the rotor bent to a certain degree. However, that plastic piece was too thin, so bent much too easily.<\/p>\n
That morning – the morning the weed whipper was new from the box, and 10 minutes after I first used it – I performed my first repair on it. Specifically, I cut off some rubber from an eraser and crammed it in beside the plastic piece to stiffen it.<\/p>\n
I repacked the filament spool in the rotor, snapped the cover back on, and tried it out. Believe it or not, that fix worked – for three years.<\/p>\n
At the end of last fall, my son was using the weed whipper when the filament reverted to constant-feed: the weed whipper was broken again. I took it apart to discover the plastic piece had cracked diagonally; reinforcement would no longer help. We finished the trimming by hand and forgot about it – until last Saturday.<\/p>\n
Last Saturday I jury-rigged the whipper yet again. So far, so good. That fix is a story for another post.<\/p>\n
BTW: I think the old one from 1980 was a Black and Decker.<\/p>\nJack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self-tutoring about yard work and improvisation: the tutor tells of a successful weed whipper “repair.” I generally like to solve problems from a pragmatic point of view, perhaps somewhat like the farmers I lived around as a kid. To them, …<\/p>\n