String Trimmers

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A string trimmer, also called a line trimmer, edge trimmer, Weedeater (a brandname), Weedwhacker, Weed Whip, weedy, whipper snipper, strimmer, garden strimmer, or bush cutter is a powered handheld device that uses a flexible monofilament line instead of a blade for cutting grass and other plants near objects. It consists of a cutting head at the end of a long shaft with a handle or handles and sometimes a shoulder strap. String trimmers powered by an internal combustion engine have the engine on the opposite end of the shaft from the cutting head while electric string trimmers typically have an electric motor in the cutting head.

"Strimmer" is correctly a tradename, but it has slid into British English use as a genericized trademark and spawned a back-formed verb "to strim" = "to use a string trimmer on".

Electric edge trimmers have the advantage of being very light, easy to maneuver and easy-to-operate devices. However, the length of power cord that can be deployed across the ground limits them and they are usually less powerful and robust than the gasoline-engine ones. Electric machines normally are limited to 2.5 mm (0.100 inch) maximum diameter nylon because of their lower power output (400 to about 1200 watts).

Gasoline-engine powered trimmers usually have a minimum of 21 cc displacement motors. At this size they can easily turn 2 mm (0.080 inch) line and some have nylon blades as accessories to the line-reel. A 32 cc engine can swing a 2.75 mm (0.110) line and often has metal-blade accessories. The head contains a safety shield on the user side and a rotating hub which may also be called a head or spool. While this type of trimmer is heavier, uses a gasoline-oil mix and vibrates significantly, they are much more mobile (not attached to a power outlet) and are not very limited in maximum power for commercial use. Large trimmers, used for cutting roadside grass in large areas, may be quite heavy—being suspended from the body by a harness—and may be a two-hand-controlled device. These very large trimmers are often referred to as brush cutters.

A line-trimmer works on the principle that a line that is turned fast enough is held out from its housing (the rotating reel) very stiffly by centrifugal force. The faster it turns the stiffer the line. Even round-section nylon line is able to cut grass and slight, woody, plants quite well. Some monofilament lines, designed for more powerful cutters, have an extruded shape—like a star—that helps the line slash the material being cut and thus it is able to cut quite large woody plants (small shrubs) or, at least, ring-bark them very effectively. These lines make disks less necessary for tough jobs.

Read more at Wikipedia.org