Trim, Sir?

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Above is the partially re-assembled hedge-trimmer freebie from Lou's house clearance. I found this in either the shed or the garage, in a fairly grubby and parlous state, with two dodgy tape repairs to the mains cord. I spliced the cord with some choc-block to see if the motor still worked: it did, but was obviously disengaged from the blade drive.

So, it was take-it-apart-time. The numerous screws holding the thing together are T20 Torx, many of them in deep recesses. I don't possess a screwdriver to suit and considered making some sort of hybrid from a driver bit and some tubing, but the screw wells are just too small for anything other than a bit brazed to a piece of rod: I don't have brazing or welding kit, so I took the kludge route and ground down the blade of a long screwdriver to fit the screw heads.

With a bit of cleaning up, the blades of the trimmer oiled, and the case firmly screwed back together, I fired it up, and it works perfectly. There are a couple of observations here. The sticker on the body of the device states that its operating noise output is 95dB: I'd say it's a tad more than that, so ear defenders are definitely on the cards when using it. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that such a budget make of kit should have a decent metal gear train. Financial outlay, zero, half an hour's labour, cost: also zero. All in all, a result.

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