Melted and fused bump head "string"

[bertsmobile1]

I saw someone that left a roll of trimmer line in a bucket of water full time. They had the string run through a small hole in the lid & pulled out as needed.

The difference between soft plastic & hard plastic ( of the same kind ) is what is used to keep them soft , funny enough they are called plasticisers .
Some are UV resistant as used in garden furnitures , some are petrol resistant as used in fuel tanks , some are water resistant as used in boat seats & kayaks .
Now to take the opposite tack, some dehydrate & crumble very quickly these are used in trimmer line and to make them "vanish" ever quicker most are also not UV stable either .
The idea is the bits you leave all over the yard fall apart quickly and become a sort of inert part of the soil pretty quickly
Trimmer line also has a low melting point which is why they will melt together in the head so not feed
The way to overcome this is to regularly feed fresh line or go down to the next smaller sized line .
have a lot of idiots who run 3mm line in their Honda line trimmers and they have to use the really expensive duel compound line because they think not having to keep on bumping more line trough is some how saving them time & money where as the opposite is true because they are always having to stop and manually pull out welded line from the spool .
Any type of heat will activate plastics so they will weld together and that can be an iron, hot air or plain old friction .

 

[motoman]

The difference between soft plastic & hard plastic ( of the same kind ) is what is used to keep them soft , funny enough they are called plasticisers .
Some are UV resistant as used in garden furnitures , some are petrol resistant as used in fuel tanks , some are water resistant as used in boat seats & kayaks .
Now to take the opposite tack, some dehydrate & crumble very quickly these are used in trimmer line and to make them "vanish" ever quicker most are also not UV stable either .
The idea is the bits you leave all over the yard fall apart quickly and become a sort of inert part of the soil pretty quickly
Trimmer line also has a low melting point which is why they will melt together in the head so not feed
The way to overcome this is to regularly feed fresh line or go down to the next smaller sized line .
have a lot of idiots who run 3mm line in their Honda line trimmers and they have to use the really expensive duel compound line because they think not having to keep on bumping more line trough is some how saving them time & money where as the opposite is true because they are always having to stop and manually pull out welded line from the spool .
Any type of heat will activate plastics so they will weld together and that can be an iron, hot air or plain old friction .

 

[motoman]

A great summary...and...BTW I missed your coronation into landscape royalty. Thanks for the info, King!

 

[bertsmobile1]

A great summary...and...BTW I missed your coronation into landscape royalty. Thanks for the info, King!

Just as long as you don't call me queen
IT was quite some time ago comes in around 10,000 posts I think
Funny thing is I had just finished editing a composting video setting a lot of people strait about what will compost ( everything other than bone ) and then this popped up after we had filmed a lot of tiny bits of trimmer line in the garden that had been there for at least 3 years and they crumbled to dust in my fingers

 

[GrumpyCat]

After 20 years of whacking...a first . High grass mixed with black berry , 31cc craftsman 2 stroke on wide open throttle for 5 minutes. Bump head bound up from the heavy work? Common as unyielding weeds do not all cut, but pull on the spooled .090" plastic "string" wrap inside the bump head. Routine to stop, pull on shorted 2-feed lines, then rethread.

Not this time. Found that one string end was bonded to its own wrap. A mess requiring "field stripping" and total rethread. Ambient temp 80F. The "weld" appeared as a white spot.

Any chance it has this head?

 

[7394]

I believe that vid is referring to the new Speed Feed 500 head only.. Love my 400, old school.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I believe that vid is referring to the new Speed Feed 500 head only.. Love my 400, old school.

I am older school than that as I use either a Dranganfly head or a manual feed Tanaka head
Neither give a seconds of problems

 

[7394]

Cool..

 

[GrumpyCat]

I believe that vid is referring to the new Speed Feed 500 head only.. Love my 400, old school.

Yes but the O.P. said nothing about what model head.

And my point is that there possibly others which are melting.

 

[7394]

And my point is that there possibly others which are melting.

Well mine is certainly not melting anymore.. Used to when I was using Echo orange .095 line