How to properly fill the electric grass trimmer

How to tuck line in a grass trimmer?

In order for the area near the house to always look well-groomed and neat, it must be cut regularly. Fortunately, modern technology allows you to solve this problem without excessive physical effort. Electric grass trimmers are so easy to operate and maintain that even a teenager can use them to mow. The main thing is to figure out in advance how to fill the line in the grass trimmer.

How to load the line into the grass trimmer?

So, our task is to properly load the line into the grass trimmer. Let’s take a closer look at where to start its implementation and what pitfalls can await us in the process.

To carry out this operation, the grass trimmer must be disconnected from the mains and turned over with the working head up. The further course of action depends on the model of the grass trimmer and the design of the coil itself:

  • for small trimmers with a lower engine, press the keys on the sides of the coil and remove its upper part from the head;
  • on trimmers with a curved bar, we clamp the coil body with one hand, while simultaneously turning the winglet located on the body counterclockwise;
  • for trimmers with a straight bar and a gearbox, insert a screwdriver into the hole located under the coil, and then turn the coil body counterclockwise.

After the coil is removed from the head, it must be carefully disassembled. It is better to do this on an already mown area, since there may be a spring inside the coil, which will be quite difficult to find in tall grass. After disassembly, we will have three parts on our hands: the body (top cover), the protective casing and the coil itself.

Step 4. measure the required amount of fishing line

Newbie mowers are usually interested in how many meters of line to wind on the reel of the grass trimmer? There are two ways to solve this issue:

  • Unwind a skein of line on a flat, dry place and separate half of it.
  • Measure 3-4 meters of line from the skein.

In any case, after the end of winding, the turns of the line should be on the body of the reel, without sliding off it. You don’t need to try to wind as much as possible, as the line will unwind poorly and break more often.

Step 5. winding the line onto the reel

How to attach the line to the grass trimmer depends on the coil design. Consider the option when the reel body has one outlet for the line. In this case, the end of the line is clamped in the crevice of the coil, and then we wind the line, trying to lay the turns as tightly as possible. The direction of laying the turns should be opposite to the direction of rotation of the coil and is usually indicated on its inner part. After the end of winding on the reel, you must put on a protective casing and bring the end of the line into it.

If the reel is designed to work with two tails, then the line must be folded in half and laid in the groove in the center of the reel. Further winding will be carried out along one or two slots, depending on the design of the coil. The direction of winding must also be opposite to the direction of rotation of the coil. At the end of the ponytail, the line will also need to be led out into the holes on the top of the reel.

Spool Trimmer Heads

The main elements of the trigger is the mowing head, which is a cylindrical body with a bobbin inserted inside. The fishing line (cord) is tucked into it. The heads differ from each other in the way of feeding and threading the cord. There are three types of heads in total:

  • Automatic. The line is then fed as the user decreases the engine speed. Automatic cord feeding is very convenient when there is a lot of work to be done. The disadvantage of such a head is the high thread consumption.
  • Semi-automatic. The use of such a head does not require the user to perform any complex manipulations. The principle of its operation is designed in such a way that the line begins to automatically lengthen while the grass trimmer is operating at full speed. You just need to lightly bang the head of the machine on the ground (this will remove the blocking of the line), and the cord will be pulled out of the bobbin due to centrifugal force. Then the line is cut to the required length with a knife, which is located on the protective cover.
  • Manual. To lengthen the cord, it is necessary to stop the apparatus. After that, the line will need to be pulled out manually.

Types of trimmer spools

Trimmer head with two antennae

After removing the spool from the spool body, we determine the number of strands for winding the line (1 or 2). There is no fundamental difference between bobbins with one and two grooves, but if carelessly threading into the twin groove, there will be operational problems. Due to the likelihood of interlacing adjacent lines of the tool, a situation may arise when, after wear of the working antennae, it is impossible to remove new ones.

Regardless of the number of streams, a fishing line with a length of 1.5 to 3 meters is taken for refueling. Winding must be done in the opposite direction to the rotation of the head, since winding in the direction of travel will lead to the fact that the line will not be removed from the reel. After the fishing line is tucked into the grass trimmer coil, thread the free ends (15-30 cm) into special holes. Next, we assemble the head in the reverse order of disassembly and check the operability. Do not worry if the ends of the two antennae are very different in size, because when you start the grass trimmer, the knife installed on the protection will cut off the excess.

Instructions

In order to change the line, you need to remove the old one (if it was).

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The reel is the part of the grass trimmer structure that is located inside the brush head, drum or bobbin. Heads may vary depending on the manufacturer. But this article only covers Patriot, although their mechanism is used by many other companies.

Now you need to understand how to properly remove the head from the grass trimmer and how to remove the drum from it.

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Instructions on how to unscrew the manual head on the trimmer are described below.

  • First of all, you need to clean the head from dirt and adhering grass, if it is dirty. To do this, lift the brushcutter head up and, grasping the casing, remove the special protective cover that is put on the drum.
  • The next step is to remove the spool from the drum. The reel can be easily removed even with one hand, because it is not fixed in any way inside the drum.
  • The drum itself is fixed in the trimmer with a bolt. This bolt must be unscrewed, after which you can easily pull out the drum. To do this carefully, you should support the drum with the spool, while unscrewing the screw counterclockwise.
  • Now you can pull the coil out. As mentioned above, it is not secured by anything, except for a hook with a metal shaft, so it does not need to be pulled out with force. Carefully, in a circular motion, pull the spool out of the drum.
  • Now it remains to remove the old fishing line and follow the following instructions.

Installing the spool and drum in their original place is performed according to the reverse algorithm.

Before threading the line, make sure you have purchased the correct thread for the grass trimmer. In the event that the thread does not fit, the fuel or energy consumption increases, as well as the load on the engine of the brushcutter.

In order to replace the thread itself directly, you need to prepare a piece of thread of the required size. Most often, this requires about 4 m of line. The specific figure will depend on the parameters of the thread, for example, its thickness, as well as on the parameters of the spool itself. If you cannot accurately determine the length, you can do the following: insert and wind the thread until the coil is fully charged (the line level will be compared with the protrusions on the sides of the coil). It is necessary to ensure that the line sits evenly in the reel.

Do not forget that thick thread will be shorter than thin thread.

The instructions for threading the line into the spool are described below.

  • The prepared thread must be taken and folded in half. It should be ensured that one edge is longer than the other by 0.1-0.15 m.
  • Now you need to take the ends in different hands. The one that is smaller must be tightened to the larger one so that it becomes 2 times shorter. When bending, maintain an offset of 0.15m.
  • Locate the slot inside the coil baffle. Carefully pass the loop you made earlier into this slot.
  • To continue working, it is necessary to determine the direction of winding of the thread in the bobbin. To do this, it is enough to inspect the coil. there should be an arrow on it.
  • If it was not possible to find an arrow-pointer, then it is quite possible that there is a written designation. An example is shown in the photo below. It is necessary to inspect the coil head. There is a direction indicator on it. However, this is the direction of movement of the coil. To get the direction of winding, you need to wind in the opposite direction.
  • Now you need to load the spool with line. It is worth noting that there are special guide grooves inside the coil. Follow these grooves when winding the thread, otherwise the grass trimmer may be damaged. At this stage, you need to charge the coil very carefully.
  • When the user winds almost the entire thread, take the short end (do not forget about the 0.15m protrusion) and pull it into the hole located in the wall of the reel. Now you need to repeat this action in the same way with the other end (on the other side).
  • Place the reel itself in the head of the reel, before that threading the line through the holes inside the drum.
  • Now is the time to put the drum back in place. After that, you need to take the ends of the line with both hands and pull them to the sides. Then you need to put the lid back on (here you can safely make efforts until you hear a characteristic click).
  • Remained to do the “cosmetic work”. We need to see if the thread is too long. You can start the grass trimmer and check in practice if everything is comfortable. If the thread comes out a little long, you can cut it with scissors.

Preparation for winding the line

Before the winding process, it is necessary to remove the spool with line from the body. Depending on the manufacturer, power and type (electric or gasoline), there are three design types of trimmers:

This model provides the ability to install a knife. Removing the coil in such models is done by means of two keys recessed into the coil body. To mount the trimmer knife, it is necessary to align the hole of the reel and the rod, and then insert the device in the form of a steel pin (screwdriver, iron bar). After fixing the coil, the body can be easily unscrewed by hand in a clockwise direction.

Removing and disassembling the coil

The mowing trimmer head consists of a cover, a spring (not available in every model), a bobbin with a cord, and a cover. Be sure to unplug the grass trimmer before disassembling the coil of the electrical unit. The disassembly method depends on the mounting of the mowing head. First option:

  • To remove the cover that covers the inside of the head, press on the latches (latches) that are located on both sides of the head.
  • Remove the cover, under which you will see the spool. remove it from the body. Some trimmer spools have a spring under the bobbin, which must also be carefully pulled out.
  • After removing the bobbin, you will see a screw in the center of the case. Unscrew it with a screwdriver.
  • After removing the fasteners, take the body of the part and, shaking it in different directions, remove the gearbox from the shaft.

In the second version, the grass trimmer head is screwed onto the gearbox shaft. To remove it, you need to fix the shaft. For this, such devices have a hole through which a thin screwdriver or metal rod is inserted. Brief instruction:

  • Insert a screwdriver into the special hole, then lock the shaft.
  • Grasp the body of the head and start twisting it. This should be done clockwise, since the thread on the shaft is left.

Winding the line to the reel

Method 2. two segments

fundamentally no different from the method The only difference is two wound pieces of fishing line, instead of one.

There are two special fixing sockets on the coil (see picture above).

They cling to it with a hook formed earlier on the fishing line, and begin to wind the fishing line.

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Winding is carried out in a special order

The winding must be carried out in the following order: first the lower line, i.e. the one that is closer to the fixing holes at the bottom of the coil, and only then the top one, i.e. the one that will overlap the bottom section.

The tips are cut into the holes in the grass trimmer spool body. They are pulled up until they click, which means that the line has come out of the latches.

The tips are threaded into the holes in the grass trimmer spool body

The coil is fastened into the body. The line in the spool has been replaced.

Preliminary preparation

First of all, to wind the fishing line, you need to remove the spool (bobbin, spool) from the grass trimmer. specific actions will depend on the complexity of the configuration and the type of the product itself:

  • small electric grass trimmers with a working motor and bottom reel usually have side buttons on either side of the reel. When pressed at the same time, the upper part of the spool together with the inner content for winding the line is detached, while the lower part remains on the trimmer. It is advisable to disassemble the bobbin on a flat, smooth place so that the spring included in the structure does not jump out and is not lost;
  • electric and gasoline grass trimmers with a curved bar without the possibility of installing a knife, as a rule, have spools with a special wing: in such designs, hold the spool in a stationary position with one hand, and rotate the locking reel on the rod with the wing nut counterclockwise with the other. After disconnecting the nut, the entire bobbin is removed.
  • electric and petrol grass trimmers with the option to mount the blade on a straight bar (e.g. STIHL grass trimmers) have a hole under the reel. For the rod to remain stationary, a screwdriver or other suitable object is inserted into this hole and, with slow rotation, such a mutual position is achieved when the screwdriver enters the hole and the bobbin is fixed. The spool body is then rotated clockwise (left-handed) and removed from the grass trimmer.

For the second and third cases, the coils, depending on the design, are disassembled in different ways. In bobbins with a lamb, a lamb is unscrewed, in coils with latches, the latches are pressed and one part of the coil is released from the other. If the halves of the bobbin are connected by thread, then it is enough to turn them by hand in opposite directions until they are completely unscrewed.

Trimmer head with two antennae

After removing the spool from the spool body, we determine the number of strands for winding the line (1 or 2). There is no fundamental difference between bobbins with one and two grooves, but if carelessly threading into the twin groove, there will be operational problems. Due to the likelihood of interlacing adjacent lines of the tool, a situation may arise when, after wear of the working antennae, it is impossible to remove new ones.

Regardless of the number of streams, a fishing line with a length of 1.5 to 3 meters is taken for refueling. Winding must be done in the opposite direction to the rotation of the head, since winding in the direction of travel will lead to the fact that the line will not be removed from the reel. After the fishing line is tucked into the grass trimmer coil, thread the free ends (15-30 cm) into special holes. Next, we assemble the head in the reverse order of disassembly and check the operability. Do not worry if the ends of the two antennae are very different in size, because when you start the grass trimmer, the knife installed on the protection will cut off the excess.

We carry out the winding of the fishing line

Slowly completed disassembly of the spool-spool without losing its spare parts allows you to move on to the main task. winding the fishing line into the reel. Technological features of the spool design and the number of working antennae determine the sequence of actions.

Coil with two working tendrils

In this type of spool, you should determine the number of grooves for winding the line, lying on the inside of the spool:

  • one groove. both antennae are wound together in one groove;
  • two grooves. each antenna is wound on an individual groove.

For both cases, a line with a length of 2-3 m is taken.In single-groove reels, the line is pulled into a through hole, its ends (antennae) are folded together and aligned, after which they are wound in the opposite direction of rotation of the bobbin on the rod side. inside the arrow usually indicates the correct direction of winding. If there are fixing grooves, the ends of the fishing line are threaded through them or held with the fingers of the free hand, they are threaded into the through hole of the outer half of the bobbin, the spool is closed and attached to the trimmer bar.

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The difference in line winding in double-groove spools is that initially a 2-5 m long line segment is folded in half (to determine the middle fold), and the fold loop is inserted into a special groove between the grooves. Both antennae of the fishing line are wound each along its own groove, fixing the antennae and assembling the coil is similar to the above option with one groove.

The first execution of this procedure, perhaps, will seem long and rather laborious, but with time and experience this task will be solved much faster and easier.

The video below will clearly show how to thread the line into the spool of the grass trimmer and wind it correctly. this operation is not difficult and with some patience it will certainly be crowned with success:

How do I load the line into the spool of the grass trimmer? Video instruction

Warranty production of the factory fill of the grass trimmer will inevitably require a line change. Having a very rough idea of ​​how to thread the line into the reel of a grass trimmer on their own, beginners are reluctant to take up this business. However, with some skills, mastering this simple science does not present any difficulties, and the similar instruction presented below will make this process as easy as possible.