Poor powertool design

[Paddington]

Cordless drills, why no trigger guard ? Corded drills usually have these so why not cordless drills which may be used say up a ladder or under a vehicle where the last thing you need is the drill to be knocked on with a sharp bit in place.
DeWalt cordless strimmers. I've owned loads of cordless strimmers where you simply remove the spool to wind line on, put back, line through hole and cover on. Job done in a couple of minutes.

De Walt procedure: cut 8m of line, lift up head of strimmer to see what you are doing, lock head with screwdriver etc after lining up locking hole with cut out in guard, turn spool hole to line up with locking hole and insert line through one spool hole through the spool and out through the other spool hole. Pull 4m of line through the middle of the spool (still holding screwdriver in place and supporting strimmer head. Now, still supporting strimmer head, keeping screwdriver in place, start to turn the spool assembly keeping some tension on both ends of the line until the line is wound on...
In the workshop the strimmer can be held in a workmate but not easy out in the field where both arms and legs are needed to do the job

 

[tinman]

You need to get yourself one of these, no more faffin about, just pull the old cord out and stick a new one in.

Abbey Garden Machinery

 

[Gerbert]

I've used such a head, they suck. The serrated line is a good idea but won't flow through an automatic head. Cutting upto 2 cm braches with it is nice. But to me it defeats the point of a strimmer, put a knife on it while your at it and be done with it.
It might have it's places I am sure, meanwhile I have a spool of the "nylsaw" stuff lying around.

 

[tinman]

I've used such a head, they suck. The serrated line is a good idea but won't flow through an automatic head. Cutting upto 2 cm braches with it is nice. But to me it defeats the point of a strimmer, put a knife on it while your at it and be done with it.
It might have it's places I am sure, meanwhile I have a spool of the "nylsaw" stuff lying around.

the one i linked to or the one Paddington is on about Gerbert.

i thought the serrated line was a good plan but after using it once i didnt like it for what i was at at least.
the oregon head thats in my link i use here, i personally find it a great head, just pull new line in every time you need to , you have to keep cut lths for it but i do nip off ten or twenty every so often and use em as i go.
it was the only head i ever found to be simple and it worked all the time every time.

 

[Gerbert]

Yeah I see the lack of clearity in my post now, I ment the one you posted. Surely there are different makers of them so maybe I just had a bad one. With mine either the ends got stuck or refused to lock in properly.
Either way, it didn't float my boat.

 

[tinman]

Your not far wrong tho, when the head "bites" into the line to hold it times I'd have to use a pair of long nosed pliers to pull the used bit out before replacing it, sometimes it will just push out, I havnt seen it not refuse to grip line tho and it's an oregon I have.

Mate who is a landscaper put me onto it, said it was the only fool proof one he found, no faffin about, threading in, winding up, just push it in and it holds til you wear it out.

It's on a fairly heavy strimmer that I have, I have a hand held Honda 2 stroke for light bits and the head on it is simple, again you need to use a cut lth but you just loosen the nut on the bottom, pull out the old and push in the new, the end of the threads just crimp it in place and off you go but its not suitable for a heavy strimmer, bulletproof tho on the small one.