greenant88

Ah- thank you so much! So each year they have to get an inch or so bigger. Thats the difference between reading a website with no experience "cut back to the same point each year" and with experience knowing 'how' to read that ("cut back to the same point-ish i.e slightly less each year").

Hello, Wishing you all are well. I wondered if someone with experience had an insight into this: I cut a leylandii cypress hedge early May after i guessef frosts were over (east anglia, uk), and made sure to leave a good 5-6 inches minimum of green foliage when I cut, and cut back to the same place roughly as last year. The hedge overall appears in fine, but is peppered with 'brown tips' at the site of each cut, about a few mm deep at each place. My intial thoughts and guesses were that, maybe my hedge cutter isn't powerful enough (greenworks 40v) for a clean cut and 'chewed' the hedge a bit, or the blades aren't as sharp as last year and my home sharping not up to par. Or is early May still too cold? (Leylandii.com recommended pruning once a year in spring or summer). Thank you in advance for any replies. (Attached pics) Regards

Thank you

Hello, With the current spells of rain around here in the East of the UK, I wondered if anyone uses their Stihl or other brand petrol hedge cutter in the rain, as I thought I could do hedges trimming jobs on the rainy days I am not mowing. Additionally; does anyone mow in light to moderate rain? Regards (Have a Stihl KM 56 RC the manual doesn't mention rain and Mountfield mower with a Honda engine)

Update: Thank you for everyone who replied. I took said stihl combi to a local garden machinery mechanic who diagnosed that the shaft of the trimmer attachment wasn't sitting fully into the motor housing due to some bent pins and the collar of the housing having moved forward which was stopping it properly aligning. He assured me that the vibration levels are now normal after moving the collar and re aligning the pins(and he said even better than the usual compared to other similar models) and also said he took apart the clutch and other parts to fully check it over. He did also said that the Stihl KM 56 RC is generally more of a residential model compared to that of a more expensive pro model which has some additional dampeners inside (which helps people using them for hours a day). It appears at first glance to be much much better vibration wise after his work, although some vibration is expected - and now able to use it for work the next situation that arrises. Thank you

No - if its ok without an attachment that would mean its the attachement that has a bent shaft? I will try that tomorrow. If it is the attachement and its obvious then I can explain to the seller. Then I won't need a mechanic (unless I try and see if he'll fix the attachement). Thank you very much and good thinking about trying it without the attachment. Makes total sense now to try it.

Hi thank you for the reply. I can say from my observations: -Starting it up: leaving it idling on the the ground its 'jumping' around -Under load it seems less jumpy and more sustained, the same high vibration levels but faster. Under load I didn't notice it being more comfortable to use I believe, just more sustained. I was so surprised by the level of vibration that at the job I just tried to get it over with. Sitting at home 4 hours later and my wrist is beginning to feel sore - im glad that it ran out of fuel after 5 minutes now! Im wondering now that theres something wrong - when I collected it I didnt meet the seller rather his wife, and I noticed it jumping around on the floor initally. I figured it was because its so light. 2 hours in the car can make you believe whatever you want. I sent him a message on ebay and will see if he can confirm this. I did get it for a good price.

Thanks for both of your replies. I'll have a check about if its properly greased and if its all straight - then invest in it a bit more sending it to the mechanic to check it out if necessary. I am hopeful as otherwise its perfect (low weight, can fit in the car disassembled).

Hi first time poster, long time lurker! I wanted to ask: Is it normal to use a 'long reach' petrol hedge cutter for only a few minutes and the vibrations be so strong that your arms hurt and feel numb? Normal in the sense of thats just how they work. Yesterday I took the leap and bought a second hand Stihl KM 56 RC (the combi engine) with the HL-KM 145° KombiTool (long reach hedge cutter) which was in excellent condition. I have previously used both regular and heavier duty 'normal' length Stihl hedge cutters (like the HS 82 RC) belonging to other people and never noticed the vibrations before even after 30+ minutes. Today I used it for the first time for a maximum of 5 minutes and I thought my arms were going to fall off afterwards! I realise that the light weight nature of this tool vs the 'standard' stockier one would increase the vibrations (the specs say ~8m/s vibrations for long vs ~3m/s for the normal length cutters) - but the test run makes me want put in on facebook for a loss and call it quits before using it again. Any thoughts much appreciated. Thank you