"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Frank P wrote:

[Note crossposted to uk.d-i-y,uk.rec.gardening]

I have an old 28cc McCulloch Strimmer (without brushcutter attachment)
and I'm getting really tired of having to replace the line, and the
'bump feed' has never worked since day one so I'm forever having to
stop to feed out more line from the spool.

So, what's to stop me (other than for safety reasons) from replacing
the plastic line with say, stout steel wire?

Pros & Cons?



I am also interested in the answer to this.

Looks like a case for a bit of DIY experimentation to find out the life
expectancy of the steel wire.
I would guess that the failure mode would most likely be from fatigue
fractures bought about by the bending of the wire while it is doing
effective work. The kind of wire selected would make a huge difference to
the results. One example could be steel locking wire which copes well with
bending stress but would abrade fairly quickly. Another would be to try
stainless steel to which the opposite may apply.

However I will stick with the standard nylon line as the thought of steel
wire fragments leaving the cutter at high speed fills me with horror. One
could on the other hand make use of a brush cutter attachment :-))

Richard.