I am new to gardening and looking to buy a trimmer/edger. I was told
that you can also buy a brush cutter blade from local homedepot and
replace the string with the blade to cut small bushes and weeds in my
backyard.
Can anyone give me advice on what kind/make to buy? Can I buy electric
trimmer/edger's like black and decker for 50$ and buy the extra blade
or do I need to buy a gas trimmer?

Thanks,

A brush cutter model starts at about 160$ - the cheaper ones dont have the
capacity to take the abuse.

Now the blades that come with them will only cut a small 1/2 or so brush..

go to a true hardware store like burke brothers and they sell REAL cutter
blades for your trimmer. Just bring the useless blade they give you with
you so they can see the dimensions.

tomatolord


"Nagaraj" wrote in message
...
I am new to gardening and looking to buy a trimmer/edger. I was told
that you can also buy a brush cutter blade from local homedepot and
replace the string with the blade to cut small bushes and weeds in my
backyard.
Can anyone give me advice on what kind/make to buy? Can I buy electric
trimmer/edger's like black and decker for 50$ and buy the extra blade
or do I need to buy a gas trimmer?

Thanks,

I bought a Ryobi trimmer a couple of years ago - it takes several other
attachments as well, and they're very easy to switch. I use a blower
attachment for removing leaves from the lawn in fall, the trimmer
attachment for weed-eating, and the tiller attachment for doing our
small garden beds. All the attachments work great, and save a lot of
money over buying individual power tools. They have an edger attachment
as well.

MAC

make sure that whatever model you get has big (wide) handlebar-style grips
on the shaft instead of the little 'D'-shaped handle. plastic strings give
when they hit something hard, but metal blades do not. without sufficient
leverage to control the thing, it will be bouncing and kicking all over the
place...which is decidedly *not* safe.

an excellent alternative to the rotating blade is a model with
interchangeable attachments (as previously mentioned). i have one (a stihl
fs85r) which accepts a reciprocating hedge-clipper blade. you can use it as
a long-handled hedge-clipper (excellent for big bushes without having to get
up on a ladder while weilding this scary tool), or you can angle it slightly
and use them down by the ground like a powered scythe. they'll cut 1/2"
brush easily, and will handle up to maybe 3/4" with a little 'gnawing'.

fwiw,

dookie


"Nagaraj" wrote in message
...
I am new to gardening and looking to buy a trimmer/edger. I was told
that you can also buy a brush cutter blade from local homedepot and
replace the string with the blade to cut small bushes and weeds in my
backyard.
Can anyone give me advice on what kind/make to buy? Can I buy electric
trimmer/edger's like black and decker for 50$ and buy the extra blade
or do I need to buy a gas trimmer?

Thanks,