Garden Buildings, Garden Tools and Equipment > General discussion

Buying spare parts for a Stick Edger

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ideasguy:
One of my best and most useful items in my gardening equipment list is a Homelite PS3000 stick edger.
It gives a razor sharp edge to my borders and paths (One of the features of my garden is the soft grass paths - I HATE hardscaping!)
I call the edging "The icing on the cake". Its unbelievable the effect it has in making the garden look good.

Its petrol driven. It has its problems, but I have managed to get spare parts from the original supplier in the past.

Until the blade wore away. I see it was originally a 9in blade, and when edging as new, it sliced about 2ins down a border edge.  Now its worn down so much that it doesnt reach down far enough.
So, I go looking for a replacement blade, and find that the supplier has ceased to support Homelite products.
Its made in the US, so I searched the net and found my item here (Kansas):
http://www.mow-parts.com/Shop/Homelite/Homelite-Edger_Blades.htm

It was $2.95, and with the exchange rate, that makes it a LOT cheaper than the price quoted a year ago by my local UK supplier (£9.95)
So, Ive placed an order for 2, and now wait to see how if they deliver.
One concern - they dont advise shipping costs until date of despatch.

NightHawk:
You're braver than I am George.  I would have liked to know the shipping costs at the time of purchase  :o

Our past experience of buying certain items from the US is that the shipping costs can far exceed the purchase price of the item.

I suppose if you're limited for suppliers of an item you desperately need, then you don't have a lot of choice.

Just keep your fingers tightly crossed.

Good luck with that.

Laurie.

P.S. You'll have to post a photo of this bit of equipment.  I've never heard of a motorised one before.

ideasguy:
Heres a web page which shows a stick edger.
http://www.deere.com/en_US/ProductCatalog/HO/servlet/com.deere.u90785.cce.productcatalog.view.servlets.ProdCatProduct?pNbr=UT22100&tM=HO&link=enav

Imagine this. The device is like a blade type lawnmower working in the vertical plane (rather that the horizontal)
Thus, the blade can slice into the turf.
Normally, you start off with a preformed edge to your border, with a 4 to 6in edge to the path.
The edger can smooth the contour of the path edge, leaving it VERY precisely defined and clean looking
Heres an example from my garden:
http://www.ideasforgardens.com/gardenphotos/pics/IG100574.jpg

You can see more piccyy of my garden fropm links here:
http://www.ideasforgardens.com/photopages/pioneers.html

Oddly, not many gardeners seem to know about this machine. When my neighbour saw mine in action, he went out and bought one.

If the P&P is too much, I'll cut my losses!
During the transaction I entered UK, then N Ireland then the County I live in, so they got very precise details.
I expected the P&P to show up in the next screen after clicking Proceed, but nope, that was it. The deal was done.
To be continued...

NightHawk:
It looks a bit like what I would call a 'strimmer' for trimming lawn edges.  A 'stick edger' is probably what it's called in the US.

Our local council workers who are responsible for keeping grass verges tidy, use a pretol driven version.

I had an electrical strimmer not too long ago, that has a reel of thin plastic wire on a drum that automatically feeds out as the tip gets worn away.  I could never get the hang of it.  The wire always got tangled up and split off, then I'd have to rethread it to get it to work again.

I gave up in the end and got rid of it.

I now use a half-moon metal edger that you put your foot on like a spade to get your clean edges.  Fortunately our gardens aren't too big, otherwise it would take ages to do it manually.  I suppose if you have a big garden you've got to go for the power tools.

Laurie.

ideasguy:
I threw my cord strimmer away. Useless !

The Edger with the blade (above) is a completely different device (petrol driven).
It has a wheel, so you roll the edger along. It also keeps the business end of the edger stable, so user has much more control over guidance.

It takes me 15 to 20 mins to do ALL my edging. I must pace and count it some time to get an estimate of the length edged. A few hundred yards.

I think "stick" comes from the name to describe the long shaft/handle ??
I know the half moon tool you use Laurie. Even with a small garden, you'd never believe the difference when you use the stick edger. Hint hint to Kathy for Christmas  ;)

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