[net.consumers] modular weed-eaters/grass-whackers etc.

flowers@ucla-cs.UUCP (02/18/86)

Does anyone have any experience or positive or negative comments about
modular weed-eaters/grass-wackers etc.?  (modular in the sense that
the tools at the end are interchangable so that one handle + many heads
are capable of many different functions).

I have seen two.  One, called The Green Machine, has a strong trimmer,
a rotary saw, a soil churner, and a few others I've forgotten all
which seem useful.  It comes in electric and gas models of varying
power capacities.  They had a few ads in Organic Gardening last year
and are pushing the modularity as a selling point.

Sears has a few additional heads, including a soil weeder, to some of
their models but not the variety that the Green Machine has.

I'm interested in knowing:

  - does the modularity work, or are there problems in hooking everything
     up effectively

  - how well do the soil churner/weeder heads work?  Sears has the kind
     that look like blender blades mounted sideways.  The Green Machine's
     blades are like two doll arms that alternate up and down.  How
     deep can one effectively churn the soil with either of these?
     (I have a hilly site which lawnmowers tillers etc. won't help on).

With these tools, the arrangement of being mounted on the end of a long
handle does not seem like it would optimize force and maybe be cumbersome,
for the applications which require a lot of force (churning soil,
sawing branches), unlike grass whacking which "only "needs you to hold the
thing above the ground.

Any comments, pointers to articles evaluating these tools, or pointers
to additional models are appreciated.