It was on special at Canadian Tire for $100.00 off, and I have an overgrown site for a shed to be cleared, so I got one of these shredders.
There's some assembly involved; none of it complicated. Here's a view of what all comes in the box.
Assembly tools are included. There are two socket-wrenches/hex-keys.
The socket wrenches are 13mm for the axle nuts. There's a 5mm hex key for the leg fasteners, and a 6mm hex key for the blade fasteners.
Here's the machine fully assembled and ready to run.
A brief trial with some dry, hard twigs yielded good results; the machine appears to do a credible job within its limited capacity.
Next up will be to set the machine up at my job site with a long, heavy-gauge extension cord, and get on with clearing out a few sickly little cedar trees, and a small jungle of miscellaneous growth.
Following are some observations on the machine's line-cord/plug and its blades.
Line Cord/Plug
The motor is a double-insulated design, so there's only a polarized two-prong plug -- no ground conductor/pin. The line cord is very short, and the plug has a hood to it, like so.
I don't mind the short line cord that necessitates an extension cord, but the hooded plug is a bit silly; the hood limits what you're able to plug the plug into. It certainly won't plug into the triple receptacle end of my heavy gauge extension cord.[1] Ideally, you'd use a two-conductor extension cord, but those tend to be light gauge units. You're unlikely to find a 14 AWG (American Wire Gauge) two-conductor extension cord, and 14 AWG is what's called for for a 15 amp machine like this one. I may end up just snipping away the hood from the plug.
The Blades
Here's a view of the machine opened up, and a close-up of the cutter head.
There are two reversible blades that look like they can be sharpened some limited number of times. The Instruction Manual that comes with the machine mentions that the blades can be replaced, but gives no part number for replacements.
I called the YardWorks support number to enquire about that. The person at YardWorks indicated that blades might be available as a 'special order' item, but he'd have to get back to me with further information; he didn't have a part number or price right at hand.
Hmmm. We'll see how that turns out. I won't be at all pleased should replacement blades be unavailable, or ridiculously priced.
Anyway, I'll let you know what becomes of my replacement blades enquiry, and how the shredder stands up to the work I have in store for it.
- - -
A 14 AWG Extension Cord -- SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2018
That hood on the line cord's plug was bugging me, and I didn't want to snip it away for fear of voiding the machine's warranty, so I came up with a two-prong extension cord.
I had on hand a two-prong receptacle, a three-prong plug and a 7 1/2' length of salvaged 14/3 SJTW[2] line cord material. That all went together to make this.
It's a little unorthodox, but it gives me a cord that fits the shredder's plug properly, and is the suitable wire gauge for the machine's 15 amp current draw.
There -- ready for service.
- - -
Performance -- TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2018
I'm delighted with the machine. It did all that I needed it to for clearing out my shed site. Some caution is in order, though.
With big branches that are nearing the machine's 1 3/4" capacity, it's wise to restrain branches from feeding as fast as the machine will take them. The cutters can cut faster than they can eject cuttings, and it is possible to clog up the works to where the motor is perceptibly labouring and slowing. Here's what a clog looks like.
That has to be cleared out by hand, until the outlet chute is clear of chips.
Safety
The shredder is well-thought-out and perfectly safe to use. One would have to be really, really trying in order to be injured by the machine. That said, wear gloves and eye protection. When feeding hard branches, the cutters can give them a violent jerk at times that will smack your hand soundly, and/or throw off brittle pieces.
Blade Durability
I'm impressed. After all the work I did to clear my shed site, I expected the blades to be dulled, but they still look pretty much like new.
Blade Replacements
I never did get a part number or a price for replacement blades. but YardWorks kindly sent me a set for free in response to my qeury.
In Conclusion
The shredder exceeded my expectations. I'm glad I bought it. It turned a formidable amount of material into easily disposed of mulch effortlessly.
* * *
Notes:
[1] My job site is over 100' from an outlet; that's a long way to go with an extension cord. 12 AWG cords are costly, but well worth it. With a 12 gauge extension cord, you have no worries that voltage drop will result in poor machine performance.
[2] Here's a glossary of wire and cable terms. 'SJTW' is in there, along with several other of those arcane line cord material terms.
# # #
# # #
No comments:
Post a Comment