Put a Sawblade on my Weedeater

I live on 24 acres and have let my front yard/field get out of hand. I have 15ft tall sumac taking it over. I started looking at options for brushcutting and found out about forestry blades for string trimmers. I bought a Stihl FS90R and an 8" 20 tooth Renegade brush blade and mounting kit the other day.

Ho-lee-crap! This thing is like waving a lightsaber around.

The size of the tree you can cut is set by the blade depth---nothing slows it down. If I can put the tree on the left side of the blade it's very controllable. Couldn't get it on the left when I hit that in the video.

I cut some 20ft tall 6" trees down by reaching up and cutting them from the top down so there wasn't a bunch of weight on the blade. Went around the base to get thru them. I sprayed the blade down with PTFE spray occasionally to keep sap from sticking.

I cut one 8" split trunk cedar by cutting the two stalks off as low as I could then turning the blade straight up and splitting the thick trunk. Cut it in halves. You can cut more brush than you want to with this thing. I have to pace myself cleaning up as I go. I trapped myself in a brush pile and had to cut my way out lol. Need to cut from the end to the start next time.

https://youtu.be/zHduAQovdjg

 

Probably be wise to put the guard back on it.

 

I made one of those myself about 20yrs ago. Had it on there about 2min until I realized what a bad idea it was...

 

If you need a guard on a weed wacker to keep from hurting yourself, you should hire a lawn service.

 

Safety Sally checking in here.

 

he good

 

Your an idiot..

 

You're

 

Whats the mount kit you used? I didnt see one on my quick search of their website, i have the same weed eater. I have a skid road i need to cut trail through on my hunting property thats been overgrown by madrone bushes.

 

That's terrifyingly amazing.

 

You didn't do very well in your middle school grammar classes.

 

Lol. It does say a lot about your ability to control your equipment doesn't it?

This one.

Gardening Machine Lawnmower Blade Adapter Attachment Maintenance Kit for STIHL String Trimmers FS120 FS130 FS130R FS200 FS200R FS250 Brush Cutter by YMHB

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JGM45CB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Most of the blades I've seen in the box stores are the coarse 4-toothed blade which is not very good, plus they don't have mounts for Stihl trimmers. The Renegade blades are flat out awesome.

Now to the safety folks: If you're worried about it then please don't buy one of these. My trimmer didn't have a guard when I bought it used and I figured I'd see if I needed one. After clearing 1/2 acre with it the other day I really don't need one. The blade cuts a thin area of the brush and doesn't throw stuff around. Theses blades are built for trimmers so it's not like I mounted a blade not intended for the equipment. This isn't any more dangerous than a chainsaw type limb trimmer--it's 6ft from you folks.

In other thoughts: After reading Renegade's website I bought a couple more blades. They recommend the silver 80T blade for brush so I bought one of those in 8" and I bought a 9" red 68T blade.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1pk-8-80t-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Blade-9-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Use a hydraulic version at work, will cut just about anything if you keep them sharp

 

Those things are awesome. My tractor doesn't have the pump volume to run one though.

I had looked into fabbing a hydraulic tree snipper for my tractor loader bucket. I'm glad I went this direction as I can probably do much more work with it faster.

 

I agree for around the house I would definitely do what you did

 

Yeah, put a guard on it. I often work with a brushcutter (aka clearing saw). They can whip bullet-like rocks and pieces of wood at you even with one one, let alone off. And the entire device can unexpectedly swing/twist if you hit something the wrong way. Love my brushcutter. Has been as important as my chainsaw when clearing/cleaning-up the woods.

 

Safety glasses and pants dont really need more than that

 

Yeah I for sure see some blue jeans stopping that blade

 

I assume he means kevlar pants or chaps.

I use the "handle-bar" style brushcutter with a body harness. That'll keep the blade away from you, I've still had some close calls when stumbling. The body harness also makes a huge difference for control and extended cutting sessions.

As a friend put it, I'd rather look like a dork and keep my body parts than look tough with a prosthetic.

 

A couple things. First off, that is amazing awesome yet terrifying at the same time.

The second thing... Safety is everything on this.. and this comes from a guy who practices common sense on safety stuff and will skip the BS if I feel it's unnecessary for the work being done.

Since you are good at shopping at Home Depot, you may want to take a walk down to Walmart as well because you will have to be buying a new extremity or even an eye without a guard on that thing. Some may call it unnecessary, I call it Russian Roulette and it only works so many times before you fail at it.

When the hell did I turn into a parent?