Thought I'd put this info out there. I used to have the articulating hedge trimmer head with the rod as angle adjuster handle, until a bevel gear fractured a tooth. $200 gear. Not. So I bought the current articulation head. $400. Fast forward to my discovery that it ate itself in short order from the inside out. Saw it happen to another guy too. Discovered they mixed magnesium and aluminum castings, magnesium "anode" sacrificed itself. JB weld and some new needle bearings to the rescue. Painted every internal surface with grease to try to prevent repeat.
Fast forward, caught in sudden downpour the other day. Conscientiously kept it out of direct rain, transported home in cab of truck. Finished after shower on wet hedge. Suspected water in sliding blades, into shop for dryout. Let sit a day or two till I got a round Tuit.
Found some corrosion powder on the exterior of the magnesium cover which had dried. Pulled it apart on suspicion, when I cracked the cover water ran out! Drops and puddles of water we intermixed with the copious preventative grease.
So WTH? I figured the only way for ingress was up the sliding interface of the blades via gravity, reaching up to cut which is normal. Never had any such issue, corrosion with the previous all aluminum model. For many years.
Then as I was disassembling it I turned it to shake out the water droplets. Out came a bunch of the stupid little loose needle bearings from the oscillating assembly. Vision test to spot all the little buggers and then microsurgery test to get them all placed, one by one, back into the race with just enough grease to hold them. Old unit was simple bushings that never effed up.
So it's a warning about the newer unit. Corrosion prone, will eat itself and self destruct, and has a propensity to ingest water at the slightest exposure, and is a royal pain in the a__ to service once this occurs.
Keep your older units in service if you can. IMO
Fast forward, caught in sudden downpour the other day. Conscientiously kept it out of direct rain, transported home in cab of truck. Finished after shower on wet hedge. Suspected water in sliding blades, into shop for dryout. Let sit a day or two till I got a round Tuit.
Found some corrosion powder on the exterior of the magnesium cover which had dried. Pulled it apart on suspicion, when I cracked the cover water ran out! Drops and puddles of water we intermixed with the copious preventative grease.So WTH? I figured the only way for ingress was up the sliding interface of the blades via gravity, reaching up to cut which is normal. Never had any such issue, corrosion with the previous all aluminum model. For many years.
Then as I was disassembling it I turned it to shake out the water droplets. Out came a bunch of the stupid little loose needle bearings from the oscillating assembly. Vision test to spot all the little buggers and then microsurgery test to get them all placed, one by one, back into the race with just enough grease to hold them. Old unit was simple bushings that never effed up.
So it's a warning about the newer unit. Corrosion prone, will eat itself and self destruct, and has a propensity to ingest water at the slightest exposure, and is a royal pain in the a__ to service once this occurs.
Keep your older units in service if you can. IMO
