As I walked along one of our paths the brush was over the path right at eye level. I planned to go back and forth on that section a lot today and decided to cut it back. It was a patch of brush that had long bothered us and I thought I'd cut it all out. So, I got nippers, draw saw, chain saw, and wheeled trimmer with a saw blade.
We nipped and we sawed and we wheeled. We gathered all the cuttings up and piled them for later chipping. As I was moving the wheeled trimmer back and forth suddenly the handle felt all wrong. The upper handle on one side was no longer attached to the lower handle. Oh, no! The tightening knob had fallen off.
We looked and looked around our work area in vain. I went to one previous work area while my wife went to another farther away. I didn't find the knob. I went in to call Denny's Lawn and Garden to order another. I pulled out the manual to get the part number. I picked up the cordless phone to call and wondered if Denny's number was in the handset directory. It wasn't. I fiddled and faddled with putting the number in. Once I got in, I couldn't bring the number up. Just then my wife hollered from outside, "I found it!"
She had gone along the path past our work area without success. When she came back, the sun was at the right angle to reflect off the metal threads of the knob. Whew! We could continue using trimmer for the day.
I got out my tube of Threadlocker Blue and applied it to the bolts on each side and cranked down the knobs as tight as I could. Now, it should require a good grip or a ViseGrip to get the knobs off.
I should know better. This is the third time that a pre-assembled piece of equipment has had nuts come loose.
I had a sickle mower that wore parts out because of loose nuts or the nuts would disappear in the grass. I had to use it with a 13mm socket wrench in my pocket to tighten the nuts frequently. Finally, I put Loctite on them each time I changed the blade and had few, if any, problems with lost nuts thereafter.
I bought a trailer mounted chipper and shortly after I started using it, one of the tail lights became loose. The nut had disappeared. I better fix that light before I haul the chipper back for any service.
Maybe I will learn to put a thread-locker compound on all potentially loose nuts on any pre-assembled equipment that shakes, rattles, or rolls. Hah! Maybe I should ask the assembling store if they have used Loctite. Hah! That will probably cut their margins.
