A Journey of learning...: Bit by bit putting it together... a guide to assembling a whipper snipper (otherwise known as a Line Trimmer)

Yesterday I bought myself an Ozito cordless Line Trimmer from Bunnings Warehouse.

Today I decided to make a step by step photo guide to putting it together out of the box... Hopefully it will help some others of you out there. The instruction manual for this model is quite good but it always helps to know what to expect.. ie. is something a bit tough to snap into place etc.

So lets begin....
Step 1. Open the box and look inside

Step two: Take out all of the pieces and ensure that you have all the parts required before starting:

You should have: 1 x folded line trimmer, 1x Batter charger, 1 x ion lithium battery, 1 x black secondary handle, 1 x mounting bracket, 1 x safety guard, 1x packet of 10 plastic blades and 1 x instruction manual.

Step 3: Battery charging. Take the battery charger and plug it into an electrical outlet.

a little green light will come on to let you know that it is working.

Step 4: Match up the positive + and negative - signs on the battery to the corresponding signs on the charger

slide the battery into place on the charger

Now the light on the charger at the outlet will go red to show you that it is in charging mode. Leave the battery to charge for approx 2 hours (No more than 5 hours according to the manual)

Step 5: Unfolding and assembly of the shaft for the line trimmer. Take the top section

Line the ridges inside the handle to the grooves on the side of the shaft .... There is a large ridge which matches the wide groove and a small ridge which matches the thin groove see below...

Match them up and slide down until it locks into place.... (mine did not click or anything. In fact it was pretty difficult to get it to slide down the shaft but it seemed to be alright and hasn't moved)

Step 6: Do the same with the cutting head... this one did click into place and was easier than the handle part to put together

step 7: Have a coffee

step 8: It should now look like this

Step 9: Now for the secondary (black) handle.

The thing below is called a mounting bracket in the instructions... you need to flex it open and place it around the shaft in the position where you want the handle to sit... don't pull it out too far as it might snap... but just clip it around the handle as per my pic at right.

Step 10. The knob on the handle comes out... unscrew it anti-clockwise and pull the knob and the long bolt out as shown.

One side of the handle has a hole with a hexagonal space for the bolt's head to sit.... and the other side is just a circular hole where the end comes out that will screw onto the knob.

hexagonal space


circular hole

Step 11. Align the handle holes with the holes in the mounting bracket that is on the shaft and thread the bolt through. On my one the knob is on the right.. so the hexagonal shaped space on the handle had to be on the left hand side. Screw the knob in a clockwise direction to tighten the handle to the mounting bracket. This also means that the handle is tightly held on whatever position of the shaft that you placed the bracket. You can only move the bracket by loosening the knob.

And that part is done... It should look something like the pics below.... two more steps to go...

Step 12. Attaching the safety guard...

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you don't have the battery installed at this point!

This was probably the most difficult part of the project for me... due to needing a bit of extra strength.

Align the two little clip bits on the cutting head with the two little bits of plastic that are jutting out from the safety guard. See the pics below ....

Click into place...

I found that I had to put the thing between my legs and pull it into the clips rather than push it... that way I could use more leverage to get it on. Once it is on it will never come off according to the instructions. Same with the whole shaft... Once it is assembled it does not fold back down.

And now it should look like this....

It should be beginning to take shape...see below

The black tube at the bottom of the shaft can be easily loosened and the length of the shaft altered to suit your requirements.

You can adjust the head to 4 different angles... as per pic below....

Another feature of the trimmer is that its cutting head can be rotated into edging mode. Find the arrow on the side and rotate the head clockwise. If there is any resistance at all then you are probably trying to turn it the wrong way as it rotates very easily.

The little metal thingy at the front of the trimmer flips down and protects the blades when you are snipping around trees etc...