Gas lawn edger

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A gas lawn edger or edger is a piece of lawn equipment used for trimming the edges of lawns in between sidewalk and the edge of the lawn around garden borders. A basic gas lawn edger consists of an engine, Belt tensioner, pulleys and a blade. It should not be confused with a stick edger or a push edger.

Most lawn edgers incorporate a belt and two pulleys (one on the engine and the other on the blade head) and a belt tensioner used for going deeper into the grass. And gaining more RPM. Some gas edgers also have a device called a "robot head", used for adjusting the pitch of an edger head between the horizontal and the vertical with degrees in between. Some edger brands such as King O' Lawn had a blade clutch so that you wouldn't have to pull up on the belt tensioner to stop the blade. The drive system on a common edger is a belt drive from the two pulleys. Husqvarnaa uses a worm gear shaft drive system. One disadvantage to the shaft drive system that you lose engine power. Chain drive would be ineffective as you would damage the blade, sprocket and engine if you were going to hit something solid. As it would cause a sudden "jerk" and rip off teeth off the sproket. One advantage to the belt drive system is that the belt will skip if you hit something solid. The blade on an edger is usually made from cast steel and is usually left to be sharpened by the buyer, on a grinder. Or cast sharp from the factory.

[edit] Engines

Most edgers use a four-stroke engine with 2 or 3.5 horsepower, although some early edgers used a 1.75 horsepower engine. Some modern edgers use engines ranging from 3.5 to 4 horsepower, and some economy edgers use a two-stroke 39cc engine. Great horsepower is not needed on an edger because only small amounts of grass are trimmed.