Pruning Lopper Maintenance (bolt adjustment and lubrication)
For your pruning loppers to perform at its best, it is important to maintain the correct bolt adjustment. The notes below outline the process for adjusting the handle and centre bolts to keep your pruning loopers in good working order.
A the bottom of the page is a short video of the adjustment processes.
Centre Bolt Adjustment: (bolting the blades together)
- To adjust the tightness, tap the star washer tab down slightly so that the corner of the nut can move past.
- Hold the head of the bolt with one spanner and then tighten the nut with another spanner.
- To check the correct tightness, hold the lopper horizontal by both handles in the closed position then let the bottom handle go, it should just fall slowly, or can be moved down easily.
- Now select the tab that matches the straight side of the nut and lock the tab up against the nut, you can if you like tap the one you undid back against the nut as well.
Handle Bolt Adjustment: (bolting the blades to the handles) PLEASE note the handle holes are threaded, that is why the bolt goes through the curved blade from the opposite side.
- We recommend you remove the center bolt that holds the two blades together. A very fine adjustment of the handle bolts is then possible.
- After identifying which bolt is loose, fit a spanner to the head of the bolt, and another to the nut.
- Hold the bolt from turning with one spanner, and with the other spanner undo the nut anti clock wise a quarter of a turn.
- Turn the bolt clock wise to tighten to the correct adjustment. As the bolt won’t move you can check the adjustment by ensuring the blade moves freely.
- To lock the bolt, hold the bolt from turning, and tighten the nut turning it clockwise until it is tight.
Fitting new Handle Bolts: Remove the blades centre bolt, this will make it easier when adjusting the bolt to the right tightness.
- Clean the area of any loose paint or gum.
- Add a little oil to the thread area.
- Fit the washer and bolt the straight or curved blade to the handle.
- Make sure that the bolt is tight down so that the blade does not move.
- Fit the nut to the bolt and tighten, but not too tight, now hold the nut from turning and undo the bolt a little till the blade moves freely but without any slop.
- Now hold the bolt from turning and tighten the nut.
Use a ½”/13mm spanner, don’t use excessive tightness. Keeping loppers sharpened with the diamond sharpener and using a slight swivel movement of the lopper when cutting will put less strain on the user and the lopper.
Lubrication:
To get the best performance from your pruning loppers keep them well lubricated. This will help the Pro-Pruner parts last longer and you will find that it is much easier for you to prune.
We recommend a 75/25 mixture of Salad cooking oil and Methylated spirits (meltico). The oil is not expensive and the methylated spirits helps remove the gum and allows the oil to penetrate the bolt and washer area.
Download PDF of Pro-Pruner Technical Notes
