Need help with Premier 4000 Shears

[HeatherL]

We bought a pair of the Premier 4000 shears to shear our small flock ourselves. We were able to somewhat shear 2 suffolk crosses but the shears would not work on our Targhees. We ended up giving up last year and now we have a bigger mess with matts on those girls. The cutters and combs were sharpened (we tried shearing with new combs/cutters and then sent them to Premier to be sharpened) but they still seemed like they wouldn't cut. Even when we first got them it seemed like they would work for a few minutes and then that was it.

I am sure this is a tensioning problem. The instructions say to turn until resistance and then one more turn after that (going off memory at the moment). I don't have a lot of grip strength so I'm sure that I feel resistance before other people. It just seems like I can't tension them correctly. Anyone else familiar with these shears and care to share any hints?

 

[purplequeenvt]

It sounds like a tension problem. You can call Premier, they should be able to give you some good pointers. You might even be able to send the shears to them and they can go over them to see if something is wrong.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

Premier should be able to walk you through adjusting the tension if you give them a call. They're very helpful.

One trick is to hold the shears up by the tensioning knob and twist until the shears swing back and forth instead of the knob turning. You often need to readjust after running them for a little while too because they will loosen during use. Make sure to keep the whole machine well oiled too! Nothing will burn your shears out faster than running them without oil.