Anyone have any experience calibrating a spreader? I have a Scotts walk rotary. To be honest it roughly accurate but I hate the thing…they made a decent one a decade ago but the new models tend to clog and I just don’t like them. I almost (and still might) by the entry level Shindaiwa. It looks to be similar to the old old Scott’s design which always worked fine for me.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Anyway, in my travels, I saw a tow behind on sale at Lowes for $63. (plus I had a 10% off---you see where this is going) The reviews essentially said the sucker was well built BUT where it failed was in uniformly spreading your seed/fertilizer ect. It would seem that no matter what setting you made it would open more and more as it was used. Well, for that price I figured I could engineer a solution to that problem so I bought one.

First, and this is not the fault of the spreader, you sort of somehow need to calculate how ‘open’ the trap should be to properly spread the fertilizer evenly for the bag size (5K / 10K / 15K etc). They give you some formula which requires taking measurements and weighing fertilizer….or you can just guess and wing it. I lean towards the latter so long as I do not end up emptying what should cover my whole house in just the front yard! Does anyone who has used a Scotts spreader know if there is any consistency between the opening I’d see on the Scotts spreader to any other spreader of any other size? Ex: if the Scotts calls for say a 3/8” opening, would another spreader yield similar results at that 3/8” setting? Again…I am not concerned if it’s not 100% precise.

Second, while the thing is actually made quite well, instructions made sense etc etc…the reviews were right. No matter what setting you make, sucker manages to pop open as its used. I f you open and close it, that seems to screw with the setting as well. It’s just a bad design. I have some thoughts on how I might solve that issue…but it involves altering the product in such a way as I might now be able to return it! Before I do that, I am hoping to get some feedback on my issue above.