Small Engines (Lawn Mowers, etc.): sears trimmer will not start, sears craftsman, commercial landscapers

Question
I have a 2 year old 32cc sears craftsman brush master that will not start.I have replaced the carb and gaskets, check the fuel lines for blockage, replaced the spark plug and checked it for spark, checked for compression, replaced the fuel with new and pulled the muffler for carbon build up - all OK. I had to replace the housing that the carb bolts to because of a stripped out bolt hole. I transferred the reed valve over to the new housing, put it all together with no luck. All I get is a slight pop out the carb once in a while. Is there an adjustment for the reed valve? Everything looks like it should start, but it doesn't. It ran the first time I started it this season for about 10 min and then quit. It did the same thing last season and I replaced the carb and all was good, but not this time. Help?

Answer
If they sell it at Sears it's crap.  This is a throwaway trimmer that I won't even touch in my shop.  Pull the muffler off again, look at the piston through the exhaust port.  It should look perfect.  If it has deposits or scores on it you're done.  also look through to the far side of the cylinder.  It needs to look perfect also.

We all grew up using Craftsmen products.  They use to be fairly decent equipment.  In the 60's and 70's Sears didn't really have any competition.  If you needed a mower they were the only game in town.   Fast forward to the present.  Sears has competition everywhere when it comes to mowers.  Depot, Lowe's etc... If sears wants to sell mowers now they have to be price competitive with the big box stores.  To achieve their mower sales goals they have to sell crap like the "Big Two".

There are only 3 or 4 companies that build a truly reliable, lifetime investment trimmer.  Shindaiwa is my personal favorite.  Are you a fisherman? Shindaiwa is part of Daiwa, the fishing reel maker. RedMax is a little known brand unless you are a commercial mower. They are possibly #1 in sales in the US for commercial landscapers.  Echo and Stihl make OK products. A "quality" brushcutter will cost at least 250.00.  If you look at the big picture, 1 Craftsman brush cutter + 2 carbs (one this year one last year) + an insulator + misc gaskets + time and frustration.  Add it all up and you can see the value in a premium trimmer.