Thread: What size grinder?

After 35 years, I finally killed one of my 4" Japanese made Hitachi's. Has worked well. Every 5-6 years or so I repacked the grease in the bearings and blew out all the crap inside in the motor. Two wood shows ago, I bought a Metabo 4" made in Germany for that point alone. Time will tell if it is reliable. At $120 it was x2 the cost of Chinese (Makita, Hitachi, etc) so I thought it was OK at that price. I won't go down the path of green Bosch, Ryobi or Ozito cheapies.

Just recently, I bought a 4" Hitachi from Masters for $69 so that make grinder #4. Seems OK.

I like the 4" size. I have a 9" for big jobs but as has been said previously, it demands respect.

my2C worth.

George

Originally Posted by andrew_mx83

. . . . . As for face shields, grow a beard ya pack of girls!
Beard use #468 - Protecting from ingress of hot swarf (it really does work)

Another proof that hair does work is my two border collies will lay in lathe and drill press swarf all day.

That brings back a memory. My chocolate lab, about 20 years ago. I was cutting up redgum in the backyard. SWMBO came up and said where is Chokka. I dunno, I said. She was just here somewhere. A pile of red sawdust then started to rise up and shake, to reveal Chokka. She was asleep about 3 feet from where I was creating sawdust with my old McColloch thumper.

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

I have a couple of similar ones made by Uvex. They come with a lower shield that clips on but they are for Girls LOL. I tried using a pair for firewood cutting of "GREEN" wood and with a stiff breeze behind me they still filled up with sawdust. Took them off in disgust and found they have lots of small holes not noticed before. Even where the elastic strap connects with a plastic bracket has holes. I got to work with the silastic and completely sealed them. This worked but I still suffered the same problem I have with all face masks. Fogging up. I tried a normal face mask yesterday for grinding and it fogged up. This is a result of a medical condition. The only recourse is a bucket of water over the head and go hard. Safety glasses also fog up to a degree.

Got to try the mesh mask but I found the normal mask very constricting for movement to see where I am cutting so prob the same.

Re the beard. I wish I could grow one but sensitive skin, probably related to the same problem means that after about a week I feel like tearing my skin off to stop the irritation. The beard would work ok but make it a bit uncomfortable when a bit of welding spatter gets right in and takes a bit to remove. I tend to wait until I have finished a run before I remove offending spatter but sometimes this gets uncomfortable. Couple of weeks ago some got down or thru my sleeve and I thought it would cool down but by the time I finished the run, it was still hot and I had to shake it out from about the elbow. Stung a bit.

Dean

The holes are there so they can breathe and not fog up, if you block those you're gonna struggle for sure.


The welding slag that goes gets in your boot and melts through the sock and into the top of your foot are the worst!


I am a bit confused about the water bucket over your head. Sure it would keep the swarf out, but how can you see anything? )

Originally Posted by andrew_mx83

)

The holes are there so they can breathe and not fog up, if you block those you're gonna struggle for sure.

Yes I know that but if you are blinded by sawdust / chips then there is no point in having the goggles breathe. They don't breathe anywhere enough for me anyway.

I am a bit confused about the water bucket over your head. Sure it would keep the swarf out, but how can you see anything?

Cool me down so I don't give off so much moisture and fog up the mask / goggles.

The welding slag that goes gets in your boot and melts through the sock and into the top of your foot are the worst!

Been there too. Now I wear high sided work boots with laces and zips. Nothing gets in them, even water. My work pants cover the boots which keeps me slag free.

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

Re the guards. Watching Keith Fenner videos shows that he does not have guards on any of his grinders that I have seen. He also has an old drill press that has belts going everywhere with not a guard in sight. I cannot do what I do with angle grinders with the guard in place, and you cannot see to cut with them. I will probably get flamed for this. I am not suggesting anyone copy this. You need to make your own decisions on safety. Every new grinder I get I vow to leave the guard on but in a very short time I find I am unable to cut the way I want to.
Dean

What exactly do you do with your grinder???
I am struggling to imagine many scenarios where a grinder would not be usable with a guard.
I would be lying if I said I had never used a grinder without a guard, but it was a very rare circumstance. You sound like you regularly indulge in this behaviour.

Originally Posted by steamjunkprops

G'day guys,
Wondering opinions on a good angle grinder. I currently have a 115mm ryobi 1+ cordless grinder but i need some real power. Im looking at spending up to $150. What is a good size to be looking at? (No 9 inch grinders) and any models to look at?

Thanks in Advance Gents,
All help is appreciated,
Shane

5" is where the best compromise is, but $150 is probably at least $50 too low for anything remorely decent.
I once was a Dewalt fan, but now wouldn't touch them for serious use. Metabo also resided in my toolbox, but since I broke the shaft lock out of a $350, 13 month old Metabo 5" while ondoing it, I have sworn off them. The wheel wasn't even jammed tight. Makita are not the tools they once were either and AEG have become cheap hardware store crap. If you are seriously using your grinder, I would suggest a Hilti $400 worth though. Otherwise aim for an 1100W+ grinder that feels good in your hands. The choice of barrel type or rear handle is up to you. I prefer a rear handle in many ways, but have warmed to the barrel type. A quick release nut is an advantage for some work, but is a bit bulkier.
You will notice a big increase in performance over your Ryobi battery grinder.
How much grunt do you need? If grunt is needed, nothing will come near a 9", but a 5" has grunt and finesse.

I bought a replacement angle grinder around 12 months ago - the 'frankengrinder' gave up the ghost (called the frankengrinder because it was made up of the parts of around 3 that had been tossed at work - I had it for around 3 or 4 years).
It was replaced with a Makita 4" because I had a whole lot of discs for that size but a couple of points from the transaction.
As the sales person scathingly said "Only tilers use a 4" grinder" (and they like the rear mounted switch). There were 3 power levels at that size - around 700W as an entry level unit, 850W and 1400W. Of the units the lowest power unit felt cheap and was priced accordingly but the other two did not feel too bad (but then had the expected pricing on them).
If I did not have a whole bunch of discs sitting at home I would probably have gone to 5", as the 4" discs seem to wear out in no time but provided that you steer clear of the entry level unit most established industrial brands would probably do the job.

Michael

Originally Posted by Karl Robbers

What exactly do you do with your grinder???
I am struggling to imagine many scenarios where a grinder would not be usable with a guard.
I would be lying if I said I had never used a grinder without a guard, but it was a very rare circumstance. You sound like you regularly indulge in this behaviour.

Cut and grind steel! LOL I find myself doing a lot of work involving moving the grinder to various angles to acheive a cut. The guard prevents deep cuts and this is often the point it comes off. I recycle a lot of metal and the recovery from this involves some unusual angle cuts in order to get the most usable material. Angle of the grinder to get in, not angle of the cut although that happens sometimes too. I constantly turn the grinder accidentally off by pressing the switch onto the work because of limited space. I have a 4 inch Makita with an end switch as well, but I find it awkward because I am not used to this switch location.

Regarding the rear handle. Useful when doing long heavy grinding cuts, which is the reason I bought both of my rear handled tools. Neither has had much use yet tho. The second one was a 7 inch second hand Hitachi for about $60. Couldn't resist. A rear handled grinder would not suit a lot of my cutting work. Having your hands closer together reduces leverage but increases maneuvourability. All depends on what sort of work is being carried out.

I use the angle grinder a lot less for cutting since I got my bandsaw.

Dean

In my experience once you buy one angle grinder you will buy another and another.
I started with a 4" hitachi all metal ancient, can't kill it if you try sort of grinder.
Followed with makita 4"1/2, Makita 5" Makita 9", Dewalt 9", milwaukee 5" and milwaukee 7"
If I only wanted to buy one ... I would only buy a Milwaukee 5" ...Slow start, dead man switch, no tools disk change 1250W

Depends on the individual. For me it is mainly drills and torches but I have been having a look at angle grinders again lately.

My 5 inch end handled angle grinder has a soft start and automatic overload protection. I would not get a grinder with either these features again. Slow start is an easy way to get really bored waiting for the silly thing to get going, and waste a lot of time. I guess I do lots of small cuts. The auto overload protection means that when the grinder needs that extra bit of power it stops driving and you have to ease off the pressure and wait for, yep the silly thing to get going again.

I have burnt out the motor on 2 angle grinders. One took about a week and the other took many many years.

Something I just realised. A guard on an angle grinder makes it very hard to remove the wheel without a tool.

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

Depends on the individual. For me it is mainly drills and torches but I have been having a look at angle grinders again lately.

My 5 inch end handled angle grinder has a soft start and automatic overload protection. I would not get a grinder with either these features again. Slow start is an easy way to get really bored waiting for the silly thing to get going, and waste a lot of time. I guess I do lots of small cuts. The auto overload protection means that when the grinder needs that extra bit of power it stops driving and you have to ease off the pressure and wait for, yep the silly thing to get going again.

I have burnt out the motor on 2 angle grinders. One took about a week and the other took many many years.

Something I just realised. A guard on an angle grinder makes it very hard to remove the wheel without a tool.

Dean

I totally agree with the overload protection statement. I was using a brand new ramset grinder, and you you only need to look at it and the overload protection kicks in. Damn annoying. Soft start doesn't bother me as all the soft starts I have used have spooled up pretty quick.
Guards belong on grinders. In all seriousness, they do not restrict depth of cut, the gearbox housing does that. As I posted earlier, I have used a grinder without a guard, but that was a 4" grinder inside a pipe for a specific application, so it was effectively guarded by the pipe.
We are all big boys and girls here, but I feel guardless grinders are taking an unnecessary risk to achieve very little. I'll put it to you this way, boilermakers such as myself use grinders everyday with the guards on and we have few issues. As I get older, pain and dodging hot fragments and pieces of grinding disc have lost their appeal.

Originally Posted by Karl Robbers

I totally agree with the overload protection statement. I was using a brand new ramset grinder, and you you only need to look at it and the overload protection kicks in. Damn annoying. Soft start doesn't bother me as all the soft starts I have used have spooled up pretty quick.
Guards belong on grinders. In all seriousness, they do not restrict depth of cut, the gearbox housing does that. As I posted earlier, I have used a grinder without a guard, but that was a 4" grinder inside a pipe for a specific application, so it was effectively guarded by the pipe.
We are all big boys and girls here, but I feel guardless grinders are taking an unnecessary risk to achieve very little. I'll put it to you this way, boilermakers such as myself use grinders everyday with the guards on and we have few issues. As I get older, pain and dodging hot fragments and pieces of grinding disc have lost their appeal.

The grinder I was talking about is only a GMC. I wonder if it has a slow ramp up. We have pumps like that at work. Take maybe a minute to ramp up to full speed.

I'll put it to you this way, boilermakers such as myself use grinders everyday with the guards on and we have few issues.

Different situation I suggest. Long cuts, someone else is paying for the disks and the time.

In all seriousness, they do not restrict depth of cut, the gearbox housing does that.

Not quite that simple. Not just depth of cut but angles required to get around stuff. I am not going to argue but you have to realise that you don't know exactly what I do which limits your ability to picture the issues.

Now I need to get off my backside and go and deal with another matter which you will be aware of.

Cheers Dean

I have a Metabo 6 inch grinder which is very powerful I have had it for years the discs are hard to buy now but one solution is to get worn down 9 inch as the arbour is same size I am lucky have a friend who works at welding shop and bring me a box every so often