Thread: Are angle grinders safer for left handers?

The nine inch grinders I've seen normally allow the side handle to be located on either side of the body of the grinder to allow for right and left handed use of the tool.
Otherwise safety is a concern for anyone using one who is not used to the inertia of the operating grinder or the chance of it grabbing and blowing a disc.
Not a great tool for the weekend warrior.

I have a 9" Bosch and the rear handle rotates and locks in3 positions and 3 holes up front for the side handle. Love it but respect it. i fear out of date discs. why are they sold on special?

Always wear muffs, glasses and no loose clothing. I bought a Proban welding jacket and it is quite good for handling sparks and cooler than the leather cape.

I wear muffs to mow grass to. Once got a rust flake in my eye. Had goggles and face shield on. It bounced under both and got in some how. Did not feel it at the time but later in excruciating pain went to eye hospital at 2 am. I am WHS rep at work too. Bugs me at the casual attitude of some tradies.

James


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Ahh.. I have the same Bosch with the electric brake. Love that grinder.

Clubman7, try it out the grip next time your in the workshop. Right hand you are inline with the disk, left hand the disk is to the side of you.

The problem with the 9' grinder-apart from idiot operators is the huge amount of power they generate. At 2400 watts or therebouts they are pretty unnstoppable.
Therein lies the probems with the guys that think they are stronger than the machine.
A lot were used in the building trades cutting reo bar. When held between the operator legs while bending down they tended to bite in the material and torque up the operators leg severing a femoral artery.

Grahame

Originally Posted by Ben Dono

Ahh.. I have the same Bosch with the electric brake. Love that grinder.

Clubman7, try it out the grip next time your in the workshop. Right hand you are inline with the disk, left hand the disk is to the side of you.

Hmm, will stick with what I know.
Can still count to ten.

Originally Posted by Clubman7

Hmm, will stick with what I know.
Can still count to ten.

They don't call them the widow makers for nothing.

Treat with utmost respect.

Rob

I have one of them big bastard Hitachi's, when cutting lines in steel, I just move the handle over to the left hand possie, that is, unscrew the grab handle and screw it into the right hand side of the thingo, grab the handle with my left hand, my right hand around the power button, grinder tilted, the disk is facing away to my right side. Thats the way my boilermaker bro inlaw taught me to do, never considered using it inline with your bod.

DD

Assignment of left and right handed operation is somewhat arbitrary and I don't think that it is a left and right handed thing just because something is operated on one side of the body or the other

I actually call operating a grinder right handed when my right hand is on the top handle and left hand is on the body of the grinder.
The right hand does the fine and overall control especially of keeping the wheel at the correct angle to the work and help prevent kickback and all the left hand really does is maybe turn the grinder on-off and push/pull the grinder onto the work.
It turns out that it is far easier to use a grinder this way on the left hand side (but it also works equally well operated across the body or vertically down the mid line of the body,) but I still call it right handed operation because the right hand has the overall control.
Some arguments could be advanced for the opposite interpretation.

I use small grinders on both sides of my body but like the OP suggest I prefer to use a 9" on my left side - whatever it's called doesn't really matter, it just feels safer operating it this way.

Grahame I am in total accord. It is also my feeling that I am unable to control that power. I have a 7 inch grinder that I bought because it was cheap, second hand. I only use it for grinding, not cutting. My 5 inch Makita has all the cutting power I need.

I am not sure how using a grinder left handed can move the line of danger away from the bodies delicate parts. I can only think of swapping left for right with the same situation but mirrored. Must be missing something here. One thing I do find annoying is that the switch on the makita is on the bottom for right handed use and keeeps turning off when the grinder bottoms out on the vice or work. I was given a 4 inch Makita with the switch on the end and I like that even less. I can never find it. I also have a 5 inch GMC angle grinder with soft start and protective circuitry and that is something I will never buy again. It iss ssooo ssllooww to start and just when you get going it is stopping again. May be ok with big machinery that runs foer some time but hopeless with small tools that are doing lots of small jobs.

Dean

We had the 7" Makita out during the week.It is a new fangled soft start machine and truly it couldn't pull the skin off a rice custard.
The work called for us to cut through several stacked sheet s of trimdek roofing sheets (that the roofers had just replaced and not removed) using a cutter disk. The unit stalled at 3 stacked sheets. The technique is to understand which way the grinder will kick after a momentary jam and position ones body accordingly.

Its the same with any tool,particularly power tools.Understand what your tool will do and plan where you need to be to stay safe.

I am afraid some of the younger workers and a few of the old ones leave it to the employer to do the thinking for them.

This thinking or lack of it accounts for the amount of ridiculous level of over regulation of the safety programmes in general that abound ,these days.

Bring back common sense and thinking out the consequences of the job steps and procedures.

Grahame

Bob I see your point on that. Its difficult to call it a left or right handed tool or grip.

From what I have seen in the past on site, most trades have the grinder over their body centre line or to the right. I'm guessing this is probably because it's easier to line the disk up with the cut. Part of your body ends up inline with the disk. I do this at times with the little 125mm grinder and it's probably a bad habit.
With the 9, I have always had the grinder to my left well clear of the path of potential kick backs, broken disks and sparks.
In one of the previous safety threads, I read a few posts about guys setting their armpits alight. I can't say any part of me is inline with the shower of sparks using a grinder this way.

Oldneweng, I probably did not explain it clearly enough. It's the same principle as a chainsaw. The correct and safest method of using a chainsaw is with it on the right side of your body. If it kicks back, it will pass up and to the right side away from harm( if your lucky)
I find with the grinder, the disk is set to the left and more of your body is inline with the fall out when held in this manner. When I cut with the grinder from the left side, no part of me is in the path of any fallout.

I'm really thankful there are guys out there that are willing to talk about things such as this.
Thanks Dingo Dog, I'm going to give that ago tomorrow and I will let you know how it works out. I might end up owing your Bro a Beer for that!

Originally Posted by Ben Dono

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Oldneweng, I probably did not explain it clearly enough. It's the same principle as a chainsaw. The correct and safest method of using a chainsaw is with it on the right side of your body. If it kicks back, it will pass up and to the right side away from harm( if your lucky)

With chainsaws it really depends on who is cutting, and what and how much is being cut.


The above picture is straight out of the Stihl CS manual and is as you describe, and is considered best practice especially for newbies cutting small logs and branches.
I think the image is perhaps a bit exaggerated to make the point.

One problem with this stance is it is more fatiguing and a tired operator is at greater risk of other problems while using a chainsaw.
A pro logger will usually stand much more directly behind and closer to the power head with the left arm locked straight or near straight which gives more control over the saw.
This stance is also less fatiguing and if kickback does occur the near locked left arm significantly reduces the extent to which the saw goes back and instead sends the bar tip over the operators head.
However one thing you won't see is the pro logger put the rear handle between his/her legs because if the saw does kick more back than up, then YOWIE!!!!!
The rear handle may even touch the operators right thigh but it will be definitely on the outside of the leg.

I've been a user of all types of power tools most of my life and I'm also left handed, and the main issue I have with most tools, mainly drills, but also many others, is the lock on button for the switch, which is usually on the left side of the handle.
This means that when the tool is used left handed it is very easy to accidently lock the switch on, and when you take your finger off the trigger the tool continues to run. It means they can be quite dangerous for left handers, and have almost got me into trouble on many occasions, I imagine most left handers can relate to this.

About 10 years ago when I was in hospital for a minor proceedure, the guy in the next bed had had an argument with a 9inch grinder and lost. The disk went halfway through his femur.
High Speed, lots of torque ,fairly heavy and over-confidence = DANGER.
I think this is why lots of sites dont allow them any more.

Roger