what are the best 4.5" cutting discs

shouldn't be vibrating. sounds like the motor is loose or a bearing is going out.
 
Any ideas why the Makita has a lot more vibration? Is it common with electric angle grinders? specific to the Makita? or are the industrial tools just that much better?

Theres a reason some people like certain grinders, and dont like others. People often praise the cheap harbor freight, or basically any of the sub ~$70ish grinders on the market, and the dewalt "2 for $100" grinders were super popular for a while. "why pay $100 for a grinder when you can use this pos?". But they are crap. They have more vibrations and a rougher motor. Sure they work for a very casual user, once or twice a year.

MUCH WORSE THAN VIBRATION, theyd kick when you turn them on. I know as a blanket rule, using grinders one handed is a major no-no. But it happens. I prefer my rigid, has a much smoother ramp up.

RPM is everything on grinders.

You get what you pay for, unless you overpaid.
 
After burning though a few dewalts, rigid and craftsman grinders the only one that was still smooth was a hitachi. I since bought a bunch more hitachi 4.5" grinders. If these burn out in less than a year i'll jump up to the industrial level for the next ones.
 
I have no issues with my dewalt 7amp

no vibration and no problems using it one handed.
 
After burning though a few dewalts, rigid and craftsman grinders the only one that was still smooth was a hitachi. I since bought a bunch more hitachi 4.5" grinders. If these burn out in less than a year i'll jump up to the industrial level for the next ones.
I have read more than a few brochures touting ergonomic features built into industrial equipment. Before I bought my Makita, I asked on a local board: Metabo was recommended by a Millwright who has used just about every brand made. I was also interested in the Bosch units, but my usage at home does not mandate extra comfort.

Interesting comments as always. For those who don't know me, I work in the rail industry. I wear a few hats in my shop, including participation in the Safety Committee. That said, I have seen fatigue factor into accidents and re-work on more than a few occasions. My boss still buys the cheap-ass DeWalts because we get support after the sale... and our bone-heads can break an anvil.

For you bone-heads who speak of using this equipment with one hand: No one cares about the million times you got away with an unsafe practice, we all talk about the one time you didn't.

49sEknW.jpg


WORK SAFE!
GO TO BED INTACT!
DO IT AGAIN TOMORROW!
 
Mike is big on safety for good reason. Potential injuries can leave people disfigured or dead. When my neighbor asked me about repairing a leaky air compressor tank I said no way and suggested googling exploding air tanks for what can happen if an air tank fails.

The reason I was asking about vibration is that my Makita typically leaves my hand tingly after a short time.
 
meh.

you can hurt yourself pretty bad with 2 hands as well.

friend of mine has a permanent scar on his right cheek from an HF disc that exploded on contact and hit him right under the safety glasses.

he no longer uses HF discs and wears a face shield when cutting.
 
Going 90 degrees out, cutting discs create lots of dust to clean up, what does a plasma leave behind? I get that one needs to clean up after the plasma, but I'll probably be getting one for Christmas. :) And I don't think the standard water separator filter is good enough, is a coalescing filter good enough or should I look to a desiccant filter as well?
Plasma cutters generate the same amount of dust, minus the dust from the abrasive wheel itself (it basically vaporizes the steel). There will also be slag as pointed out. After a fair amount of cutting, my garage floor is gritty and black... Run a magnetic sweeper over it, and it grows a beard that would put Wooly Willy to shame.

When it comes to the air supply, the dryer, the better. I run an RTI air/water separator (and 0.05 micron filter) followed by a Motorguard roll-style filter (0.01 micron), then into my Hypertherm PowerMax 45.

And for discs, I just use Harbor Freight. No appreciable difference between them and any others I've tried.
 
The pic and horror stories are awesome! No really, on a serious note, beyond using safety equipment like glasses, ear plugs, face shield and gloves, the most important thing about cutting or grinding is NEVER cut or grind with your HEAD/FACE in the plane of the spinning wheel. The guy in the pic might not have looked like he was in a knife fight if somebody might have taught him this. My2c
 
How do you avoid cutting into an axle tube when trying to cut off spring perches? I have watched Youtube videos and they do it and then fill it back in with weld. Or avoid cutting into a compressor tank when you are cutting off the top plate? The second example is not that practical but I am using it as an example since I have a couple of bad air tanks that came along with other parts I wanted. It seems that the guard of a 4.5" angle grinder often forces you cut at a downward angle which can ultimately lead into the axle tube or tank. I noticed the the guard on my Makita is deeper than on my 3M which increases the angle on some cuts. Is there a way to do it without simply cutting into the spring perch to high and then grinding down? Not that I would want to, but how could you do it saving both the axle tube and spring perch. Another example, lets say you want to save the baseplate and the tank so you don't have a lot of margin of error either way. What's the best way to do it?
 
I take the guard off if I need to.

I've cut a number of spring perches and shock mounts off axle tubes, if you do it right, you can take quite a bit of the weld off before you hit the tube.

sometimes I will cut as deep as I can without risking the tube and then use a BFH to knock off whatever I'm cutting. grinder for the rest.


I also don't worry about minor nicks or cuts into an axle tube. I've gotten deeper gouges from rocks than what you would get by going a little too deep on a cutoff wheel.
 
I take the guard off if I need to.

I've cut a number of spring perches and shock mounts off axle tubes, if you do it right, you can take quite a bit of the weld off before you hit the tube.

sometimes I will cut as deep as I can without risking the tube and then use a BFH to knock off whatever I'm cutting. grinder for the rest.


I also don't worry about minor nicks or cuts into an axle tube. I've gotten deeper gouges from rocks than what you would get by going a little too deep on a cutoff wheel.

THIS
If you fallow the rules 100% of the time, you wont get anything done. Just be carefull.
Also, **** the spring perches, if they get knicked, life goes on.
 
Put on a new disc.

Change my plane of work.

Break out the 7.5" grinder, maybe even put a new disc on that.

Break out the cutting torch and "scarf" or "wash" the weld off.

If I need to save the parts, I'll do as already mentioned and remove enough material that I can hammer-slap the parts and break the remaining weld. Keep in mind that you will have to reach the root of the weld to get the parts separated. If it is a good weld, the root penetrates into the base material. You will lose some of that material.
 
my experience with air grinders is they eat air and most affordable compressors just can't keep up.
 
my experience with air grinders is they eat air and most affordable compressors just can't keep up.
 
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