My experience of cutting with disks (steel) is that sheet tin wears them out in no time. Hiring people once for a `lump' job, late at night in a pub, one man turned up next morning with scars over his forhead from a shattered disk. All he could do is bring sandwiches from shop.
I'm cutting steel tube with them. Not freehand either - I'm using a angle grinder stand which turns it into a chop saw.
As I said I tend to avoid angle grinders if possible. For cutting sheet I'd use tin snips or a MonoDex. I've also got a powered nibbler for this. Problem on a building site is many will just use the tools to hand.
After buying a new angle grinder with decent bearings and sorting my technique for using it, I'm glad to report decent results. Some 30 cuts made in both steel and ally tube with minimal damage to the paint and very little dressing needed afterwards. With only one cutting disc used - which shows little signs of wear. Wonder why I bought a pack of 10. ;-)
A new skill learned :)
And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Logic, not to mention tribology, would indicate that the thickness of a slitting / sawing tool, or parting off tool in lathe terminology, should make no difference whatsoever to its lifespan. The volume of stock being removed is obviously directly proportional to its thickness and the wear rate at the cutting edge for similar materials should be identical. The only real consideration is heat generation and obviously the thinner the tool the less work is being done and the less heat being generated. In a perfect world parting off tools would be as thin as possible consistent with sufficient bending strength to not flex in use and cut straight.
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