Angle Grinder...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just to add that Halfords own brand 4 1/2 appears cheaper than either Wicks or B&Q. The B&Q one does come with a fair number of discs, though.

[Jim Walsh]

I bought the Kinzo a few weeks back when I had to lay a patio. First one had to go back because the adjustable handle was buggered (I don't know why manufacturers of cheapie tools add features like this when they are clearly going to be a likely source of problems. Anyway, replacement arrived and I set to work with it. Did the job just fine, although never having used a grinder before, the amount of kickback was alarming. Every now and then, the bloody thing would lunge toward me (I guess I could have swivelled the handle and had it lunging away from me, but I didn't want to risk breaking it). Overall, for £20, it's great.

Regards, Jim.

[N. Thornton]

Well lots of good advice, except the sugestion to hire one, but bear in mind a lot of the advice comes from folk who use them every day. For a one off job all you need is a cheap grinder, a diamond disc (dont waste your time and money on a stack of grit discs), ear protection and goggles. DO make sure the goggles are indirect vent, the cheaper direct vent ones cause many eye injuries every year. Only if youre doing a lot of work would you need more kit than that.

The one thing with grinders is to treat them gently, as if they were fragile. DONT move them suddenly or uncontrolledly, even a little, when touching the workpiece, that is what makes them kick, and they really can do you a nasty. Theyre one of the more dangerous tools, but as long as you treat them with care theyre fine. Its people who arent paying proper attention at all times who get injured.

Regards, NT

[Bob Mannix]

Yup that was me and the next door neighbour taking an old corrugated roof off a collapsed shed. He was using my angle grinder to take the bolt tops off and I was going round with the bolt croppers taking out any loose ones. We started off a long way apart...

...as you probably guessed, we got closer and closer and then went for the same bolt, resulting in him angle grinding a section of my arm flesh off. Recovered after a couple of weeks with huge rebuild the skin wet dressings on but not something I would do again for laughs. Remember - the guy with the angle grinder, goggles and deafening noise doesn't know what's going on around him - it's everyone else's responsibility (mine in this case) to stay out of the bl**dy way!

Bob Mannix