Angle Grinder Recommendations

[Ian Stirling]

Well yes, but 6 seconds (just measured) is maybe carrying caution a tad far.

[James Hawkins]

Indeed; mine takes around 3 seconds and is plenty soft enough to feel no kick at all.

[Andy Dingley]

Metabo are about the best. The blue Bosch with the anti-vibration handles are pretty good too. A quick-release (no spanner) nut is a nice gadget to have.

Best bargain is the green Bosch. More vibration than Metabo, but pretty reliable for the pricetag. Vacuum the air vents clean occasionally, as iron dust here is what usually kills them (the blue ones are better packaged).

A happy-shopper tenner is a great bargain, but on a car restoration project you'll kill a couple of them before you're done.

Anti-vibration gloves and both decent non-misting goggles _and_ a faceshield (are you working right way up or upside down) are well worth having.

Get a vast selection of abrasives too, and get flapdisks rather than rigid hard disks. CSM sell the best (the coated blue ones). The extra-flexy flapdisks from Norton (via Screwfix) are handy for curved work. Screwfix also do nice extra-thin cutting disks, which you'll be needing to chop those rusted outriggers off.

One of your main tools will be twisted / knotted wire brushes, both cup and disk. Get good ones! The cheapies (and the crimped ones) shed bristles like crazy at grinder speeds. You'll also be wanting good protection from them - faceshield not just goggles, and a leather apron or welder's jacket. They'll spear right through canvas or denim. Tetanus shots aren't a bad idea either.

[Pete C]

Just take out the inrush limiter - usually a thermistor.

If put in a suitable box in a short extension lead it can be used if needed.

cheers, Pete.

[Ian Stirling]

It's not - it starts exactly the same way if stopped, and immediately started again.

[Ian Stirling]

The handles are available seperately.

[Willy Eckerslyke]

The last B&D one I bought had a three year guarantee, which was handy as it died after a couple of years, so I got a free replacement.

Talking of which, those wafer thin cutting discs are excellent, IMO.

[Guy King]

The message from Pete C contains these words:

None of the soft-start power tools I have are done that way. They're all variable speed in the first place and it's a function of the speed controller.

[Pete C]

For single speed grinders it should be doable, unless it's part of the motor itself.

cheers, Pete.

[Tim..]

Seconded- they're expensive but brilliant for slicing cleanly through all manner of things.

Tim..

[Ian Stirling]

Sure - removing it's easy. Making it easily switchable, without voiding the warranty.

[Tony Bond (UncleFista)]

The best advice anyone can give you is; buy 2 cheap ones, have a grinding disk on one and a cutting disk on the other. It'll save you hours of changing disks/looking for a spanner etc.

Check ALDI, NETTO and LIDL sites, they have some power tool bargains sometimes, I bought a cheap German grinder from one of 'em ages ago and it's fine :)

I bought a cheap B&D one a few years ago before building my car, it's still going strong, just as my NETTO special is :)

[Pete C]

Decisions decisions....

[Ian Stirling]

Especially as I need the warranty - as I'm going to be cutting off

5cm*1m*0.5m*2*10 or so of sides of windows in brick with it...

[Jim]

Thanks to all that responded, think that I will probably take up the suggestion of using a few cheap grinders with different disks fitted and treat them as disposable items.

Cheers

Jim

[Willy Eckerslyke]

I managed to find some very cheap ones on eBay a couple of months back. Worked out at about 50p each after postage. The thought of them exploding into flying shrapnel had me trying them out very gingerly, but they've been fine. So far...

[Matt]

The Bosch handles are only available with M14x2 threads though. Quite a lot of smaller angle grinders, including older Bosch models have M10x1.5 threads.