Cutting steel with angle grinder.

[Jim K..]

1mm slitting disc.

[Michael Chare]

What is the best blade to cut steel with a small maybe 4.5" angle grinder.

[Bill Wright]

Agreed.

Bill

[newshound]

+1, especially if you are just cutting clamped lengths transversely.

But if you are *cutting up* a structure you might be better off with thicker blades that will tolerate a bit more side load. Also remember that the structure may have internal stresses, so that a cut may start to spring closed as you get near the end. In such cases you may actually be better off using thick, dished grinding disks. A "grabbed" disk will transfer a lot of force to the body of the grinder, or may cause a smaller object to flail around. The secret is to cut through the last bit *very* carefully, and more by grinding it away from the side rather than just trying to go through it like a guillotine.

I once had to get a very large pipe hanger destructively dismantled, but with some care so that I could get at the internal bearings. This weighed at least a quarter of a ton, had built in loads of around 20 tons, and a compressed coil spring about two feet long, made out of 1 inch bar. A guy from the heavy mob took it apart with a gas axe and I was quite worried about exciting things happening, but he knew exactly what he was doing. He took several inches of the coil up to red heat, and it just relaxed gently until all the strain was released.

[Thomas Prufer]

Those 1 mm discs are great. Cheap, little load on the grinder, not a lot of material lost, not a lot of heat in the material.

Yet: all discs, particularly then 1.0mm, will shatter at times; there's a use before date stamp on them as they expire...

So: Use a guard, think where bits might fly, think where sparks may fly (they burn themselves into glass and tile permanently, for instance).

And *please* *wear* *eye* *protection*. A neighbor didn't, and he told me of a chip lodged in his eyeball, how it rusted, and the medical procedure to remove it -- used a dental drill on his eyeball.

I keep goggles in the angle grinder box now so they are handy for even the quickest of cuts...

Thomas Prufer

[tabbypurr]

Aldi diamond blades have proven excellant on steel

NT

[Michael Chare]

Thank you for the warning. I wanted to modify my old double oven so that it would fit in my car. I used a hack saw, but did wonder about my angle grinder. The diamond disc I use for plaster and cement/concrete has proved very useful though it can create a lot of dust. So I was wondering what would be suitable for steel. It had not occured to me that the discs would have expiry dates.

Thanks for all the replies.

[Gareth's was W7 now W10 Downst]

"Grinding Wheel ! ! ! ! " was always a warning shouted in a machine shop when a grinding wheel (which rotates at every high speed) broke loose from its spindle and rolled menacingly down the shop.

[Brian Reay]

An intriguing idea ;-)

I assume the idea is to use it on LPG. Without wishing to teach you to suck eggs etc, I assume you know the orifices will need changing.

[Michael Chare]

The old oven had strange orifices. From the back of each of the ovens there was about a half inch diameter pipe going up to the area of the cooling fan on the top.

[Brian Reay]

Ah, not those.

The ones which limit the gas to the burners. They are different sizes for Natural Gas (as used in houses etc), LPG etc. Sometimes you can buy suitable ones and just unscrew the old ones and swap. Other times you need to either drill out the holes or plug the old hole and drill a smaller one (depending on the directing of the conversion LPG<->NG) FROM MEMORY you need smaller holes for LPG but I'm not 100% sure. The holes are tiny.

Don't forget a CO detector.

[dennis]

I use a full face mask, googles don't really fit over specs. A full face mask is better protection too.

[Michael Chare]

Ah, it was an electric double oven!

[Brian Reay]

Powering will be fun ;-)

[tabbypurr]

yet another advantage of diamond discs, they don't expire due to time & dampness.

NT

[Michael Chare]

I bought a Norton Expert slitting disc from Toolstation. Now I have it I see why it might shatter. No marked expiry date.

[Rob Morley]

I had that from grinding in restricted space at an awkward angle - the sparks got in through the mesh at the side of my goggles. My local A&E at the time had an eye hospital attached, so they did it straight away. It really isn't all that bad having your eye debrided (a lot less irritating than having a bit of steel or abrasive embedded in your cornea) but it's funny how everything appears to wobble around as the burr chews up pieces of eyeball.