Safe to use cutoff wheels on angle grinder?

trying to cut blade steel with a cutoff blade is asking for bits of cutoff blade sticking out of random bits of your body, there are better tools don't get hurt.

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Okay guys, you're coming through loud and clear. I'll put the guards back on. All my disks have had fiber reinforcement throughout them. I have had the edges of cutoffs wheel crumble a bit from time to time, but never anything like what you guys are talking about. Sounds like I've been lucky all these years! I do use a guard on the angle grinder set up for wood work using a circular chainsaw blade. That thing puts the fear of God in me. We call it, "The Wheel of Death!" :eek:

I use a diamond wheel in an angle grinder for my stone carving classes. Works well for that, as well as custom cutting notches in tiles. A wet tile saw does better though for production cutting.
 
Yeah, I've had disks shatter catastrophically before, but only on the 1/16" ones. The guard helps a bit, but with a heavy canvas dickies jacket they don't hurt at all. they sting a bit on the cheeks but thats it.

One trick I've discovered for cutting steel easily without shattering disks is to use a really worn out thick disk (or like a 3" on a 4.5") in conjunction with a thinner one so the thinner one is supported. It works like a charm.

And good choice on the ryobi. Even with access to a friends metal bandsaw, I still use my 4.5" ryobi to do all my rough cuts and such.
 
DirtyBrad said:
And I'll just catch one thing on fire to say I did it. After that, I'll be super careful.
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I'll recap my story in more detail for you to save you the trouble.....

I work in the shop from 5AM-7AM during nice weather since it's the only real time I have. I was making some damascus and had been doing a good bit of grinding. Obviously didn't notice what direction my sparks were going. They apparently landed about 20' away where I had some stuff stored. There was a moving blanket on top of some other stuff that caught the sparks.

As I mentioned, I had finished grinding for the day and was finishing up some forging. While running my "last" forging pass, I noticed a de-lamination in the billet that necessitated a quick re-flux and reheat. that screw up cost me about 15 minutes of time, otherwise I would have shut down for the day. It was during this time that I noticed light coming from the wrong side of the shop. It was around sunrise and there was light coming from the western side of the shop....Not good. By the time I looked at it I had flames 4-5' high. Thankfully I keep a fully charged ABC extinguisher handy and had it out in a few minutes.

So, in short...It took 20 minutes for the flames to start, and on any other day, I would have been in the shower already when the fire started. That would have cost me the entire shop.

Don't wait until you burn something up...that one time could be the last, Just be careful from the outset.

-d
 
Just going to say this:

I watched a guy across the aisle from me gut himself with a 7" air grinder one night at work.

1) Guard? We didn't need no stinkin guards!
2) He got in a hurry.
3) He was high.

The guy was trying to ram a carborundum cutoff wheel through a 1" hardened shaft. He leaned into it and bound it up and when it whipped back into him he was off balance and too stoned to get off the trigger. It literally laid his intestines out on his jig.

I have to admit my little Ryobi doesn't have a guard on it right now, but I think I'll find the damn thing tomorrow evening and put it back. That accident was over 25 years ago, but just typing it out still makes me queasy.

Nathan - Eagle Pitcher, if you're wondering. Would have been '81 or '82.
 
The diamond cutter works fine on ceramic.But remember that for a large job or jobs a proper water cooled set-up with table is the proper way .
 
Hey,

This was a great Q and A. My very limited experience with dremel type sized cut off wheels can speak for the breaking and flying everywhere. I also just bought a craftsman angle grinder, (more power) and cut off wheels that have metal collars around the hole where it attaches to the shaft. I am probably lucky, as I cut out a whole bowie knife profile in about an hour, freehand, in a vice, got the back boogers and all, and after nearly being done, realized most of my sparks were falling on a dust mop. Also, will definitely upgrade the face shield. BTW, I enjoy reading this forum immensely, and have bitten off doing some stock removal large style knives, as I ran across some tool steel on an old horse drawn cotton chopper. I have lots of 1/4" by 5" by 24" flat stock that is very old and has a nice ring to it when hit. I will try and get up pictures when I get back from deployment. Happy grinding!
 
Make sure safety precautions are taken when using wire wheels also. Those wires break off and go flying.
 
Brad, a lot of knifemakers say the buffer is the most dangerious tool in the shop. The buffer is childs play compared to picking up an angle grinder and cutting metal. kickback, or kickdown, can happen in a split second. I have one, and i use it, but everytime I do my heart rate shoots right up there. I hate the d*&*ed thing, but...I use it.

Just be very, very careful! I've been thing about getting a benchtop metal cutter, one of those babies with the big 8 or 12" cutting wheel.

Dave
 
Just wrote a long a$$ post on the subject and somehow it was dropped. Suffice it to say I use cutoff wheels on my Ryobi 4-1/2" angle grinder regularly without incident, and I am not a particularly lucky person.
 
Djinn, do you use the straight or the depressed center ones?

I can't for the life of me think of the advantage of the depressed center. It seems structurally less sound to start with and it's also further out to the edge of the guard. If anything, it seems like they'd be recommending the straight wheels.
 
I'd return that angle grinder. For a little more, you can get one the best small angle grinders, the Bosch 1801. Research the Bosh on the internet. There are tons of good reviews, and I can tell you that after using the angle grinder for a few hours, the Bosch's vibration-dampening is awesome. It's a little beast, and will cut through thick tool steel like a champ. You can also put all kinds of wheels on it, flap wheel, wire wheel, cut off wheels, grinding wheels, scotch-brite wheels, etc.
 
C_Kyle said:
I'd return that angle grinder. For a little more, you can get one the best small angle grinders, the Bosch 1801. Research the Bosh on the internet. There are tons of good reviews, and I can tell you that after using the angle grinder for a few hours, the Bosch's vibration-dampening is awesome. It's a little beast, and will cut through thick tool steel like a champ. You can also put all kinds of wheels on it, flap wheel, wire wheel, cut off wheels, grinding wheels, scotch-brite wheels, etc.
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I love my Bosch :thumbup:
Emre
 
Farmer Phil said:
Okay guys, you're coming through loud and clear. I'll put the guards back on. All my disks have had fiber reinforcement throughout them. I have had the edges of cutoffs wheel crumble a bit from time to time, but never anything like what you guys are talking about. Sounds like I've been lucky all these years! I do use a guard on the angle grinder set up for wood work using a circular chainsaw blade. That thing puts the fear of God in me. We call it, "The Wheel of Death!" :eek:

I use a diamond wheel in an angle grinder for my stone carving classes. Works well for that, as well as custom cutting notches in tiles. A wet tile saw does better though for production cutting.
Click to expand...

Yea Phil even though pretty much all cut off wheels sized for die grinders and angle grinders are fiber reinforced, they do shatter.

I do not have a guard on my die grinder. Of course that is 100% more dangerous than having a guard. I wear a full faceshield along with the respirator (besides the metal dust think about that broken up fiberglass dust from the wheel) and I do not stand in line with the rotation. use this tool enough and you can look from the side to make your cut. Taking the time to make sure your stuff is firmly clamped down is a plus also. None of that crap of holding a piece down with your foot and standing over it, or even worse holding something down with your hand.

Oh, and I use flat wheels, no depressed center.
 
I have a few angle grinders and use them as little as possible but sometimes they are the best tool for the job. I find for cutoff wheels I like to use pneumatic over electric because I have more control.

Like others said, be careful of binding as all sorts of bad stuff can happen.

I also built a variable speed fixed angle grinder that is multipurpose. I use it as a metal cutting table saw, grinder, disc sander and run scotch brites on it. One of my most used tools in metalworking.

A couple of weeks ago I got cockey and set myself on fire cutting off a piece of steel on it, standing in line with the wheel instead of working perpendicular to it :rolleyes:

frankengrinder_3.JPG
 
The advice in the instruction book might have something to do with bearings. Grinding loads thrust bearings. Slicing loads radial bearings. Drill presses have heavy duty thrust bearings but not so heavy duty radial bearings. You wouldn't want use a milling cutter in a drill press to do back and forth cuts (side load the tool). My angle head grinders work fine with cut off disc, but the instruction books do not advise against it. Could be a legal liability issue (the lawyers got involved in the instruction book).
 
Lawyers was my suspicion as well. The booklet advises grinding at a 5 - 15 degree angle and mentions specifically that the tool is designed for a side load.

I was looking at the depressed center cutoff wheels today in the store. They're rated for the same RPM as the flat, but they're much thicker. I'd guess 1/8" on the flat and twice that for the others.

I'm not so keen on trying to cut relatively small thin barstock with a really wide blade like that.

I also looked again at the other grinders they had (DeWalt, Milwaukee, Bosch) and cannot see any difference at all. The flange nuts seem to support the wheels exactly the same and the guards seem to have exactly the same amount of coverage.
 
I also have the exact question as yours now after I purchased an angle grinder with the similar statement in the manual. After I read this, I think its clearer now its all about the typical guard and its function/safety:

https://www.nortonabrasives.com/en-...t-you-should-know-about-grinding-wheel-guards

Problem is i am having a hard time finding the specific wheel guard for cutting off wheel that covers the other usually open side here. Tried many stores but no result. Maybe I should buy extra guard then modifiy it, welding a metal plate to cover the open side (bottom if assuming its for type 27 grinding wheel). So in the end i will have 2 guards to switch for specific purpose.

Wdyt?
 
I think this conversation ended 10 years ago.

Welcome to Shop Talk. Please fill out your profile with the correct information. I seriously doubt you are 120 years old. Was that supposed to be 12?
When pulling up threads, look at the original post date as well as the date of the last few posts. Necroposting is frowned upon.
 
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