4-1/2" Grinder - Does anybody make on that lasts?

On the h/f grinder, I have used them for years and they last about one fourth the time of my old Ryobi. But latly they have two different styles. Make sure and get the one with the metal gear box. Some have a plastic one and under hard use they seem to heat up and let the bearings move around. Then they are toast!!

 

It is the way you hold them,if you wear gloves and cover the vent holesany one of them will burn up!the gears too.pressure is another killer

 

I bought a Tool Shop one from Menards, and a Northern Tool one both 20 bucks each, 2 years later and I use em every day with no problems, it's all in how you use them...let them cut and don't push them through your work and they'll last. both of mine have cracked cases from being dropped, so i don't baby them

 

I used to be in the 'use the HF upline one and when it breaks, go buy another one' category, but I realized that my time and frustration was worth more to me than that at this point in my life. I hooked up a wire wheel to em (I had 2, one for cutting, one for grinding) to strip the floors in my olds of surface rust and my buddy and I teamed up to bang it out quick. They were both smoking within 10 minutes and died within 20. I decided to go buy a big, 10a Dewalt for $80 from the Depot. Not only did it handle it with ease, but did the job the HF grinders in about 1/4 the time. I'm done buying **** for tools. The time required to replace em and the aggravation of having to stop, wait 30 minutes to make sure a fire's not smoldering, and then having to deal with the mess of *****s at the HF really cuts into my enjoyment of building cars...

 

I had a Harbor freight that lasted for quite a while. Bought a dewalt and both are good.......

 

Metabo is definitely the Cadillac but $$$. For the more economy minded folk Milwaukee for under $100 will take abuse for years and years.

 

The 4.5" Milwaukee at Home Depot = $98 bucks.

A 4.5" Metabo with quick change option = $120.

Difference to get the "cadillac" = $22

Milwaukke is now owned by an Asian company (they were fairly recently purchased). That same company owns Ryobi, and also makes Craftsman power tools. Some Milwaukee tools dont even have any markings stating where they were made. Its sad, I love Milwaukee tools, I was brought up on them. They are still a very high quality line of tools, but that could change at any point.

For $22 more, you can have a fine German made precision instrument (yes, if you test drive a Metabo, you may refer to it as such also) that will last you forever.

I dont know why people think Metabo's are so much more than average, they run $20 over the compe***ions equivalent product.

 

i have a 4.5 milwaukee heavyduty that is 7+years old.i have used it to build 4 complete cars and started 3 cars [rollers] with it. ***s
i did come to realize that old people should NOT use a 4.5" holesaw in a milwaukee .5" drill in .125 steel. it hurts for a long time when the holesaw sticks.yeah i know.dumb***. but i had on gloves. jim

 

i bought a cheap ryobi from home depot that is working great for me and it is also a little smaller then the others so its easier to handle.

 

Yup me too...that said I had one HF 4.5" grinder for 7 hard years before it gave up....last year I bought 5 4.5" grinders from HF for $8.88 on their after T-giving sale...they've lasted fine....

BTW they are having the same sale this year, for $8.88 for a 4.5" grinder you can afford to get 6 months outta it.

 

First Milwaukee lasted 5 years or so, the second 2 years. I bought a DeWalt about a year ago and it seems pretty solid.

 

Something I can speak to from experience...
I was a simple oilfield trash pipe welder for about 15 years before I got a real job- which means when I wasn't welding I was grinding a lot. All of the name-brands mentioned in this string will hold up if you treat them like you bought them. Lots of good advice, primarily though, remember that the motor in the grinder is air-cooled. Do NOT hog on the damn thing, and whenever possible use a 7 or 9 inch, like if you insist on using a grinder where a torch is the right tool for the job. If you insist on using the wrong tool for the job and the damn thing gets hot to the touch, DO NOT JUST SHUT IT DOWN AND LET IT SIT. Heat buildup is the biggest killer of grinders- leave it running with no load on it so the fan will **** air and cool it down. Better yet, don't run the damn thing til it's hot to the touch. Having two or three is a good idea, as swapping from one to the other when going from grinding to buffing inherently lets them rest longer. A good idea if you do this is to occasionally swap your grinding grinder for your buffing grinder as depending on your particular task you will be favoring one over the other. Another good practice that was mentioned is blowing them down- all that **** building up inside the case is a great insulator. It's a good idea to tear them apart once in a while and clean them out as well. Don't be afraid to open it up, it's a ****ing grinder not a rocketship.
That all being said it's mostly a matter of personal preference and what feels most comfortable in your hands- but you'll pretty much only find DeWalt, Milwaukee, and Metabo on a real jobsite. I use all three.

 

Metabo hands down. We work them to death in the heavy construction industry and they outlast milwaukee and dewalt 4 to 1 on my crew. I really like dewalt and milwaukee tools as well, but it sounds like youre in need of a step up.

 

My $49.99 Craftsman has been going strong since 1997. I've used it on all my racecars and now the hot rods, plus everything in between.

 

Metabo W7-115 is the 4 1/2" grinder that I buy for our company, we have maybe 80 on site, easy to repair and take alot of abuse before they have a problem

 

20 + year old B&D Industrial model.Changed brushes once.

 

Buy a craftsman, get the warranty, you have grinders for life.
Oh yeah Ingersoll air grinders will last longer than you if you remember to oil them. If you do alot of grinding get an air grinder.

 

Me 2, mines a 5" and probably was bought new in 1989 or so for my dads business. Im going to get another one this week so I have one for wire wheeling and one for grinding/cutting.

Definitely getting another Makita. Ive gone through many cheapo grinders, and the makita keeps on running like new.

 

Craftsman power tools are NOT covered by the liftetime warranty that the hand tools are covered by. And they are made in Asia. The power tools come with your standard 1-3 year warranty.

 

Yeah, I think Sears uses that perception that the warrenty covers everything with the Craftsman name on it,to sell more stuff. Apparently it doesn't cover torque wrenches either(watched a guy get pissed at Sears, tool dept manager didn't know difference between functionality and calibration). We've killed plenty of grinders at work,Harbor Freight specials, Orange ones and blue ones, had one do a killer smoke show in my hand as it breathed it's last breath. Killed a $80 Dewalt don't know what happened took it apart to blow it out and it was pretty clean, but died later in the day, we had some Dewalt cordless drills that didn't hold up long either.Killed a ancient Milwaukee, and a old Makita. Anymore at work I buy Milwaukee tools and have had good success with them. Easy to get rebuilt if you need it too. Heard good things about Metabo(kinda pricey though), Dewalt is supposed to have a really good new grinder, I was told by a Weld shop rep that Dewalt patented some of Metabo's grinder design and now Metabo has to pay them to use there own design.