pleae be careful with those angle grinders.......

Last year my Makita grinder died after years of heavy use. I was going to get another one but instead I got a Dewalt with a paddle safety switch. I like it so much more. That paddle switch is so much more safer.

Ed

 

Gross!

 

thanks for the reminder. this is info most of us already know, but tend to ignore from time to time.

who makes a good face shield? most of the ones i have seen are junk. any advice is appreciated. thanks again...jack

 

Six inch super thin disc on a four and half grinder, guard removed at work,exploded and all but amputated my left little finger. I WILL NOT USE A GRINDER WITH OUT GUARD!!! I still use cut off wheels but only the four and half that I can use with the guard.

 

Did some grinding yesterday and made sure I wore bifocal safety glasses. Sure didn't want to ruin my brand new glasses or get some metal in my eye.

 

great reminder.. thanks

 

Cover up on wire wheels too

 

my dad had an angle grinder with a chain type wheel for cutting wood. bitch skipped off the wood and effed two of his finger tips up bad. he also had the instantaneous reaction to stick his foot out to catch what he had dropped, an angle grinder isnt good to catch with ur feet. it got his shin pretty damn bad too haha. all good now tho. they get dangerous though

 

Our company policy is safety glasses all the time and face shield also when using a grinder. This came about after two facial injuries. We buy long heavy duty shields from MSC. We haven't had an injury with a grinder in the last five years. We pound grinder safety into our guys at every safety meeting. We buy 4 1/2" grinders by the case to give a sense of how much we use them. Please be safe!!!

 

This is just another reason I prefer the flapper wheels to grinder wheels. If I need to cut I use a plasma, torch or blade. Flapper disks leave a cleaner, smoother surface anyhow.

 

i find standard safety glasses to be a pain . they dont do a very good job of protection. try some saftey glasses that fit over your eyes like swimming goggles. i picked up a set and they work great, no problem with dust getting around into your eyes either.

 

U use those a lot at work, I do a lot of stuff with flap wheels and other stuff that creates abrasive dust, they keep it out of your eyes

 

I'm going to look into the bionic face masks I think Uvex makes them, they look like something from a 60's space movie but offer a lot more protection then a standard face shield, they look kind of stupid,but who cares,this isn't a fashion show, looks better then a glass eye and scars all over your face, this same warning goes for those little one inch wheels on the dremel, they may be small but they blow up with enough force to take out an eye or do some serious damage, I have a large scar on my arm from one of those little shits

 

You are partialy correct in that you should never gouge cut with a wheel .Hpwever I have hosted several metal meets and invited reps from an abrasive firm to show their products .Of course they had cut off wheels and did demos on correct usage .The RPM on the disc is supposed to be achieved for better life as it will cool better and not allow the wheel to get glazed .I have shown cutting a 8 " spherical bearing with a 4" cutoff wheel and had someone measure before and after the cut and it was only by measuring that you could tell there was any wear .

 

When I was buying supplies for the maintenance department (mechanical) of a big juice plant where we mostly worked with stainless we found that the thin cut off blades (.030) tended to come apart a lot more than the thicker ones. I finally quit buying the thin ones for that reason. They do make a nice cut especially when you are cutting through two layers of sheet metal so you can butt weld them together but they seem to explode a lot more often.

We get pretty heavy handed with our 4-1/2 inch grinders and end up dropping them, tossing stuff on top of them and throwing them around and I think that is where a lot of the trouble with the wheels and disks comes from.

I'm another one who uses HF cut off disks and haven't had any more issues with them then any other brand and I've used a lot of brands over the years.

You can buy a good quality full face shield at your local welding supply for around 25.00 and it's money well spent.

 

If I get one of the bionic shields I'll post pictures of it, it covers the sides of your face too, really different design then the standard shield, I've bought stuff from Uvex before and was very happy with their stuff, it it makes me look like a 1960's scifi character oh well, I like my face in one piece

 

"Rod And Custom" Mag had a editors note in the back of one of their mag's sometime back where they were talking about this same thing. To back up the article they had a picture of the ceiling (12" ceiling?) where they were working on this particular car with a hole in it where the majority of the disc went after it blew.

 

The univex shield is good too because it goes down around your chin too, so sparks can't fly up under your safety glasses as easy. I like it.

 

My Contribution... I took the safety guard off and cutting wheels are not to be used on "High Speed" electric grinders!



Warning... Graphic material... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=168068

I'm so glad it wasn't an eye!

 

Ding ding ding. I ALWAYS keep my face off to the side in the rare occasion I use one to cut


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Absolutely wear a face shield with a grinder! I have a nice black tattoo in my left ear from a disc that grenaded. Felt like I got hit with a hammer. Quite a bit of blood for an ear. Sorry about your friend's eye.

 

i take the guards off,so did everyone in the shop i worked at,cant cut curves with that on.the guard is more dangerous to me cause my finger got jambed in between it and the spinning disc.after i took it off it will just knick you but not get stuck. cut halfway up my finger with the damn guard on

 

Just wanted to add, EVERY grinding/cut-off wheel sold in the US is supposed to be speed tested to 30% over it's rated speed. And yes, they do blow up on occasion. You would be amazed at how much force the 42" ones have when they let loose at 900 rpm, it would shake the office floor a 1/4 mile away. Anyone who turns one faster than it's rated for is asking for trouble. Very sorry about your friends eye.

 

Many years in fab shop, gotta use goggles & gloves; not only for explosions out also kickback. Its inconvenient, but don't lock in "on" position either. Had 9 inch grinder kick back (locked "on"), grab my t-shirt & twist into my body. The seconds it took me to yank the plug felt like I had a badger attacking my gut...

 

I've had those angle grinders kick back on me more than once. I always keep out of the path of the wheel, hands, feet, body, everything out of the path.
Sorry about your buddy's eye.

 

I used to use them without the guard and had a few explode, but lucky for me they never caught me.
After this incident:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=1813&pictureid=226743
as mellow as it is, im scared to death by the frekkin grinder, and i only use it if its the only way, and when i do i use the guard, handle and welding helmet.
I know its sounds overkill but fuck it! I had a metal bit dremeled outta my eye once, stuck a wrench into the other one, yes INSIDE my eye, i had weld fireballs melt my skin and all the usual gearhead incidents, but the grinder scares me. what can i say?

 

I had a cutoff wheel on a grinder tear out of my hands because I had the blade buried in the metal and there was metal on the back side it hit. I had it cut my thumb to the bone thru gloves. I had to get stitches and my nerve was cut so my thumb has weird feelings and it has a numb spot.



Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

I used to work for a company that used 9" grinders all the time. We did numerous repairs to mining equipment and structures all the time. When we had to install on site we had a complete ban on all 9" grinders. None were able to be used on site. To remedy this situation we had to oxy cut everything. We could use only 4 " grinders to clean anything up if needed. When we used the oxy, we manage to cut any metal with absolutely "NO" cleanup. I must stress that this particular technique does take alot of time and practice to master effectively. I still use the same technique after 10 years of accomplishing this very useful skill.

Mtw fdu.

 

I have to jump on thew band wagon here. I never realised just how often people are seriously injured by these things, that was until I started working in Accident & Emergency at Royal Brisbane Hospital! We are the largest and busiest emergency in Qld and if there are not at least three people come in in a day because of grinder injuries. Either Brisbane is a sloppy place safety wise or it just happens everywhere often!
Be careful out there guys, we have better things to do than sew up oily rev heads!!

Doc.

 

I use the plasma cutter now, even if it takes double the time. Seriously, if someone was to tell me this a few years ago (that they use plasma even if it takes longer) i would have tought thery were overworrying, but now i totally see the point. I guess the older the wiser in this case.
O/A is the next toy im gonna get btw.