Posted: 2/11/2007 2:02:08 PM EDT
| I bought a couple of Harbor Freight 4 1/2" angle grinders since they were on sale for $15.00 each. They both work great, but make sure you use the proper safety gear when using them. I was cleaning up some sheet metal with a wire cup attachment. When I was done, I noticed that pieces of wire from the wire cup flew off and stuck into my pant leg. Always were safety glasses. You never know where a piece of wire will fly. |
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You think that's scary? Google "King Arthur's Tools" and when you find the site, seek out the Lancelot chainsaw disc. I use one on my grinder when carving guitar tops out of rock hard maple. It's one of the most utterly terrifying things you've ever seen in your life and makes you rethink ALL your safety procedures with extreme care. But man, it works like nothing else on the planet! What takes all day to carve by hand with finger planes takes fifteen minutes with this monster. And I'm not exaggerating. CJ |
I have used those for years and you must be careful. I have also heard stories of those things grabbing clothing and spinning into your body. When using a wire brush attachment on a grinder, safety must be a priority. |
What, a chainsaw disc? That's scary as hell. There's NO WAY I'd ever run the grinder without the heavy steel guard in place. Was yours on your grinder at the time? CJ |
A 1/8th thick steel cutting disk on a Milwalkee grinder. It didn't have the guard on it, but what the heck, I have built whole cars from scratch, it can't hurt me.  Really though, the problem was how I was holding it and the part. The weird thing about cuts like that and bullet wounds is right when they occur, there is no blood. It is like a perfect cross section of your body. |
WOW that is crazy... I gotta get one of those.... |
So why isn't there a guard on that thing? Are you NUTS?? CJ |
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Did you guys see Extreme Home Makeover on ABC last night? They did a makeover for the Marine at Ground Zero that found the Policeman and Firefighter.... The Irish (?) guy on the show took off the guard off the angle grinder with the chainsaw blade trying to grind a wooden flag...."f'ed" up his hand across the palm, surgery, hospital, the whole nine yards. Ouch! |
| It's not just the Harbor Freight angle grinder, they ALL throw stuff. I was using my DeWalt with a 1/4 inch wide cutoff wheel and a piece of the wheel flew up and hit my safety glasses leaving a nice 1/2 inch gash in them. I get weak kneed thinking about what would have happened to my eye if I hadn't been wearing those glasses. I use a full face sheild now, I figure I got my one freebie. |
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There was a guy who lived in Melbourne, Florida who made his living carving decorative tikis out of palm tree trunks. He did a lot of business. Very popular items. He used a chainsaw disc and heavy grinding wheels to make the tikis. One day, the wheel shattered while he was making another tiki. A chunk of the wheel blew through his skull. DRT. Dead Right There. And then his dog laid down next to his body and died without a single apparent injury. True story. CJ |
I use the cup brush on one of the larger 8" Makitas for paint removal on auto body panels, along with the smaller 4.5". You ain't kidding. As the brush begins to wear, more nad more wires will separate. I have had a couple instances where I was through for the day and taking a shower and had never noticed the wires were STICKING OUT OF MY THIGH. I wear safety glasses and a full face shield on top whenever I am grinding, sanding, or using the brush. Always wear a hat too. It keeps your hair from catching fire, and keeps particles out of your hair. Particles in your hair drop into your eyes, behind your glasses, a very bad thing. |
We used to use the wire cup wheels in the tire shop to grind the corrosion off of rims, and I HAVE had to pull them out of my nuts. No joke. My nuts took a lot of abuse at that job. Steel belts on tires cut them more times than I can recall. |
WOW, Thanks for posting those. I am already pretty anal about eye protection, but those make me even more paranoid about eye injury. |
Holy Moly! had to wipe my eyes that last one had them watering lol... |
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Sliced open my left eye when I was ten, had a carbide tooth on a circular saw blade shatter. Missed my retina, but not by much. It ain't fun. Always wear PPE! My 4.5" angle grinder story: I'm up on a ladder cutting through metal stucco lathe on a renovation job. Wearing all my protective gear. Grinder kicks out a small piece of the metal lathe that had gotten semi-molten from heat abrasion. It (naturally) lands on my left forearm, which proceeds to catch on fire! I had to let it burn until I could turn off the grinder, wait for it to completely stop, and climb down the ladder. Oh joy! I now know what burning human flesh smells like, I really didn't need to know, but now I do.  Wound up with a third degree burn.  Luckily it was a small piece and I had plenty of clean water at the site and I kept Vitamin E gel tabs in my aid kit for burns. Cleaned it, put Vit E on it, 4x4 gauze pad, piece of duct tape. Back up the ladder to finish cutting.  Damn thing took forever to heal though. |
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even just using a disk wear PROPER safety glasses A few months ago I got steel in my left eye. Figured it woudl work itself out, but because it was hot it burned itself to and stuck to my eye. Doc scraped it out with a needle, including the burn part and the rust.... it sucked, and that was with glasses on, they just had too big an opening on the bottom |