Before buying a plasma cutter I used my grinders for almost all cutting I had to do. I realized the gear grease issue on my last two Dewalt grinders. Despite keeping grease on the bevel gears I replaced a couple of the right angle gear drives and noticed the last DW OEM drive was stamped "China". With little confidence in their quality, I bought one Skil and one B&D angle grinder. To my surprise, I can't tell any difference in power or longevity when I compare one of these cheapies to a $50-$60 Dewalt or Milwaukee 6-7 amp model. It's hard to track real time use but I swear the Skil lasted longer than any angle grinder I've owned. I watch ads and I paid about $20 each for both +/- 6 amp models. I decided that I am getting 2-3 times the value by getting the small Skil or B&D versions. I really like my Dewalt 10 amp because when I need a deep cutting depth in a tight area, I can put 6" cutting wheels on it and it has the grunt to use them where any of the lower amp models don't like it at all. My take here is this, if you need a small ( lower amp) 4 1/2" grinder for most normal uses, save your money on a DW, Bosch ( mine is on the shelf waiting for new brushes right now) or Milwaukee and try out one of the cheapies I mentioned.
