Bench grinder or angle grinder?

[TwinWillows]

I'd go with a good 4.5" angle grinder like a good heavy duty Milwaukee first. With the right grinding wheel it'll cut anything (wood, steel, masonary, etc) anywhere. You can find very thin cutting wheels that will let you remove thin slices of metal.

I had the exact situation w/my hydraulic top link not fitting into a cast boss on my old Oliver plow. A couple of seconds with the angle grinder using one of those thin cutting wheels & everything fit together fine.

 

[Ken Cunningham]

Which do want to do, just make it fit, or make it fit and look like it was made to fit?

If all you care for is getting it in there then go with the angle grinder and have at it, it will allso go alot faster getting the grinding done.

If your OCD would require you to make it look factory flat like mine does, then go with the bench grinder. Use the side of the wheel. Put a reference mark on the side you will not be grinding, put it flat to the side of the wheel for 3 or 4 seconds then rotate the swivel 180 degrees and grind for the same amount of time. Do the other side the same way and it should come out flat and pretty. Good Luck.

 

[RobJ]

, plus I use mine extensively for wire brushing with cup wheels.

Ahhh good point, a screw on straight wire, twisted or/or cupped wire will work wonders with removing rust and paint if needed. Just hold on and use gloves!!

 

[canoetrpr]

Rob - wow! I didn't even know that there was such a thing as a surface grinder. I'm going to go at the swivel eye today or tomorrow with my brand new angle grinder.

I don't need the eye to be flush, I'm just happy to grind it down so that it will fit. I

think that I will have to approach the eye more or less vertically with the angle grinder though much like your surface grinder is doing rather than what I was trying to do yesterday which was going at it at about 15 degrees from the horizontal..

Now I see why a bench grinder might have been better for this

 

[mjfox6]

I bit the bullet and started with a 4.5" Mastercraft angle grinder from Canadian Tire. We don't have HF up here. Mastercraft is about equivalent to crafstman I guess. It was on sale with a whole supply of grinding disks.

Didn't realise that could also use the angle grinder to sharpen my mower blade. Makes sense - just never thought about it .

Buy yourself a flap disk to sharpen your lawn mower blades, they are not as aggressive and allow you to better control how much material you are removing.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Canoe - once you get the hang of it you'll find the angle grinder will get the job done. I use my bench grinder more for sharpening.

But owning both is no bad thing.

And I don't use the dremel much, but there are times when I'm very happy to have it. I find sharpening lawn mower blades without taking them off the deck is easier on the dremel.

 

[3RRL]

LOL about the surface grinder...
I was lucky and have a couple spares from my old Mold Making shop.

I would like to get a combo 12" disc & 4" x 48" belt grinder/sander next. Either a Grizzly or a Wilton, and it will probably be the Grizzly due to lower costs.

mj,
Good call on the disc grinder and belt sander.
I have those too but as separate tools instead of the combo ones they offer now. Mine are old. But the disc grinder with the right grit paper on it will really remove material as fast or faster than anything. I use it to grind on radii (round off corners) and chamfers. Be very careful with that though, like all the grinders mentioned here. I saw one of my guys lose a thumb in one second. He was grinding a flat wear plate and got it sucked in between the wheel and the table. His thumb followed and there was nothing left to put back on.
I'll never forget that since I was standing right next to him when it happened.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Which do want to do, just make it fit, or make it fit and look like it was made to fit?

If all you care for is getting it in there then go with the angle grinder and have at it, it will allso go alot faster getting the grinding done.

If your OCD would require you to make it look factory flat like mine does, then go with the bench grinder. Use the side of the wheel. Put a reference mark on the side you will not be grinding, put it flat to the side of the wheel for 3 or 4 seconds then rotate the swivel 180 degrees and grind for the same amount of time. Do the other side the same way and it should come out flat and pretty. Good Luck.

That is some seriously dangerous advice. DO NOT EVER use the side of a bench grinder wheel. It will blow up -- not the first time you do it, maybe not even the thousandth time you do it, but it will blow up. This is the voice of experience talking here. Sure, I read the warnings and knew that I wasn't supposed to do it, but it seemed like the right thing to do for the job at hand --- something quite similar to what Ken is suggesting --- creating a nice flat surface. Luckily, I was standing to the side of the grinder when the wheel flew into about 50 pieces, the largest of which was about one third of the wheel, which impaled itself in the sheetrock on the far side of the room.

 

[canoetrpr]

Anyone know what a "Wet and Dry" grinder is?

The local Canadian tire has a standard dry grinder.

And then it has this wet and dry grinder

 

[Charlesaf3]

wet dry is good for sharpening - the water bath helps you avoid burning your edges - you don't want to get metal too hot or it loses its temper.

 

[denmansoft]

Wet and dry grinder is mostly for sharpening tools like chisels etc.
Get some old steel and clamp it down.
Then practise with your new hand grinder rounding edges, cutting grooves, grinding welds.
These are great tools in the right hands. They can easily get away if you are not holding it right, with the right pressure etc.

I wouldn't want to learn the hard way on a nice new Hydraulic Top Link.

 

[denmansoft]

My latest addition is the Wire wheels for the hand grinder.
Both the crimp type and the Cup brush with twisted bristles come for a 5/8" thread. I was about to make an adapter when I found one at my local NAPA auto store. 5/8" to 10mm lets all those accesories work on the smaller grinders.

 

[Bird]

As others have said, you need both. I've had bench grinders many, many years. My current one looks like this one except I have a 6" model instead of 8". If you use an angle grinder, whether electric or air, you need a good vise to hold the item you're working on. I use a 4" vise myself. Down in the country, I had a Craftsman 4.5" electric, but now all I have is a pneumatic angle die grinder which is great for putting a really fine edge on tools.

 

[builder2]

I tend to expand my new tools as I run into something I need.

I have no metal working equipment other than a little file. I need to grind down the swivel eye of a hydraulic top link that I recently bought from CCM to make it a few mm smaller.

Long story - it used to JUST fit the OEM top link bracket but I had an extension made to that bracket to move the top link out 4" to accomodate for the Pat's I use. My HTL ended up being a couple inches too short. The new bracket is maybe 1 or 2 mm narrower than the OEM one. The OEM toplink's swivel eye is quite a bit narrower than the one on the HTL I have. Figure I would grind down the HTLs swivel eye.

I see a decent 4.5" angle grinder on sale with disks for cutting and grinding but I imagine that since I can bring the top link to a grinder I could also use a bench grinder (I have neither).

If you were going to buy one - for this and that around a tractor - which would you start with?

Angle grinder if you cannot have both.

Paul

 

[Harry c]

I have a 9" Milwaukee, a 4 1/2" Dewalt and a $20 special 4 1/2" HF angle grinders. Also a Milwaukee electric die grinder, an 8" Ryobi pedestal mounted bench grinder, and a 6" HF bench grinder (forget that one, Ryobi makes a much better 6" for $10 more!). I often use one of my 21" x 3" belt sanders for sharpening and dressing. Even though I assume they were intended for wood, they work great on steel.

IMHO the 4 1/2 angle grinder is by far the most versatile. Cuts/grinds steel, ceramic tile, bricks, rock, concrete, smooths wood, removes rust, sharpens... Never found a use for a Dremel. Had one, lost it, no remorse. The 1/8" burrs are just too small and the torque isn't there. I use the Milwaukee die grinder with 1/4 " shank cutters or with a 1/8"collet reducer if I really need something small. It'll also spin a 3" cutting disc at 25,000 revs and really do some work.

I only recently bought a couple of the Harbor Freight tools. The 4 1/2 HF Chicago Electric angle grinder has been fine. I've actually used it more lately than the Dewalt simply because if I'm going to "let the smoke out of one", I'd rather it be the $20 one. I've been doing some pretty heavy work with 'em lately. The $29 HF Central Machinery 6" bench grinder is useless. It has so little starting torque it won't turn a wire wheel. I can spin the thing with my finger but the motor can't pull it at all. Also the motor diameter is as large as the wheel so it's in the way of everything I try to grind.

 

[canoetrpr]

Let me throw out another silly question so that when one comes on sale I can pick it up...

I see 6" and 8" bench grinders advertised. I was guessing that I would just go with an 8. 6" is a bit cheaper. Any reason I should go with one and not the other?

 

[mjncad]

Be very careful with that though, like all the grinders mentioned here. I saw one of my guys lose a thumb in one second. He was grinding a flat wear plate and got it sucked in between the wheel and the table. His thumb followed and there was nothing left to put back on.
I'll never forget that since I was standing right next to him when it happened.

When I was in high school auto shop class, one of the druggie idiot students used the shop's bench grinder to trim his fingernails. I just shook my head when I was watching him do this. He never got hurt, so I guess in his case the old saying about God protecting fools and drunks applied.

 

[mjncad]

Let me throw out another silly question so that when one comes on sale I can pick it up...

I see 6" and 8" bench grinders advertised. I was guessing that I would just go with an 8. 6" is a bit cheaper. Any reason I should go with one and not the other?

I like the larger wheels as their motors have more torque, and they put less of a curve on the surface you are grinding.

 

[charlz]

I like the 8"... I have a craftsman, they put stuff on sale/have specials around Christmas time so that痴 when I picked mine up.


Oh yeah.... _always_ wear gloves with the angle grinder... those things just love skin. I also prefer a faceshield to glasses, especially when using a wire brush/wheel.

 

[MJPetersen]

Oh yeah.... _always_ wear gloves with the angle grinder... those things just love skin. I also prefer a faceshield to glasses, especially when using a wire brush/wheel.

Yea!! I hate picking out those wires that have embedded like needles. It is bad enough in the Levis, but in the face that would be painful. The only thing worse is a die grinder and a carbide cutter--those really make small little darts!!

Mike