Angle Grinders

You don't say what size. If you've got the money to spend & lots of work for it, the top of the range Metabo take some beating. You'll feel sick if it gets pinched, though :-( - but if it doesn't you'll probably find it a good investment in the end. They last & last. At the cruder end of the market, Makita are generally pretty good value, solid machines. If there's a choice of power rating for a given size, spend the extra on the more powerful one. First power tool I bought when setting up on my own was a 9" Makita, that was about 20 years ago. It had to go last year because the handle had been taped up too many times to be safe. One new switch & 2 or 3 sets of brushes in that time, no complaints from me. I've had a 7" Hitachi for several years now, it hasn't let me down yet apart from the switch.

HTH Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

Metabo makes a very nice 125mm angle grinder. 1500W motor, soft start, (slightly) variable speed, and you don't need a spanner to change disks. I bought one when my old B&D died.

I always buy the cheapest ones, abuse them and they die after 4 or 5 years. At 15 quid a pop that seems fair to me.

Regards

Charles

BUT, you never know 'when' they are going to die!

Like buying a cheap old banger of a car and never knowing if you can get to work in the morning....:-))

Better IMO to buy a reliable make and look after it and know that it is going to work when you really need it to.

Our old Wolf grinder is still going after nearly 33 years or so, not intensively used, but has still seen some action in its life.

Peter

at £15 a pop, jou can afford to keep one or two spares ;-)

Regards, Tony

In general I agree with you Peter, especially if it's something you use to earn a living. Having said that, when my old Makita 9" finally had to go I replaced it with an el cheapo job from Duotools in Scotland. A bit more than 15 quid, but a lot less than the equivalent Makita etc. Partly an experiment, partly because as my body gets older the 9" gets used less & less, & I have a good quality 7" grinder which will do almost the same work. For the moment, it works fine.

I still have a couple of old Wolf 4" Grinderettes,one semi retired for odd sanding jobs & the other 240V for odd jobs around the house, but still going. The older one of those must be of similar age. These were good little tools, the later ones had a safety clutch which made them fairly indestructible, but not powerful enough by current standards. Also added up again how old my 9" Makita was, must have been 25 years at least :-(

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

No, it defeats the whole object of having a working set of equipment.

If we all worked on that premise, we'd have two or three of everything, two fridges, two or three freezers, a couple of cars, three tellys and so on.

Peter

Just got out of a cold shower :-(( Fitted a NEW Redring unit last night, the bl**dy thing cuts off on overtemp before it has even got WARM!! Someone at Redring is going to be an unhappy bunny later on this morning....

The old one (Sadia) lasted 18 years without a single fault .

CP> I always buy the cheapest ones, abuse them and they die after 4 or 5 CP> years. At 15 quid a pop that seems fair to me.

CP> Regards

CP> Charles

CP>

I did that with my current large angle grinder. Incredibly noisy, but cheap, and it seems to work so far.

Yes, good point! :-))

The old one had a full-height cylinder and was 7kW, this one is about

5" high and is 8.5kW.

Spoke to Redring after 20 minute wait (for which the poor tech service guy got an earful) he suggested it was lack of water flow, to which I responded that the previous incumbent had operated flawlessly for 18 years without a problem, and we could get 8ft jets out of their spray head on full bore....

He then promptly decided that one of the micro-pressure sensors was faulty, and suggested a replacement!

Sounds more like the overtemp sensor is up the swanee to me, but we shall see. Replacement is on the way over to Luton from Aylesbury courtesy of Edmundsons, at least they can jump about for their customers... Another fitting session tonight, but I did fit an inline tap in the supply pipe last night so should be fairly quick to swap over, I hope!

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

O

So how do you explain the number of Ward capstans that you seem to have stashed in & around the workshop? (but I don't think anyone here could resist a bargain if it involved machine tools either)

Regards Kevin

It's a long story, Guv', and there are FIVE not four :-))

No1 Ward 2A was via our powder coater, who rang me on my mobile to say that his neighbours on the industriual estate were having to move out of one of their units and there was a lathe in the road waiting for the scrappie to call and pick it up.

I told him to stall for time, and that we would 'probably' pay a little bit more than the scrappie if it was a working lathe. We were out in the van somewhere, and did a high-speed diversion to see what it was. I'd not seen a decent Ward before, and this one was all there, had been used up until the previous week and had collets with it but no chucks.

An Elliott Progress 3A drill was thrown in as a sweetener, so we bought the pair for £100.

Ward 1A No1 and No2 were from Truro/Redruth area and Kettering recycling dump respectively. Both were incomplete, but I have almost one machine and spares, cost about £160.

Ward 2A No2 was, I think, courtesy of John S (?) who emailed me to say that it was on ebay at a fiver, so I put a bid on at £6.50 and won it! I remember John saying to post that on rec.crafts.metalworking to wind the b*ggers up! That one was also in use but not as a volume production tool. It was at a place in Saffron Waldron that made specialist resistive heating elements, and they used the Ward for making up some small lengths of thin-wall tube. That came with collets as well.

Ward 1A No3 was from a guy who initially contacted me following my photo's of the first 1A rebuild being put on our website, but he later decided not to proceed and I bought the machine off him, which is all there but kept up the farm out of the clutches of the rest of the machinery. It is probably going to be the one we use, but that will depend on the others.

So you see, I can blame it all on everyone else.... :-))

Peter

Tom wrote: [trillions of lines]

You don't snip, add only two lines and post the whole lot twice. If you were a goldfish I'd flush you down the toilet for that.

Tim

Now if you'd bought two Sadia, back 18 years ago you'd be nice n warm now! :-)

Tom

Was it you? I did put a question mark over that one as I couldn't remember, but I 'will' have the original emails to check back on.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

5" high, 8.5kW.? That's not a water heater, that's a super kettle! :-) I'd use more hot water when I shave! :-)

Tom

5" high, 8.5kW.? That's not a water heater, that's a super kettle! :-) I'd use more hot water when I shave! :-)

Tom

Thanks for blaming John for the eBay one, Peter, I just couldn't handle the guilt of contributing to your accumulation! :-(

Tom

Somewhere in the Southern Atlantic there is a small island inhabited by 2 or three people, perhaps they may care what you think, Tim..