I have a gift certificate for $75 from sears; I'd like a 1/4" die grinder. I'm using it maybe to buff, but mostly with carbide burrs to drill and gouge undercuts in stone carving. I tried harbor freight's $15 grinders; within a few months one of them died, and they never had enough torque, always bogging down.
But the difference between $15, $30, $60, and $150... as the pricing ranges seem to go for simple straight die grinders, seems too much like voodoo to me. What should I buy, and why?
I can see maybe that bearing and turbine tolerances can matter, whether needle or ball (needle would be better?), if they even managed to harden them sufficiently, as might be an issue on the dirt cheapest; I'm trying to think what else would differentiate. But you don't see any of that. You only see a brand name and price on the box; maybe cfm and rpm, where cfm could be high because it's powerful or because it's inefficient and leaks, and you'll never know.
thanks!!
-Bernard Arnest