Air Die Grinders

[lilscorpion]

I have an old Astro Pneumatic 90-degree I purchased at a local second hand tool shop about 15 years ago (I think). Still works great. I've had three mini's over the years (forget the models) and have a Craftsman composite now. Recently I bit and bought an Aircat 90-degree composite because it got rave reviews and was quiet...but it has no sack even though its rated rpm is the same as the Astro. I'm looking for a second mini/medium sized one for porting and misc tasks but don't really want to trust the propaganda. Dynabrade have gotten great reviews here but, in general, are way expensive (hundreds). I found a Dynabrade composite that is USA assembled for under $100. What I want is a solid mini-unit that's like my old Astro (though I get the quality is likely not where it used to be back in the day). So, who has experience with better under $100 straight die grinders that have taken a beating and would buy another on in a second. Intermittent duty is okay. I don't spend hours porting heads. If the $100 Dynabrade is the ticket, let me know because I really don't. Thanks!

 

[ILDurable]

For 90 degree die grinders I would definitely recommend Ingersoll Rand. The 301B model is the standard, with an RPM of 21,000. It's a nice little unit, usually under $70. Then if you wanna get fancy they have their MAX family die grinders. Pricey, but very nice all around. Not sure how actually "mini" they are, but they are not too big.

 

[IHI]

I'd seen chicago pneumatic tools in catalogs and such for yrs, never knew anybody that owned any. Machine shop I'm in now, large one, and we make our product and sell on the global market, all of our die grinders/angle die grinders are CP, have a few hundred of them around the shop and the things never die with the daily use we put them under...I have all MAC stuff here at home, but after seeing how well these CP products we have work on a 24/7 basis...i'll be checking them out when I find a new tool to need.

 

[Kracin]

I'd seen chicago pneumatic tools in catalogs and such for yrs, never knew anybody that owned any. Machine shop I'm in now, large one, and we make our product and sell on the global market, all of our die grinders/angle die grinders are CP, have a few hundred of them around the shop and the things never die with the daily use we put them under...I have all MAC stuff here at home, but after seeing how well these CP products we have work on a 24/7 basis...i'll be checking them out when I find a new tool to need.

this.

CP all the way, or IR


air cat is junk imho. worked in an environment that tears up air tools because of how old all the lines are, if you look inside any air line you see all kinds of ****, corrosion from the black pipe used to run air, water in the summer time by the gallons that has to be purged at the lines before use, etc.

the company tried to save some money and buy aircat 3/4" impacts instead of the CP 772h we always had, well that failed. the cp impacts usually lasted about a year or so before they needed a full rebuild (at which point the company just bought new ones anyway, go figure). the aircats, all 10 of them... didn't last a month. then they switched back to CP to their new line of 8272 3/4 magnesiums with higher torque, and those lasted even longer than the old 772h.

aircats may be quiet, but internally they aren't very robust, they may need a different vane set, or better porting, who knows, but they don't deliver the power they claim, and they don't last too long compared to others in accelerated wear conditions.

every air grinder we had was either CP or IR, mostly CP. IR straight die grinders, cp 90* air grinders for 4" grinding discs. IR and CP for large straight grinders that used 2" grinding stone cylinders.

 

[ILDurable]

CP makes some great pneumatic tools, very interchangeable as far as quality and power with IR. The CP 875 and IR 301B are almost identical. And while I do like Aircat's impact wrenches, I'm not a fan of their die grinders.