cut off wheel

[woody367]

I have been buying 4" cut off wheels for my angle grinder. Was wondering if there is better quality? I am using it on mild steel, car frame and burning thru them really fast. Hoping there is one better then another. Thanks

 

[pizza]

not sure, but my 'solution' is to go in the other direction and just get cheap ones from HF etc

 

[woody367]

not sure, but my 'solution' is to go in the other direction and just get cheap ones from HF etc

Will never use a HF blade again. Last one blew apart and went thru my leg to the bone. Had 25 stitches. Heard to many horrpr storys about there cheap blades.

 

[Skin]

Norton are highly regarded. You may have a bit of sticker shock if all you bought prior were the cheapies though.

 

[Jagmandave]

Woody, sorry to hear you got hurt - did your angle grinder have the shield or guard on it?

I've never had one fail on me yet, you do have to make sure you're not bending or trapping the wheel tho.

I find the HF's work as well as the expensive ones for what I do, but I'm not cutting or sectioning a frame with it.

 

[pizza]

sorry about that, woody.

i'm curious about the details, too. i always use a face shield and leave the grinder guard installed, and i like to think that would protect me from a lot of things, but you never know. i've never personally seen a wheel pop.

 

[Fcvapor05]

sorry about that, woody.

i'm curious about the details, too. i always use a face shield and leave the grinder guard installed, and i like to think that would protect me from a lot of things, but you never know. i've never personally seen a wheel pop.

I was on a job site once where a guy got KILLED by an exploding grinding wheel.

He took about a third of the wheel directly to the sternum, and was stopped by the guy's spine. Face shields, grinder guards in place, and quality name brand grinding wheels are the only way to do it. Spend the extra money people, it's cheap compared to a serious injury or worse.

 

[Trm303]

I haven’t had much experience with the industrial brands but among all the wheels I’ve tried, I found dewalt offset cut offs to last the longest and I’ve been happy enough with them to not look elsewhere, they run about a buck and half a piece if you are buying them in 5 packs from Lowe’s.

 

[joshmodelskidoo]

Im not fond of the hf ones myself. I think the performax ones from menards are a bit better. The hf ones tend to get out of round faster and loose chunks I think. I have never had any explode on me before but it’s always in my head so i tend to wear leather gloves and a face shield

 

[gnpenning]

Sorry to hear Woody.

Years ago I had a a wheel come apart on me and splint my arm. Since then I gear up including leathers, upper and lower along with face and arm . Need to come up with some better crouch protection. You can be doing everything right and still have one come apart let alone adding a bind or an inferior product. Reduce variables by using the best wheel you can. Norton and other name brands are a good start. If you haven't already do a search here for other threads they have come up with some quality wheels that I forget about. You already know the danger and how quickly things can change.

Stay safe.

 

[FSrepair&fabrication]

Cheap wheels are dangerous. I almost lost a thumb when a cheap wheel exploded. Now i wear my welding gloves when i grind or cut instead of thin work gloves.

Benchmark abrasives makes excellent quality .045 cut off wheels. Shop on ebay and you can get them as cheap as 50 cents per wheel if you buy in bulk. If you buy a 25 pack theyre about $1 each. They are meant for cutting stainless and are very hard and dont wear out quickly like other brands do.

 

[joe_padavano]

Here ya go. Guaranteed for life. Never buy another. These things cut great.

https://www.baddogtools.com/product-category/hdii-handi-disc-deux/

 

[BD1]

Shop sheetmetal guys use cutting wheels daily. They are only designed to be used on cutting edge and not at all on flat side.
The best we found are Walter .
We use to use Metabo ones until we got a sample box of Walters.
There are dedicated wheels for Stainless Steel too.
I attended Fabtech and got a variety of cutting wheels from manufacturers for free.
The Walters still seemed the longest lasting
Cutting the same material


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Stooge]

I've been happily using US made Metabo brand wheels for years without incident, (super slicers i believe is the line ive been buying) after having some cheap HF ones pop/ explode. Fortunately i was never injured from it, but not worth the risk to me, and also quality wheels seem to last significantly longer than the cheapies. I buy them from Lehigh Valley Abrasives, the 3" ones are .87 cents a piece, and the 4.5" wheels are .97 cents a piece. I havent deviated too far from Metabo's since i started using them, but i have heard nothing but positives for Norton and Walters.

 

[dnschmidt]

Walter's and Pferd are the best. (For those of you who are not German this is pronounced FERT and is the German word for horse which sort of explains why they have a picture of a horse on everything they make.)

 

[blazemaster83]

$110 for a 4" grinding wheel? At .97 cents a piece for standard wheels that would have to be a hell of a wheel to make me want to buy it. I would love to see a demo.

 

[oldwino]

Diablo all the way. A little spendy but lasts a long time. Never had on gernade on me

 

[woody367]

Thank you guys for all the info. I will check them all out and see what prices I can find.

I did not have a guard on when it can apart. I was given a few HF wheels and was using them. Put a new blade on, turned on the grinder and about 10 sec later not cutting yet to blew apart. May have been a defect in it. But I will never use them again. I had a sheild on but if it hit the sheild it would have went through and got me in the face. NOT WORTH IT.

 

[xela456]

I've used metabo slicer discs alot and they cut great but vanish quickly. Make sure you get the .045 and not the .040 as you'd be surprised at how much they little thickness makes the difference in stoutness.
My favorite wheel has to be the CGW. They last and cut very well in a variety of materials and I've never had a blowout. The dewalts last forever because they don't cut anything.

 

[tarbellb]

Pferd
Walter
Weiler
VSM
Sait
United Abrasives
3M
Metabo

A few others, but really it mostly comes to country of origin. Typically USA, and Germany produce high quality abrasives.

I only use .045 or .040" for cutting, anything thicker is just wasted time and excess heat.

 

[Antoin]

I use tyrolit.
Never had one explode that wasn't being abused.
I have in the past cut through suspension springs under compression and that caused them to explode but that was when I was a young idiot [emoji1787]

Sent from my Moto G (4) using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[dnschmidt]

Tyrolit is very good. On par with Pferd and Walter. Problem is that they have almost no distribution in the USA.

 

[seber]

Nothing but Walter here. I tried the cheapies first but they are way more expensive than paying for good quality that actually does some cutting before it wears out.

 

[Dozerhand]

The best ones I ever used came from Caterpillar. I'm sure they are obscenely priced but hey what's your time and safety worth?

 

[jonesg]

$110 for a 4" grinding wheel? At .97 cents a piece for standard wheels that would have to be a hell of a wheel to make me want to buy it. I would love to see a demo.

diamond disks are great until all the diamonds depart, then they don't cut butter.

 

[joe_padavano]

$110 for a 4" grinding wheel? At .97 cents a piece for standard wheels that would have to be a hell of a wheel to make me want to buy it. I would love to see a demo.

I paid $100 at Fall Carlisle. Guaranteed for life. How long does it take you to go through 100 of the cheap ones? And how many have to explode in your face?

I've had their drill bits for years. Drill through hardened steel with no issues. Swapped out several that I broke. No questions asked, no cost. The "guaranteed for life" also applies to the tools just getting dull, not only if they break. When it stops cutting, they give you a new one.

 

[jimindm]

A couple of years ago I bought some diamond type off of the Snap On truck. I am pretty sure they are not a Snap On product. I do not think they were anywhere as costly as the ones above.

I seen them in the supplement flyer he gives out every so often. I think many times these are products that come from companies that snap on owns. Although it makes sense a huge tool manufacturer could have a warehouse of other brands, to make available to their dealer network.

My dealer has them on the shelf. The best thing I like about them is they do not wear out. Wear out in the way they get smaller diameter as they are used.

I have had mine long enough now, that I do not even know the name of them. It seems like they were about $50-60. Packaging says replaces 60-70 regular discs.

I bout one for a project that I needed the full cutting depth. Started with the abrasives, but found after a short while I could not get all the way through. I was switching out blades as I could to manage the deeper cut when needed.

This solved that. I would buy them again. I suppose they wear out. But like any other tool it sits until you need it, then you need it to perform a task.

 

[tarbellb]

The diamond blades are just ok, a compromise for most materials. A good solution for those only cutting random materials a few times a year or as a back up.

They do excel at cutting aluminum, less clogging, specially if you use wax.

But ive found them to take longer, heat up more, and not as clean of cuts.

A quality abrasive is a industry standard for good reason.
______________

If you investigate diamond blades, Lennox makes a good cheap option.

 

[blackdak8]

I usually use more of the brand name ones since trying the horrible hf ones a while back, but recently was in a bind trying to finish a project and ran out of name branded 4in cut off wheels. I tried the Hyper Tough 3 pack from Walmart to finish the project. They held up surprisingly well for cheap wheels. Far better the the hf is used in the past.

 

[Alaniho]

Definitely try to stick with brands that actually manufacture themselves in the USA or Europe like Pferd, Walter, Globe, Sait, Tyrolit, 3M, Norton, Klingspor.

i would even avoid DeWalt or any shop or powertool branded discs as its anybody's guess where they were made, most likely sourced as cheap as possible.

 

[jayemm]

I bought a Dewalt cutting wheel a while back but haven't used yet.It's their 'XP' Extended Performance and it's made in Germany.First one of those for me so no idea about wear.

 

[PugetDude]

Pferd
Bosch
Dewalt
CGW

No more HF for me; second close call proved the first wasn't an anomaly.

 

[sberry]

I been hand grinding a lot a long time. Never had one come right uncunted really but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I use guards,,,,, and I watch some experienced men that were never really trained on some details with a grinder, they blow everything every where and are in line with things without realizing it. It is so natural for me to work it al away to a safe spot, aint gotta fill the tools with grit, can shoot it to the floor and not the trouble lights,,, its part of the instinct about using it.

 

[Outahere]

Pferd
Walter
Weiler
VSM
Sait
United Abrasives
3M
Metabo

A few others, but really it mostly comes to country of origin. Typically USA, and Germany produce high quality abrasives.

Is Mercer also a good brand? (now owned by Champion Cutting Tools)

Mercer Cut Off Wheels

 

[tarbellb]

Is Mercer also a good brand? (now owned by Champion Cutting Tools)

Mercer Cut Off Wheels

Champion used to be a USA mfg only, but have been outsourcing as of late. Cant confirm quality on Mercer, I have heard of them.

fwiw- Amazon list COO of Mercers best cut off disc (black lighting ) as Turkey, but shows China on the photos.... not a good sign.

 

[tarbellb]

If this is actually 25 pcs its a smoking deal-

Weiler 5" Wolverine .045 x 25pk = $16.42

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VTXTD6/?tag=atomicindus08-20

or

Amazon.com: CGW Abrasives 45005 Cut Off Wheel T27 5x.045x7/8 25-Pack : Industrial & Scientific

Buy CGW Abrasives 45005 Cut Off Wheel T27 5x.045x7/8 25-Pack: Cut-Off Wheels - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

 

[ecotec]

The good brands are Norton, Hilti, Pferd, Diablo, 3M Green Corps…

I use them from right to left in my picture. I try to use up the ones from less desirable countries first.

My goal is to eventually get down to just USA, Germany, Spain…

If I have some of the same discs… and some say made in USA, and others say made in USA of foreign components… I use the made in USA of foreign components first.

I have a whole drawer of cutting and grinding discs.

I do the same thing with all my consumables. You should see my Roloc stuff… I have a stupid amount.

 

[Outahere]

......i would even avoid DeWalt or any shop or powertool branded discs as its anybody's guess where they were made, most likely sourced as cheap as possible.

DeWalt does print the COO on their cutting discs, from what I have seen at their website. The Elite series is manufactured in Germany and Austria, the High Performance series is manufactured in China. I recently bought my first Dewalt wheel (at amazon): a 5" x 1/4" type27 General Purpose grinding wheel, and it is manufactured in Canada.