Which floor grinder? Edco or Clarke?

[HotRod68Camaro]

Went by my local HD to see what they had. I'm going to be grinding my garage this weekend in prep for epoxy. The concrete is less than 6 months old with one small old stain. No prior coating. Should i get the clarke with the diamabrush (no dust shroud) or the Edco with the more aggressive disc (brand new machine with vacuum attachment)?

Clarke



Edco

 

[Trey T]

I used Edco and it was hard but I had help from a buddy whom is familiar with it. If I was to do it again by myself, I would use the diamabrush attached to the floor buffer.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

This has been covered pretty well:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285884&highlight=prep

 

[Shea]

Newer garage floor, no coatings to remove, and no patchwork to level out - Diamabrush for the win. It will go much quicker and is easier to work with. Plus, it's easier to transport.

Just make sure to wear a respirator if grinding dry. It wont kick up nearly as much dust as a turbo cup wheel without a shroud, but it's still going to emit a small cloud.

 

[BigDaveZJ]

From someone who went through a very similar process a few weeks ago (only difference was prepping for just a sealer and not epoxy), absolutely without a doubt go with the Clarke.

 

[packpride85]

See if you can find the Clarke model with the dust skirt and vac attachment. I had to visit a couple of home depot's to find one. I'd say call but most of the people had no clue what a dust skirt was. Better to just go look for yourself to confirm.

 

[wagspe208]

Uh.... depending upon coating brand, MOST require etching (or strongly recommend), with muriatic acid. It is quick, stinky, but quick.
HD has a less smelly etching liquid.
Good luck. I am a week behind you.
(but I have access to floor sweepers and scrubbers, so my prep project will be a breeze)
Wags

 

[HotRod68Camaro]

Unfortunately non of my local HDs have the Clarkes with the dust skirt. I'll be picking one up Saturday and getting it done.

 

[james.work.90]

Absolutely go with the clarke. I almost used an edco but km happy I made the drive to get the clarke and dimabrush.

 

[jfitz]

I just used the Edco with the vacuum but with their diamond attachment instead of the wheel discs. There are 3 magnetic diamond attachments you can put on each orbiting wheel with 4 cutters per attachment. My floor is 20 years old and epoxied it when new but has slowly eroded away so I had oil and grease stains. I used a degreaser first, let it sit for 15 minutes, brissell brushed it as well as I could, then took the power washer to rinse it all off. Then I used the Edco, vacuumed the whole floor, wet mopped it, and the floor is now ready for epoxy. The Edco left a sandpaper finish so no etching needed

 

[IPACA9]

I used the edgo last night on my 30x40. And when I say last night it was from about 1am to 5:30 am. I tried to use my old shop vac but with the combined sound of my vac and grinding echoing out of the garage was going to have my neighbors pissed so I chose to go with wet grinding and closing my doors. Beside the dust cloud from my faulty vac was crazy. Today I bought a new Rigid 14 gallon wet dry vac. I guess I was doing it right. Machine was very easy to handle.