I have a DeWalt angle grinder. I took the grinding wheel off and replaced it with one of those thick rubber backing pads and a coarse abrasive disk. I use it to sharpen mower blades.
And that would make it shut off after 20 seconds, in your experience?
I love my 4.5" angle grinder. With a concrete blade, I made drainage channels on a patio, knocked the sharp edges off of the same patio, and cut sharp corners off of a concrete and brick planter area. Love it.
Mine (Ridgid) stinks too. They have a tiny little motor that draws what, 7 amps? It smells like brushes and ozone, not that “electrical” fire smell.
I missed that part. It’s obviously defective.
As an update, the job was done so I returned the Milwaukee. Then I had another job so I borrowed my stepfather’s. Then I got tired of never having an angle grinder around so I just bought another one, a Dewalt.
So is Dewalt a decent brand? After getting a bum unit I didn’t want to try Milwaukee again- are they really not as good as their reputation is or did I just get a 1 in a million fluke. I saw Genesis and Porter brands for about half the price, but I wondered how good they could be at that price point. Milwaukee, Dewalt, and a company called Makita all seemed to be in the same price range.
I use a Dewalt angle grinder. I’m very abusive to it. As the costs of tools go, angle grinders are cheap so I’m more than willing to destroy it if it saves 30 minutes on a job, yet it keeps going. Work includes grinding and well casings, cutting concrete and sometimes chopping out bedrock. The older one is five years old and still going. I picked up a second one a few years back when I needed two different heads on a job so I could just swap tools rather than changing the head.
Dewalt as a Brand overall can be hit and miss. They’ve been working to bring the costs of their tools down to hit Home Depot’s price points so if they have to re-engineer a tool it often gets cheapened with inferior parts. I don’t think they’ve had a need to redesign the angle grinder as it’s a very good seller and has been for many years now.
I have come to the point where I accept that nearly all the brands can be hit or miss. I have had sub par experiences with Porter Cable, Bosch, Bostitch this year and have heard several trades curse about the dive in quality Milwaukee has taken. I have had both great and lousy Dewalt, Ridgid, and Hitachi tools. I would say that you get what you pay for but the comparably very expensive Bosch 16g nailer I bought this year looks awesome but hasn’t sunk a nail yet. Even a Makita cordless hammer drill that I bought to replace its failing 8 year old brother makes a questionable ozone smell that the first one never did (the old one got repaired for $25 and is still going strong BTW).
Assuming you have the right size cutting wheel installed, you replace it before it is overly worn, and you keep the RPM’s up, an angle grinder should grind away indefinitely without any complaints. If the grinder keeps bogging down its time for a bigger grinder or circular saw with a grinding blade.
This grinder sound like a dud.
Speaking of tools, how much do I have to pay for a miter saw? I saw a few Hitachi models reasonably prices in Menards and am wondering if they’re any good.