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Posted by: Rav914 Nov 23 2009, 02:50 PM

What do you all recommend? Main uses will be knocking off rust to get to metal, cutting metal, smoothing welds. Small enough to fit in tight spots. Electric power source. Thanks,

Nate

Posted by: Geezer914 Nov 23 2009, 02:57 PM

I bought a 5" Milwalkee from Home depot. picked up some cutting wheels. Works like a champ.

Posted by: Travis Neff Nov 23 2009, 03:02 PM

I Like my 4" hitachi that I picked up from lowes, much better and quieter than the POS unit I got from HF (was cheap and gets the job done)

Posted by: Sleepin Nov 23 2009, 03:06 PM

The petite ones preferably. The big ones have a tendency to knock you over!

My mind is tellin me no but my body my body's tellin me yes
I don't want to hurt nobody
But there is something that I must confess...

Posted by: Bartlett 914 Nov 23 2009, 03:07 PM

You can't beat the harbor freight 4.5" angle grinder. So cheap you could consider it to be a disposable tool! I had a Shop tool brand one that got away from me and hit the floor. It broke in half. The chicago brand ones are pretty tough. I use them for wire wheel, grinding and I use the .040" cutoff disks.

Posted by: Spoke Nov 23 2009, 03:16 PM

QUOTE(Bartlett 914 @ Nov 23 2009, 04:07 PM)

Posted by: tat2dphreak Nov 23 2009, 03:25 PM

I have a ryobi and a "GMC" home depot brand basically. the little GMC kicks ass but the ryobi has a nice feature of being able to put the handle on the top, for sideways grinding and cutting.

Posted by: jmill Nov 23 2009, 03:41 PM

Get the 4.5" and not the 4". I find it hard to find the flap disks for the 4" grinders. I bought an adapter to get my 4" to run the 4.5" disks.

Posted by: kenshapiro2002 Nov 23 2009, 04:09 PM

Yeah...just got a 4.5" Ryobi at HD and it rocks.

QUOTE(tat2dphreak @ Nov 23 2009, 04:25 PM)

Posted by: aircooledtechguy Nov 23 2009, 04:39 PM

My Costco up here had this Hitachi 4" electric for $29.95 yesterday.



I need one too and will probably be picking one up soon.

Posted by: Vacca Rabite Nov 23 2009, 05:18 PM

Look at all the wussy grinders. My 13 amp 7.5 inch and grinder laughs at any job "too cramped." It just makes the room required.


(for small jobs I use my air grinder... I just wanted to be an asshat)

Posted by: Cheapsnake Nov 23 2009, 07:31 PM

Harbor Freight, bought 2 about 5 years ago for around $20 to do some fiberglass work, figuring they'd be toast once the job was done. They've been through hell since then and still going strong.

Tom

Posted by: Richard Casto Nov 23 2009, 08:04 PM

I tend to like the cheap HF 4.5". I have three. One for knotted wire, one for thin cut off and one for grinder. When they eventually die (they usually work a long time) I just buy another one. With how I abuse them, I can't see spending more for a better one.

Posted by: bdstone914 Nov 23 2009, 10:24 PM

QUOTE(Richard Casto @ Nov 23 2009, 05:04 PM)

Posted by: underthetire Nov 23 2009, 10:27 PM

I got a skill professional grade one for Xmas 15 years ago, gota love my dad. Works good, but has a weird arbor on it. Can't get sanding disk backings for it. My dad has the a Milwauke and it really rocks and you can get anything for it.

Posted by: Gint Nov 24 2009, 08:22 AM

For general use as mentioned already a 4 or 4.5" electric grinder is probably what you want. Pneumatic die grinders are great if you have the air source as well as a being good alternative to an electric grinder, but they don't have the same torque for the big grinding jobs.

I have 2 4" (4.5" I don't know) grinders. The first that I've had for 10 years is a Dewalt that only cost me $40 or so brand new. It still cranks away, nice and smooth.

The second I bought when I was stripping the 6 tub so I wouldn't have to change wheels. It's a HB cheapo. Gets the job done, but it sounds like it's grinding rocks before you even put a load on it.

If I were only going to buy one grinder, I'd get a decent one. You get what you pay for. And if you're one and only grinder is an HB, and it quits on you when you least expect it, you'll be schlepping to HB to get a replacement.

Posted by: jd74914 Nov 24 2009, 08:48 AM

I have a nice DeWalt 4.5" grinder. Its the second DeWalt I've owned. The first lasted for 6 years of complete abuse, and I hope this one will last as long. At one time I had a HF grinder. It was one of the $12 cheapies, and lasted only a few weeks. I completely agree with Gint; its not worth it to me to have tools fail in the middle of a project so if you have only 1 grinder go buy a relatively nice one. They aren't too expensive.

I used a friends Riobi (sp?) and liked that too; though not as much as the new DeWalt with quickchange arbor. The quickchange feature is awesome!

Posted by: Rav914 Nov 24 2009, 09:26 AM

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to drop by HD and check out the Dewalt and Riobi, and then to Costco to see what they have.

Posted by: charliew Nov 24 2009, 10:20 PM

I like a 4 inch makita the best but I also have two 4 inch hf grinders. The big 6 or seven inch grinders are ok but usually are too big for most car body tasks. When you get up to the big stuff a sander and a grinder is needed because of the differences in their speeds. I also use a bunch of 2 inch air sanding disks and scotchbrite pads. For the cut off wheels I use a long straight air cutoff tool with the 1/16 thick disks. Another problem with the big stuff is if it ever gets hung under another piece of overlaping metal and gets away from you it will change your outlook on sanding for awhile.