Cutting, sharpening, roughing, equalizing, calibrating, sanding, polishing… discover all the uses of the angle grinder for your DIY work!
For those who try in the DIY world, the first savings are certainly invest in drills and angle grinders, especially since the price-performance ratio is always very advantageous, since it is a truly multifunctional product that is amortized in record time compare to its initial cost.
In my opinion, considering the price and its many applications, it is a tool that is worth putting some price on it.
WHAT IS AN ANGLE GRINDER FOR?
Let’s see why this tool is so versatile. First of all, it can be used on almost any material that you will have to deal with in your garage: metal, wood, marble, stone and similar materials have always been the main protagonists of the angle grinder.
In the jargon also called flexible, whip, flex (from the famous brand that invented it among the first), the grinder was born as an electric tool and in some air and battery versions. The origins of its use run very deep just think that early designs of material shaping tools used manual rotation of sharp and harder stones for processing parts.
With an angle grinder you can cut, sharpen, roughen, level, calibrate, polish and even remove foreign objects from other materials. There are many different sizes, with different shaped handles suitable for different types of use. The electrical power varies from a few hundred watts to more than 2 kW.
There are different models of grinders characterized mainly by the maximum diameter of the disc that can be mounted, from 115mm to 230mm, 350mm if they are professional models. Each diameter corresponds to a maximum rotational speed, so always make sure to fit a disc whose diameter is support by the grinder you are using!
DISCS FOR ANGLE GRINDERS
To use the angle grinder, it is necessary to insert discs of different materials and geometries into the special housing, which are abrasive discs with which, depending on the grain and structure, you can process specific materials.
In general, we can divide the different types of discs into:
- reinforced hard disks (for cutting or deburring)
- semi-rigid discs (for sanding uneven surfaces)
- Diamond cutting discs (for cutting)
- brushed or laminated discs (for polishing)
- grinding wheels (for deburring large cuts)
The core of the disc can be the support for the cutting teeth in hard and sharp material for wood or diamond in the case of cutting stone, marble or granite. There are also versions of water mills for working with the latter material, which can even be equip with a variable speed drive.
Black platen grinder
The latter are also use in the field of bodywork for polishing surfaces where special discs and grit series play a fundamental role. In fact, flexible processing is not limit to penetrating the material through the tooth to make cuts or grooves in general, but by making the work of “shoulder” a suitable abrasive disc, we can achieve the roughing and generally the removal of large quantities of material or small quantities as in the case of finishing (sanding and polishing).
If you often work with the grinder and use more than one material, it may be convenient to use two at the same time. This way you don’t have to change disks all the time and your work will be even faster.
The latest generations are so light that it becomes even easier to shape them with the roughing discs!
In short, the angle grinder is such a common and well-known tool that, paradoxically, its importance is often underestimate.
