Angle Grinders

[jimbur]

Probably covered before but those sparks are hot and dangerous and not just to the user. It seems that the WA fires were caused by sparks from one.
Cheers,
Jim

[crowie]

Yes, went I in the RAN and then again in a couple of factories,
one was required to have a bloke with a fire extinguisher on the ready
if you were using a grinder; especially in confined spacers.
Cheers, Crowie

[Woodwould]

I heard about that on the news: Some bloke with an ordinary angry grinder accidently started a fire.

Imagine the damage that could be caused by this guy with his four or five foot angle grinder!

[jimbur]

Right through the drought I would make sure I had water handy - had to use it a few times too.
Cheers,
Jim

[jimbur]

I heard about that on the news: Some bloke with an ordinary angry grinder accidently started a fire.

Imagine the damage that could be caused by this guy with his four or five foot angle grinder!

Yes. Being tight fisted with inverted commas is dangerous.
Cheers,
Jim

[BobL]

Probably covered before but those sparks are hot and dangerous and not just to the user. It seems that the WA fires were caused by sparks from one.
Cheers,
Jim

Not "seems", the guy who did it (an off duty policeman) has been charged. The community has publicly forgiven him, but he should have also had more sense.

[munruben]

He wont do it again that's for sure. Shame he had to learn in that manner.

[soundman]

It has been mentioend before, but soo many people are only too eager to use an angle grinder for "whatever".

For so many the grinder is the universal tool of first choice... it is very rarely the best tool for the job.

They are statistcaly a very dangerous thing.

When used on metal they should be considered the same as an open flame..but worse because and open flame wont bounce and roll away like grinder spray will.

I wont use a grinder on a customer's propertly........it is simply too hard to insure against.
I wont even use a grinder inside my own shed......I go outside into open ground.

Grinders are dangerous in so many ways, but the majority of users simply don't get it.

I was going away on an AV install trip, and the bloke comming with me had a grinder with his stuff.......and no guard on it.........I told him not to put it in MY van......and the only thing we could possibly use it for was trimming some light tube for a projector bracket...wots wrong with a hacksaw or a tube cutter.....soo much safer.

I know a bloke who cut his leg nearly off at the ankle with a 9 inch grinder....yep I've seen the scar, it does not quite join up at the side.


remember...
turn up at the hospital with somthing cut off with a sharp blade........the doc will say... yeh I recon I can sew that back on and it will heal up good..with a bit of luck.

Turn up with somethin cut off with a saw blade.....and the doc will shake his head and say...oooooo, I think I can sew that back on and I might be able to make it work... If it works it will be 3mm shorter though.

Turn up with something cut off with a grinder blade....and the doc get a sad look on his face and will say...I'll do what I can...


If ya realy want something deceptively dangerous.....try cutting aluminium and steel turn about on the same abrasive drop saw.........you are making thermite ( a mixture of aluminium and steel powder)....sooner or later a spark from the steel will ignite it......this stuff burns sooo hot and ya wont put it out.

cheers

[BobL]

Probably covered before but those sparks are hot and dangerous and not just to the user. It seems that the WA fires were caused by sparks from one.
Cheers,
Jim

A few years back when using an angle grinder over a period of about 2 weeks (always with a full face shield and earmuff and gloves) I noticed all my T-shirts started developing a hole around the mid gut line, slightly to the right. Turns out this is where the grinder was sending its sparks. Now I have 6 T-shirts with holes in them and I wear a leather apron to do welding and grinding..

[soundman]

I just remembered a year or so ago I set my own shirt on fire with a grinder......cotton shirt and aparantly there was some build up of steel dust on the shirt from the grinder and a section of it went up like a sparkler......no harm done apart from a light red mark on my gut...I think I even posted here about it.

cheers

[RETIRED]

I have a lot of jumpers and T shirts like that.

[crowie]

I wonder if they were poly-cotton t-shirts.
A number of years back, a boss of mine got told off by the TAFE safey officer
for allowing an apprentice to attend TAFE welding classes with light weight poly-cotton overalls and not heavy weight cotton drill.
Cheers, Crowie

[RETIRED]

Yes, mine were but I have also burnt holes in cotton drill as well. They smoulder.

I use my angle grinder a lot and never had a bad accident from one.

As in most cases it is the operators fault.

There are some people who are dangerous with a screw driver.

[jimbur]

A good many car restorations have been slowed up if not ruined by the lack of care in using angle grinders. Apart from the obvious unhelpful mix of petrol and sparks, there have many electric looms cut through, windscreens 'sand-blasted' with hot metal particles and fires in upholstery..
Cheers,
Jim

[Oldneweng]

I embedded metal filings in the passenger side window of a small van I was cutting a bit of rust out of many years ago. We had to put up with spots in that window for a couple of years. opened my eyes. Going outside to grind at this time of year is risky for me as I live on rural property. Have to keep eyes open for crackling sounds even if in the shed.

I fully understand not using grinder on customers property as its not yours to damage, but I think a lot is made of using them in general, that is simply lack of control. It is my opinion thjat if you can control the grinder properly you will save a lot of problems. Most problems I have experienced are due to not holding the grinder square in the cut.

I will not use my big (7in) grinder for cutting unless it is safe. ie Will not catch. I try to use band saw for everything but it is limited for some cuts. I use a lot of recycled metal.

I had a disk catch in steel recently, I then moved to another part of the same closed rectangle and the disk caught again, a piece tore off and hit me in the cheek. The result was a shallow gouge. Healed in about a week, no real problem. I was wearing glasses. That night, in bed I suddenly realized that I had clamped the piece down and it would have been under tension, hence the disk catching.

The only other times I have injured myself in about 25 years of use of a grinder at home, have been through contact with the disk and have not been worth a bandaid. A knee was the worst as it ruined a good pair a jeans in the process.

Now I use a full face for closed work and try to cut from both sides to minimise strain.


Dean