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I just bought my 1st ever angle grinder and I'm 45, is this too late in years? Am I likely to hurt myself or others? Should I give it away?

When did you first get yours?

Used them (under supervision) since I was about 12 (or possibly even younger!). Didn't really have a need for one until later life, bought my own at about 25.

Bear in mind, at 45 your eye-sight, motor function and bladder control are all diminishing, getting the shakes at the sight of sparks going everywhere is likely to get you to wet yourself. Take it back to the shop, old man.

they can be a nasty tool, do'nt be frightened of it and get hold of it and never forget the goggles.

Must have got my first one when I was about 50 .... I'm fairly new to the game of angle grinding but I now have 2 of them (in different sizes)


Do wear eye protection - I had a disk break up on me not long ago - managed to nick my face a bit - would have been bad in an unprotected eye.

Sadly I have never owned one
Many years ago, (about 30 odd!), my old 3 litre Capri Rally car got written off in a road accident (a lady lost control of her car and hit me on a bend), the Capri had a tuned V6 engine and many special rally bits fitted so I bought it back off the insurance company. I stripped all the bits off it and sold them for very much more than the insurance value, but was left with the damaged body shell sat on the garage floor, that I could not shift. My old rally co-driver at that time said I've got just the thing for you! He managed the Black and Decker shop in Sheffield and they had just started to stock a brand new product, (Guess what). He borrowed their demo version with a cutting blade, gave me a pair of goggles and said try this. I had the roof off in about 20 mins, great fun. Took me just over a week to cut the shell up into small pieces and take it to the old council tip a bit at a time in the boot of my car.
It was great fun and had withrdrawal symptoms afterwards, kept wandering up and down our road thinking "would this bloke like a convertible?"
Sadly Black and Decker wanted their Demo tool back at the local branch, so it was some time before I got to play again.
Brilliant tool for quick removal of welded on wings and the like when the rally car got damaged.
Sadly I no longer have one.

Hi all,

I work with one, and believe me never, never, work with it without putting safety goggles on Like D-Rider said, he had a bad experience, even if it's just to cut one head off a bolt say....

Seen and heard of too many accidents with them, but, the main issue is always hold it properly and secure, don't have wet or greasy hands, make sure there is no combustable or inflammable liquids or substances behind or below you, for the shower of sparks. Have an surge protector on the plug, and just incase have a bucket of water handy incase a hot bit of metal fly's off and goes down your boot! Happened to me once, I was doing the irish jig 165mph till I threw my mates kid out of his sand and water clam shell play pit If it was videoed I would of sent it to you been framed and got £200 for my misfortune

But, don't be scared of it, it is a good tool after all fella...

Some good points there (more serious than my flippant response earlier )

My job mostly keeps me in an office (and off the tools), but I have worked on site and done risk assessments etc for the use of grinders and other hot cutting methods - what GregD points out is really good (a home risk assessment), at work we get these fancy risk assessments that tell us the knock-on dangers of using this sort of tooling, at home we typically start grinding over a bucket of oily rags surrounded by fairings and boxes of christmas decorations (OK, that's just my garage)

The grinder itself isn't so much of a hazard (apart from the high-speed spinning disc that will lop your finger off, that is), it's the environment around your working area that may cause the most problems.

Keep your work area well ventilated (you will get smoke/dust), keep it clean (no rags, cardboard, carpets, piles of kindling/timber etc), keep a suitable "escape route" so you can leg it if the worst does happen. And absolutely do use proper eye protection (CE marked goggles or visor, not your prescription specs), apart from the risk of a shattered disc (as Andy pointed out) even a spark hitting your eye can embed a metal fragment, which will need surgery (if it can be fixed at all). Other bits, such as decent shoes and even coveralls are advisable (not flip-flops, a I have stupidly done before now, socks don't stop some of the sparks!)

there's one on my list - but my kids tell me I'd be dangerous Moi??



they don't know the half of it mwahahahahahahaha

Falcopops wrote:I just bought my 1st ever angle grinder and I'm 45, is this too late in years? Am I likely to hurt myself or others? Should I give it away?

When did you first get yours?

You got Gatsos dahn under too?

Angle grinders are great; I really don't know how I would manage without one. They're indispensable for building work and serious automotive work but they do need to be treated with respect.

I recently bought a 9" grinder, and that is a brute. The kickback on that is something else if wrongly used. And the amount of dust they can generate in building applications has to be seen to be believed. Not only should you be using eye protection, but a good quality face mask to protect your lungs from brick dust etc. is vital.

It's also not a good idea to be cutting up bricks etc. when your wife or your neighbours have washing on the line. Don't ask me how I know...

Besides cutting, they are excellent for rapid rust removal with a wire brush or flap wheel. Once again the eye/lung protection caveat applies.

mangocrazy wrote:
It's also not a good idea to be cutting up bricks etc. when your wife or your neighbours have washing on the line. Don't ask me how I know...
.

Yes ... next door are having a loft conversion done - a few weeks ago they were up on the roof cutting tiles with an angle grinder - just after my mrs got me to hang the washing out ......

You're never too old if you have a good tool

We decided about 10 years ago whn Andy was 45 or so that he was "mature" enough to have an angle grider... with that and a welding torch Anything will fit anything!

Last weekend he was using it to cut 25mm stainless bar into spacers cos it was quicker and easier than a hacksaw... and it was too big to fit in the lathe.

As lots of others have said - "Use protection" and enjoy!

eyefankew all

spesh on the safety tips. Typically I'd have just launched in and found out the hard way

I'm soooo excited, I should be picking it up tonight, gotta love ebay $21! However just spotted Aldi knocking new ones out at $35

Couple of extra points from me

1. never 'dry cut' bricks etc. - always get a cutter with a water feed - that dust is really bad for your lungs.

2. make sure your sparks are going away from any glass or vehicles - it's amazing how much damage those red hot bits of metal can cause to glass & paintwork !