A favor to your angle grinder

[Sodo]

Awhile back I posted a simple welding project called "A gift for your angle grinder".

Heres installment 2 in "grinder love".

I've had this DeWalt 18v grinder for 4 years now and listening to it sounded like the bevel gears might be getting dry so I took the cover off to grease it. There was lots of nice clean grease but it's all flung off the gears. So I scooped it up and covered the gears again and put the cover back on. Now it's quiet, sounds like a new grinder.



My Milwaukies are all 10+ years old, make a lot of noise and I've never checked their grease, will do those next.

 

[dragoneggs]

First thing I do when I buy a HF grinder for cheap is take off the cover and jam more grease on the gears. It definitely quiets them down. Seems like they skimp on the grease and it is already flung off as you mentioned. Good tip!

 

[TomSeller]

First thing I do when I buy a HF grinder for cheap is take off the cover and jam more grease on the gears. It definitely quiets them down. Seems like they skimp on the grease and it is already flung off as you mentioned.

I've had this DeWalt 18v grinder for 4 years now and listening to it sounded like the bevel gears might be getting dry so I took the cover off to grease it. There was lots of nice clean grease but it's all flung off the gears. So I scooped it up and covered the gears again and put the cover back on. Now it's quiet, sounds like a new grinder.
.

Never really thought to do that. Great advice!

 

[Sodo]

Seems like the helical gears ought to have a molybdenum-disulfide grease.

 

[GManBart]

Great idea...fast, and cheap!

 

[k0ua]

Never really thought to do that. Great advice!

Well definately need to do that to mine. I did not think about it either.. Thanks.:thumbsup:

 

[drizler]

good idea for decent electric tools. The problem is that with HF the switches and electrics don't last long enough to begin to wear. I Won't buy ,them anymore at any price

 

[LD1]

I do the same thing with HF grinders.

Not only he lack of grease, but low quality grease. I put in a good synthetic.

And did the same thing last time on u-joints for my truck. They were the cheap sealed ones with no grease fitting. But lifetime warranty. They lasted maybe 8000 miles. (axle joints). So I got two new ones under warranty, cleaned out the grease, and repacked with synthetic grease. Cant get much worse than 8k miles. We'll see if it helps.

 

[Gary Fowler]

good idea for decent electric tools. The problem is that with HF the switches and electrics don't last long enough to begin to wear. I Won't buy ,them anymore at any price

I have several HF grinders, slide switch and paddle switch. Never had any issues with switches on any of them. My brother in law used one of the $10 specials with a wire wheel and overloaded it so bad that it got so hot that you couldn't hold it without gloves on. No problems with it and that was over 2 years ago.

I too take about the bevel gears and remove the old cheap grease and fill with a good moly grease the moment I get them home. For the price, they work extremely well. I have one DeWalt grinder and 4 HF 4 1/2" grinders + a 7" grinder that I use a 9" Norton brand blade on because I got a box of them free. I keep different blades on each of the 4.5" grinders so I just pick up the one with the attachment that I need. They all work well and have for over 5 years.
I do have one of two of the cheap slide switch ones, but I prefer to buy the more expensive, higher amp rating ones with the paddle switch.
They work better with more power and don't overheat like the light duty ones.

 

[Kernopelli]

good idea for decent electric tools. The problem is that with HF the switches and electrics don't last long enough to begin to wear. I Won't buy ,them anymore at any price

Before buying a plasma cutter I used my grinders for almost all cutting I had to do. I realized the gear grease issue on my last two Dewalt grinders. Despite keeping grease on the bevel gears I replaced a couple of the right angle gear drives and noticed the last DW OEM drive was stamped "China".

With little confidence in their quality, I bought one Skil and one B&D angle grinder. To my surprise, I can't tell any difference in power or longevity when I compare one of these cheapies to a $50-$60 Dewalt or Milwaukee 6-7 amp model. It's hard to track real time use but I swear the Skil lasted longer than any angle grinder I've owned. I watch ads and I paid about $20 each for both +/- 6 amp models. I decided that I am getting 2-3 times the value by getting the small Skil or B&D versions. I really like my Dewalt 10 amp because when I need a deep cutting depth in a tight area, I can put 6" cutting wheels on it and it has the grunt to use them where any of the lower amp models don't like it at all. My take here is this, if you need a small ( lower amp) 4 1/2" grinder for most normal uses, save your money on a DW, Bosch ( mine is on the shelf waiting for new brushes right now) or Milwaukee and try out one of the cheapies I mentioned.