Angle Grinders Are Dangerous

I, and i think most anyone else who uses power tools for a living, know you have to wear proper PPE. a minimum when working with any grinder/sander would be safety glasses or face shield, long pants, safety shoes, gloves, long sleeve shirt or kevlar sleeves, dust mask/respirator, and hearing protection. read the forums and listen to the knife makers who suffer from chronic lung disease/cancer because of the dusts they have inhaled over the years. the guy who goes to work in his shop in shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops is an accident waiting to happen.
Has anyone ever seen plans for a small DIY down-draft sanding/grinding table? we had one at my last job, but a commercial unit would probably cost more than my shop and all the tools in it.
scott
 
Just so we are clear, there are very few things in our shops that are not potentially dangerous. ;)
 
good info. so the breakdown is as follows

1. stay out of the line of the disc/sparks
2. keep the shroud or the guard between you and the work
3. cut only in straight lines, let the disc do the work and don't force it
4. wear protective equipment, full shield apron gloves what else
5. use quality grinder and discs
6. wear respirator to prevent slow painful death


did I miss anything? I have an old set of body armor. I may start wearing the front panel while using the angle grinder.

anybody watch the tv program 1001 ways to die? I had to stop watching it. made me friggin paranoid as hell. A bodybuilder was making a protein shake in his food processor. The old blade let go and went through the plastic housing flew up spinning and sliced his jugular vein. he was done in about two minutes. all kinds of ways to get it. Heck I ran over a small timber rattler with my mower. The blade got him. I never saw him until later he was wriggling a little later. I was wearing snake boots because I live in the boondocks and a long way from a good hospital. he coulda got me above the boots if the mower did not get him.
 
Here you go, because you know it is so uncommon LOL

[video=youtube;eJOiKuVeXA0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJOiKuVeXA0[/video]
 
The big question is... "How do you deal with the victim?"

Anyone who has worked in construction knows.... DRAG THE BODY OFF THE JOB SITE AND BREAK FOR LUNCH.:thumbup:
 
scott.livesey said:
pray he wasn't in your crew cause the paperwork takes a long time.
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When I worked construction, my boss always told me something like this: "Fall off that ladder, and you're fired before you hit the ground!"
 
Interesting video. What surprised me was how many angle grinders burst into flames. We've worn out lots of bearings and a few brushes, but we generally stop using the tool before it burns up.

Dust collection for the angle grinders is on the list to tackle this year.

I've tried the Makita shroud designed for concrete grinding hooked up to a shop vac with a spark bong, It works OK if you have it against a flat surface, like texturing or grinding rust or finish off. But most of our applications are grinding welds where the wheel hangs over the sides of the work. When sparks can escape it only gets about 50% or less of the dust and I think the brush on the edge of the shroud might melt eventually if I feed it a steady diet of metal sparks. I've got a few other ideas to try.
 
I saw a post of FB a while back about a cutting wheel coming apart and embedding itself in a guys goggles. Anyway the worst grinder injury I ever saw was back around 1993 when I took my first welding job. A guy was cleaning welds with a 7" grinder and whirlybird(big wire cup) It jumped and went right up his arm. The longsleeve shirt he had on didn't help one bit. his arm looked like a skinned snake from wrist to above his elbow.
 
Kentucky said:
I saw a post of FB a while back about a cutting wheel coming apart and embedding itself in a guys goggles. Anyway the worst grinder injury I ever saw was back around 1993 when I took my first welding job. A guy was cleaning welds with a 7" grinder and whirlybird(big wire cup) It jumped and went right up his arm. The longsleeve shirt he had on didn't help one bit. his arm looked like a skinned snake from wrist to above his elbow.
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Wire cups, especially on something like a 7" 1hp grinder, scare me :eek:
 
I agree that all power tools have the potential for injury, but I think a run of the mill bench grinder or buffer should be feared more than an angle grinder.

I've used them for years, seen a lot of them come apart. The only injuries I've seen were from squeezing the trigger while changing wheels.

I once saw a 10 inch bench grinder wheel explode. Turns out someone had ground a sledgehammer handle in two with it, then someone came behind him and started grinding and boom.

He was lucky he had a face shield, lots of cuts and bruises but nothing serious.
 
Assuming I am the Bill you are asking- I use a 4" X 6" metal cutting bandsaw.
I don't make damascus or do any welding.
 
heefageLA said:
Whatever you do, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT GOOGLE 'ANGLE GRINDER INJURY' PICS.

I looked on google to try and find the guy in my area that had his injury and found hundreds of gruesome examples. :eek: :barf:

Im absolutely 'gun shy' about using an angle grinder except for easy stuff now...
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I really, really wish you wouldn't have said "Do not Google Angle Grinder Injury Pics". I mean, for me, that makes googling automatic. Would have never considered it otherwise. :rolleyes:
 
TonyRV2 said:
I really, really wish you wouldn't have said "Do not Google Angle Grinder Injury Pics". I mean, for me, that makes googling automatic. Would have never considered it otherwise. :rolleyes:
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HAHA, I wasn't the only one thinking this.. Of course I've done the same search before and yes, did it again reminding me that I had once googled it before.
 
kuraki said:
Wire cups, especially on something like a 7" 1hp grinder, scare me :eek:
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Yup, I took a 10" strip of skin off of my belly when I snagged my shirt with the wire cup. Hurt like hell. Took weeks to stop weeping.
 
I have had it happen to me on a cut-off wheel and a grinding wheel within the same week. I realized it was from sheer laziness on my part. I should have moved the stock I was cutting to an appropriate height to secure the grinder at a solid angle. Both of them happened because I was getting tired of holding it and started leaning. The grinding wheel had enough meat removed that it was out of balance and I should have just stopped what I was doing and changed it out immediately when I noticed. The cut-off luckily stayed attached to the label on the top side somehow. Carelessness will just get you hurt. Like others have said, using these for years and nothing has ever happened. It's just like riding a motorcycle. Its not if you have a wreck its when.
 
Willie71 said:
Yup, I took a 10" strip of skin off of my belly when I snagged my shirt with the wire cup. Hurt like hell. Took weeks to stop weeping.
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thats what it did to this dudes arm. Took forever to heal. Would not stop weeping and got infected so easy..Then the healed part would break whenever he bent his arm.
 
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