# Angle Grinder safety



## Stapler (Feb 25, 2016)

Preface: This information is based on personal experiences and of course my opinion. At the end of the day, we are all responsible for our own actions and for each action there is a consequence. Essentially, this is entirely up to you how you live your life.

Recently I had a neighbor ask if he could borrow my 4 1/2 angle grinder for a project and trying to be a nice I let him borrow this. Going forward, I am only going to lend to close friends and family for a host of reasons.

Turns out the person didn't wear any eye/face protection, removed the guard and nearly managed to some serious damage I was told. His wife wasn't at all thrilled with me lending him a angle grinder, but I figured he had some basic knowledge and of course common sense. Specifically from what I remember is that a shred of the material he was working nearly gazed his face and he nearly cut one his fingers off. Thankfully this didn't happen.

As obvious as this might seem, power tools, especially angle grinder aren't meant to be taken lightly. Angle grinders can and will hurt or kill you if you aren't careful in less than a seemingly a split second. 

Safety and safety equipment might be a "hassle" in some cases, but this can also save your life also. Believe me, I understand projects need to be completed, but no project is worth dying over or becoming injured over either. I'll admit, I've taken shortcuts before, but even I have my limits. Safety googles, face shields are exceptionally less expensive in the long run compared to hospital bills naturally.

In closing, power tools are a great convenience, yet commander a certain level of healthy fear and respect. There are plenty of safety videos and legitimate "horror" stories to prove this.


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## r0ckstarr (Jan 8, 2013)

A few years back, I was using this monster with a wire wheel and no guard.










I took the guard off because the wire wheel didn't clear the guard. I had eye-protection, no loose clothing, and figured that I would be fine. 

I quickly learned my lesson when it shot one of the wires out and into my forearm like an arrow. Half of the length of the wire was in the skin, the other half was sticking out. I then went right out and bought the proper tool / wire wheel combo.


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## Stapler (Feb 25, 2016)

Thank you for the reasonable response, as I am not trying to force my opinions or deprive anyone of free will. In the past I've mentioned this and the responses were quite defensive for some reason or another. As I mentioned earlier, we are all responsible for our actions and in reality, people are going to do what they want. This of course doesn't exempt them from consequences nor need this ever.

Recently I've had an issue when I was utilizing a wire wheel, but thankfully I was wearing a face shield,eye protection, proper sized wheel as well. What I am speculating is potentially I pressed too hard on the wheel and this caused one of the wires to hit my face shield. This could have been much worse and I lucked out this instance.

Three days after writing this post, I noticed that same neighbor bought his own grinder apparently much to the chagrin of his wife. Now in reading that you may or may not think he might have gained some insight after his first incident. However, similar to when he borrowed my grinder, he removed the guard and of course no eye protection. He mentioned that the grinder he bought had a lock on feature and the rpm was 12,500 or a number around that range. 

He told me that the lock on feature made cutting metal much faster and how he couldn't wait to have his kid help him with a future project. Now my grinder rpm is probably lower than 12,500 but even so, I can't imagine using a lock on feature with a cutting blade especially without the guard. For some reason, both a "concerned" friend and his wife think I should "try to reason with him" despite that what I did initially. 

Seems that the guy may need to learn the "hard" way with power tools, as try as I might no amount of civilized, calm reasoning has had any effect on him. More to the point, this isn't my responsibility to tell another adult what he should and shouldn't do.


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