8 Must-do Tips to Use Your Angle Grinder in More Effective Way

The simple act of grinding is often overlooked by many people. It is very easy and simple to do but to do it in more efficient way; you have to do it in the right method. The best thing that you can do is to ensure your safety while doing your work.

The grinding operators needs to apply the enough pressure at the right side or angle so the grains—or to put it simply, the cutting tool of your grinding disk—can be remove the big metal chunk in smallest time frame as it can.

To get things started, we bring you the 8 tips that will be your handy tool to maximize the effective grinding and make the most out of your grinding operation.

1. Grab the right tools for the task

Be sure to first get your things in your disposable for a specific task. Equipment has certain uses that can only be useful in a certain job. For instance, the grinding discs are known to be consumable while the power tools aren’t.

There are also certain tasks that only require you to use equipment that has 8 and 10 pressure of amps. And for that, you need to grab for the right angle grinder for the job. If you accidentally get a 6-amps angle grinder, you might cook up some trouble.

A grinder is made to serve you well and could last you for a long time. Business spends amount of money in hopes to get the high-end tool that works perfectly in the job and also will be with them in years to come.

A tool that has twice or even thrice its price can deliver you finer and better results but not everyone could afford that. Angle grinder sizes such as 4.5-inch or 9-inch may matter to you but it all depends on the user’s preferences and task requirements.

2. Make your safety a precaution

Having the right tool in the task will not only deliver the best results, it will also give you the safe operation. There are men that wouldn’t think about using grinders without any guarding. A good business company prioritizes the most the employees’ safety.

It is true that using the guard can be a bit of a nuisance in doing some certain tasks but without it, you will risk yourself in getting injured that could lead to a serious emergency. But above all, it would be more dangerous to have the tool underpowered to be in the job on hand or could be the incorrect tool which could be the worst thing to happen. When you have to grind in tight places, the best thing you can do is don’t take you guard off then squeeze in with a right-angle grinder.

Always use the correct tool. Getting the job fast done and most important of all, to be safe.

Also be mindful changing out the abrasive media. Unplug it first. We know that is very simple thing but also the most overlooked thing to do. First, lock the key button by turning up the power tool head. Then you can rest it on your forearm. And finally while it is facing up, take off the abrasive. By doing this you will have the better control during the change out and dropping the abrasive can be avoided.

3. Observe the spark flow

To always have an ammeter handy in a workplace is ideal. Thanks to this handy tool, it can show the user whether the pressure is too hard or isn’t while it is hooked on the used equipment. Using optimal pressure is one of the key components and it varies to the tool and the grinding wheel that you use for a task.

Of course, not everyone have this luxury. But you can still tell how much pressure to exerts or not by observing the spark flow.

How the sparks flow can also tell you as what the ammeter also tries to tell you to have the effective grinding that you need. Most grinding applications produce sparks flow from your work piece around 3 to 4 feet away and in a very consistent way. This sends you a message that the grains on your grinding wheel are doing its job right on removing excess metal weld.

If the pressure that you exerts aren’t enough or too hard, the sparks wouldn’t flow consistently. Too much pressure will cause the disc to overheat and overload. And it will results the grains to be smooth that will no longer capable to cut through to weld metal much. Then the reduction in spark flow will happen. If not enough pressure occurs, the grains won’t be able to work right and in turn, won’t remove the necessary excess weld metal in every rotation of the disc.

4. Listen

Noise floods your work place when you use a grinder and that is exactly why you need to listen. Sounds could tell you as much details as the sparks flow could tell.

IF the grinder is used right, it will bring out a noise in constant pitch. If the pitch is low, it means you are pushing too hard the tool to work. If it is high, it screams out that it needs to apply more pressure.

You will find that if the pitch is low, it sounds like a paper shredder that is overworking to eat up a stack of paper in a single time. When this happens, just lighten your pressure a bit. When you hear that the pitch is high, you will see that the grinding disc tends to skip in every disc rotation across the ridges of the weld metal that you have been working on. To avoid this, just put more pressure on it.

5. Keep an eye to the working angle

It is easy to lost track and be inconsistent in the right grinding angle. Grinding discs are generally should be used in 5 to 10 degrees horizontal. On the other hand, the wear pattern on the circumference of the disc face should be twice of the disc’s thickness.

In the end, it depends on your work piece material on where and how you put or work on the angle.

6. Aim to produce a consistent pressure in the whole operation

Grinding is straight forward task to do. You are going to move the disc forward and backward in a repetitive manner. Remember that you have to angle it on 5 to 10 degrees from the horizontal. But how you are going to do it is the flair on right and effective grinding.

Naturally, you will need to apply more pressure to push the disc forward and to lessen the pressure as your disc goes backward. If you put more pressure than you need to, it will overheat and will glaze the grains of the disc. You might also notice that the edge of the disc will turn to an orange color. And if you lighten up the pressure as you go backwards, you will hear the chatter. These turn of events are signs that things go wrong.

You move forward that makes it to be in overheat and it bounces off the disc as it goes back the surface. In the end, you spend time and effort to do all that work and really haven’t removed the weld metal as much as you need to.

This is when the effective grinding comes in. Whether you use a 9-inch or 7-inch angle grinder, you need to input a constant pressure in both moving backward and forward. Not too much and also not too light. The key to the trick door is to exert the right amount of pressure so the grains of the disc can do its thing, in the appropriate and swift way.

7. Apply and do your technique that works best to different variety of materials

So we have talked about the importance of putting consistent pressure in moving both forward and backward. But this case may bring you more trouble in working with different kinds of material.

For instance, you are assigned to work with stainless steel. Any machinist will tell you that this material is “gummy-like.” For this matter, your common work etiquette may not be applicable working with this material.

Basically, grinding is a simple way to do the machining operation. Cutting the edges and chips are only a small part of the big cake. And all of the cakes are made differently in ways and tastes.

You will have to use different tools for a different applications, and also different grinding discs for different kinds of metals to work with.  

Another example is that some welds are stronger than the other. The steels that are abrasive-resistant are great to work with the high-strength and hard type of weld metal. This specialized steel discs are equipped and fully capable to chew on this kind of hard metal. Working with this type of material and equipment will also bring you a different kind of approach to get it nicely done. So always be sure to check the material out and get the best disc in hand for the job.

Also, this means that you have to change your technique in grinding whenever you change the material that you work with. To put it clearer, stainless steel emits heat and at the same time, the grinding wheel in use will also heats up and will blue the surface. This may all happen before you even know it. So it is critically important to go back and polish the surface as you may need.

Adapting different and new techniques to different materials will take a learning curve.

8. Be mindful 

In your workplace, you know that every step is critical. There are very specific steps that should be done respectively. It all depends on the application. You may have to reduce the grinding steps and work your way in small and deliberate steps.

For instance, every scratch that have been attain from the abrasive disc to the metal should be remove by finer-grit media. Keep in mind that if you use a disc that is very coarse, you will be in deeper trouble than you should be. If you didn’t do it properly, you may not have removed the scratches well enough. These will all ended up the wasted effort and will be requested for a rework.

Regardless you use a fine looking 9-inch or a cranky but durable angle grinder, a mindset with a best discipline and a splash of caution will be your greatest tool at your disposal to deliver your finest work. We can go and on to talk about this subject but we think that this is enough to be a good starting point for anyone—particularly beginners—to be well versed in the art of grinding.