Angle-grinder on boat: What's worked for you?

[donradcliffe]

My Makita 4" grinder went round the world on the boat, ran fine off the inverter, and I still use it all the time. I bought another one for use when I was home. I even grind and cut concrete with diamond tools, which could create bearing problems for lesser tools.

If I really leaned on it, the internal breaker would pop, but I would just reset it and kept going.

[captlloyd]

Don't know if you have Harbor Freight in your neighborhood, but I highly recommend their red 4-1/2'' grinders. My last big buck grinder was a Ryobi and its switch lasted less than a year. I use these Harbor Freight grinders on almost a daily basis and I have had them last 3-4 years. I have a small metal parts manufacturing business. These little grinders cost about $21.00 are so inexpensive that I consider them ''throwaway'', but they are not really. They sell a really cheap model, (black) for about $12.00 but it doesn't hold up. I use the red ones for everything, grinding, cut-off, cup brush, flap-wheel. They come with extra brushes. And, they guarantee them for a year.

[unclemack]

Half a dozen 4 1/2" 500 Watt grinders on ebay UK.
Ought to be some near you surely?
Don't know of a good quality 500 Watt, just the cheap stuff, sorry.

[rockDAWG]

For the last couple decades, I always buy brand name tools, I have Dewalt and makita grinders. They serve me well. A few years ago, I start buying tools from Harbor Freight, dirt cheap. I have three grinders from them, all perform perfectly. I beat the hell out these grinders because they are so cheap to replace. To my surprise, they have never failed me. Now I have every attachment on the grinder and ready to go. I hate changing attachment through out the day.

Angle Grinders, Benchtop Grinders & Buffers at Harbor Freight

[TKDSailor]

I own a 38' steel hulled ketch, and a machine shop (the boat came first!). Milwaukee seems to be the best grinder for us. They last, they don't vibrate, and they have tons of torque for just about any grinding job. Likewise for the Milwaukee drills, but their life, although long, is not forever...

[peter loveridge]

I have a 4 1/2" Dewalt. it is a fine tool and seems pretty indestructible. The advantage of it is that I can (just) run it off my Honda 1000 generator. all the pro's here use dewalts if they can get them. Not cheap, but last forever. My 2 cordless drills are 10 years old and can work all day on a single battery

[roverhi]

The electronic variable speed tools may not work on an inverter. My Bosch saber saw just rolls over and plays dead when plugged into the inverter. An older cheap Home Depot tool, can't remember if it's Ryobi, that someone gave me works.

Grinding fiberglass really mucks up tools quickly. Something to be said for the cheap throw away tools if the purveyor will replace them. Of course it is a PITA having to constantly take them back for replacement. Having said that, have a 40 year old Milwaukee large 3,000 rpm sander/polisher that's built two boats and a couple of houses. Do have to replace the cord but other than that it's still working great. Slower speed is better for grinding fiberglass. Higher speed tools melt the resin and so don't work as well.

[The Garbone]

4.5" Ryobi

Interesting story.
Had the boat on the hard, the marina put it along a chain link fence adjoining a park. We were painting the boat and a homeless guy living in his van comes up to the fence. Wanted to sell me his angle grinder for gas money. Looked in my pocket I only had $7 cash so told him no on the grinder but he could have the $7. He took the money but then tossed the grinder over the fence. Now that I have one I can not imagine being without. The thing is great. Every time I use it I wish he had kept it.


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[Siberianhusky]

I go through 3 or 4 a summer, brand or price makes no difference. I buy whatever is on sale.
Owned them all, killed them all. My main go to tool for work.
Brushes and bearings get eaten.
Curently have a couple small Ryobi's and a big 6" Dewalt I bought near the end of last season. Probably be replacing them by June.

[donradcliffe]

and you really thought that it was HIS angle grinder??

[Steve_C]

I have the new Dewalt 20 Volt Lithium Angle Grinder and I love it! I already had all of the 20V Dewalt tools and this was too cheap to pass up. Not having to plug it in is fantastic.

http://www.amazon.com/Dewalt-DCG412B...+angle+grinder

[thinwater]

5" DeWalt. Many years of boatyard and industrial service. Powerful.

[Brewgyver]

Originally Posted by banjoship

I
I have a AEG 9 inch bought 35 years ago 2000 watt, maybe 2500. After long farm use it is now on the boat. The most dangerous thing on the boat.

Very good point, though possibly too selective. ANY AND ALL angle grinders need to be used with caution. Even the smaller, cheaper "slower" speed units develop enough torque to sprain a wrist, for example, kicking back if applied at the wrong angle with any kind of wheel in use, be it wire brush, cutting or grinding. Another hazard in that instance is the whole grinder flying out of your hand, which needless to say can cause serious injury.

And let us ALL remember to use at least ANSI z87 impact resistant eye protection. Reading this post, I just realized that I failed to take that precaution while using one just last week. I was wearing my reading glasses, but...

BTW, I have a corded DeWalt and a lithium Ryobi. Both good tools, and yes, the battery grinders go throug a fully charged (18 v) battery pretty quickly, but the cordless convenience is often more important.

[kryg]

Originally Posted by troppo

With an interesting flash and bang, my decades old 500 watt 100 mm Ryobi angle-grinder blew up. Used it for a multitude of tasks at home and on my boat. On the boat I ran it from my Kipor 600 watt generator. The generator dropped some revs when I turned on the grinder but once spinning it all worked well. Loved it for fibreglass and ply work.

Could not find a replacement 500 watt angle-grinder so got a 620 watt Bosch for Aus $39. Obviously it would not run on my generator but I could work on bits of boat at home. The gearbox got so hot in minutes that eventually I took it back. I was slow taking it back so it was out of its 30 day replacement warranty and needed to be sent away for repair. However, the service lady took pity on me and decided instead to give me my money back.

Bought a Hitachi 730 watt angle-grinder (Aus $87) and the gear box does not get so hot. However, reading the fine print in the instructions, it recommends NOT using it for anything else beside grinding and cutting. Gahh, how hard is it to get a reasonable angle-grinder? Frustrating! Full story is in my blog.

So far, I have not been able to find a light angle-grinder I can use on my boat running from my little generator. For working at home I have tried two brands of angle-grinder, one which I reckon was overheating and one which suggests limited options of use.

I will keep the Hitachi and ignore the recommended limited use. It seems little different to my Ryobi which I used for wire brushing and sanding as well as cutting and grinding. Hopefully no problems. And I thought it would be easy in our advanced civilisation to replace my decades old angle-grinder with a better one.

What angle-grinder do you use and has it been good?

I have been removing the failed paint on my aluminum deck first with a Ryobi 18 volt cordless, for spot work it is fine I use it for cutting, sanding and with a wire brush. I have 4 Lithium 18 volt batteries I bought second hand from China, on eBay much cheaper then buying new ones. After two year one failed. the thing about these batteries is that you can also buy a 12 volt DC Charger...yes I know it is an 18 volt battery. however it is made for these batteries I got it at Bunning’s.

However because removing the peeling paint from my deck from different areas, is a big job, I need to use like you a angel grinder that gives me lots of power designed at under 600 watts, as I thought I could run it through my inverter. . I just bought a Maktec Angle grinder (online from wegotstock, not on Ebay) manufactured by Makita it is 570 watts. I found even though it is rated at 570 watts I still can't run it off my boats 600 watt inverter - I dusted off my Ryobi generator 2000 watt I never used much till now as the boats backup.

The 125 mm Maktec works as advertised it is a good unit comes with its own case everything is well made.

So I use two Angel grinders: the Ryobi 18 volt AG for for small spot jobs (Battery drains quickly in under10 min’s of hard work before recharging. (Reason for 4 batteries) (Note; Safety tool - God forbid if my rig fails it can cut though heavy stays in a flash). and for the all day grind jobs I pull out the Generator and use the Maktec A-G

. . PS my boat has 420 watts of solar panel power and 400 watt wind gen to keep power up to the inverter when I use most power tools under 400 watts during the sunny days.

Hope my experience helps

[handmer]

In Australia, I have had a great experience with Ozito power tools, available through Bunnings.

They don't have a 500W Grinder, but there is a cordless one (that I have not used).

I like Ozito because it's cheap, seems pretty tough and (mostly) has a 3 or 5 year replacement warranty.

Not that I have ever had any Ozito tools die on me (and I have quite a few), but knowing I can just head into Bunnings and swap it for a new one if needed is nice.