Greetings all -- I have a couple of the 4-1/2 inch grinders (which
I love) and was wondering from a cost point of view which people
preferred - the sanding disc or the flapper discs for cleaning up the
metal/welds and all the other usual stuff you do with those grinders
( and which works better in general ). I was sort of leaning in the
direction of the flapper discs, but was interested in what others
had to say.

Second part of this is where in the US is a good place to
get the discs and which brand seems to give the best "grind for the
buck" as it were ? What have people been happy with? (I hate
those that you spin up and 1/2 the abrasive flys off before you
even start work ;-) )

I was thinking of ordering a bunch and figured this bunch would
have the most experience.

Thanks for the feedback

I use flap disks from Harbor Freight. They have two versions - I buy the
zirconia ones that are 1$ more expensive - $9.99 for a three pack...


"Mike Fields" wrote in message
...
Greetings all -- I have a couple of the 4-1/2 inch grinders (which
I love) and was wondering from a cost point of view which people
preferred - the sanding disc or the flapper discs for cleaning up the
metal/welds and all the other usual stuff you do with those grinders
( and which works better in general ). I was sort of leaning in the
direction of the flapper discs, but was interested in what others
had to say.

Second part of this is where in the US is a good place to
get the discs and which brand seems to give the best "grind for the
buck" as it were ? What have people been happy with? (I hate
those that you spin up and 1/2 the abrasive flys off before you
even start work ;-) )

I was thinking of ordering a bunch and figured this bunch would
have the most experience.

Thanks for the feedback

I prefer the Walter brand but they are expensive.
In case you don't know the plastic on the edge can be machined off to
expose the edge of the flaps when they get worn. You simply hold the
spinning disc against the sharp edge of a metal work bench and peel away
some of the plastic backing. This was demonstrated to me by a Walter rep.
Randy



"Mike Fields" wrote in message
...
Greetings all -- I have a couple of the 4-1/2 inch grinders (which
I love) and was wondering from a cost point of view which people
preferred - the sanding disc or the flapper discs for cleaning up the
metal/welds and all the other usual stuff you do with those grinders
( and which works better in general ). I was sort of leaning in the
direction of the flapper discs, but was interested in what others
had to say.

Second part of this is where in the US is a good place to
get the discs and which brand seems to give the best "grind for the
buck" as it were ? What have people been happy with? (I hate
those that you spin up and 1/2 the abrasive flys off before you
even start work ;-) )

I was thinking of ordering a bunch and figured this bunch would
have the most experience.

Thanks for the feedback

"Mike Fields" wrote in message
...
Greetings all -- I have a couple of the 4-1/2 inch grinders (which
I love) and was wondering from a cost point of view which people
preferred - the sanding disc or the flapper discs for cleaning up the
metal/welds and all the other usual stuff you do with those grinders
( and which works better in general ). I was sort of leaning in the
direction of the flapper discs, but was interested in what others
had to say.

Second part of this is where in the US is a good place to
get the discs and which brand seems to give the best "grind for the
buck" as it were ? What have people been happy with? (I hate
those that you spin up and 1/2 the abrasive flys off before you
even start work ;-) )

I was thinking of ordering a bunch and figured this bunch would
have the most experience.

Thanks for the feedback


I haven't used a lot of them, but I noticed that the cheaper they are, the
faster they fly apart. I guess that I can say that all I have used are
Makita and HF. The HF wore out very quickly. The Makita lasted a lot
longer.

A lot has to do with what you are doing with them, too, and how you load
them. That is, how you press on the metal, and how hard, and what angle,
how much metal you want to take off, and all that.

I will be following this thread, as it is time to go get some, and I want to
get a decent deal.

Steve

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 06:33:20 -0700, "Mike Fields"
wrote:

I have a couple of the 4-1/2 inch grinders (which
I love) and was wondering from a cost point of view which people
preferred - the sanding disc or the flapper discs

There are _lots_ of disk types out there. Get a load of them
(especially if your supplier offers bulk prices on mixed lots) and get a
variety - then use what you liked.

In general, buy the best you can. They work better, they last longer,
they work out cheaper long term. If you're using a grinder a lot, then
your disk consumption will be significant and worth getting right.

Personally I use all of them from time to time, but most of all it's the
flap disks. I only still use cutting disks and the hard grinding disks
for working into corners where I need rigidity.

I don't use sanding disks though. An angle grinder is too fast for a
simple flat disk and you get a lot of edge scoring that's work to take
off afterwards. It's also too easy to overheat such a small area of
abrasive. For sanding disks I might use a slower drill and some 3M
non-round disks (rounded triangles) that don't have theis same
edge-scoring problem.

I like the Hermes brand as an abrasive, especially their coated blue
Zirconia. It's particularly good as sanding disks for wood, but it's
good on a flap disk for metal too. They also use a plastic backing,
which is softer if you run it into an edge, either accidentally or to
shave a worn disk smaller. You can shave aluminium-backed disks down too
(if you've only got one 40 grit left in the box and the shops are
closed!) but it's a bit hazardous - it may catch and feed you a faceful
of grinder.

I also like "Flexidisks", which I've only seen from Grayson. These are
flap disks with half the number of flaps and a soft foam spacer between
each one. They're expensive for general use, but they're good for convex
compound curves as they don't wear flats by accident.

It's worth also investigating the extra-thin cutting disks, the
paint-stripper plastic webs and the diamond disks for stone - they all
have their uses at times.

I found some great deals on e-bay for 3M and a couple other brands. Seems
like it came out to less than $2 a disk with shipping for a box of 10. So
far they are holding up really well.
I can dig up the seller info etc. if you want it. Seems like they were
selling them as a business.
Glenn
"Mike Fields" wrote in message
...
Greetings all -- I have a couple of the 4-1/2 inch grinders (which
I love) and was wondering from a cost point of view which people
preferred - the sanding disc or the flapper discs for cleaning up the
metal/welds and all the other usual stuff you do with those grinders
( and which works better in general ). I was sort of leaning in the
direction of the flapper discs, but was interested in what others
had to say.

Second part of this is where in the US is a good place to
get the discs and which brand seems to give the best "grind for the
buck" as it were ? What have people been happy with? (I hate
those that you spin up and 1/2 the abrasive flys off before you
even start work ;-) )

I was thinking of ordering a bunch and figured this bunch would
have the most experience.

Thanks for the feedback

I have found that the 3m disks purchased in bulk will save you money over
the flapper disks. Especially if they are being used by hired help. If you
have 7"or 9" sanders the disks can be purchased and the worn edges can be
trimmed off for use on 4" tools. A tool is available for cutting down
sanding disks for use on smaller tools.

"Mike Fields" wrote in message
...
Greetings all -- I have a couple of the 4-1/2 inch grinders (which
I love) and was wondering from a cost point of view which people
preferred - the sanding disc or the flapper discs for cleaning up the
metal/welds and all the other usual stuff you do with those grinders
( and which works better in general ). I was sort of leaning in the
direction of the flapper discs, but was interested in what others
had to say.

Second part of this is where in the US is a good place to
get the discs and which brand seems to give the best "grind for the
buck" as it were ? What have people been happy with? (I hate
those that you spin up and 1/2 the abrasive flys off before you
even start work ;-) )

I was thinking of ordering a bunch and figured this bunch would
have the most experience.

Thanks for the feedback

OK, thanks for the input folks. Sort of confirms what my
initial feeling had been (but I did not have much experience
with them). I'll check out the 3M as well as some of the
other comments here -- I'm getting quite fond of the little
grinder - nice, light, lots of sparks !!

mikey

"Nate" wrote in message
...
I have found that the 3m disks purchased in bulk will save you money over
the flapper disks. Especially if they are being used by hired help. If you
have 7"or 9" sanders the disks can be purchased and the worn edges can be
trimmed off for use on 4" tools. A tool is available for cutting down
sanding disks for use on smaller tools.

"Mike Fields" wrote in message
...
Greetings all -- I have a couple of the 4-1/2 inch grinders (which
I love) and was wondering from a cost point of view which people
preferred - the sanding disc or the flapper discs for cleaning up the
metal/welds and all the other usual stuff you do with those grinders
( and which works better in general ). I was sort of leaning in the
direction of the flapper discs, but was interested in what others
had to say.

Second part of this is where in the US is a good place to
get the discs and which brand seems to give the best "grind for the
buck" as it were ? What have people been happy with? (I hate
those that you spin up and 1/2 the abrasive flys off before you
even start work ;-) )

I was thinking of ordering a bunch and figured this bunch would
have the most experience.

Thanks for the feedback