When using an angle grinder, should the blade spin towards or away from you?
 

I have been cutting some slabs and found that by rotating the guard on
my 230mm grinder, I could use it 2 ways:

1. Blade spins towards you.

In this method, the the dust fires AWAY from you, BUT if/when the
grinder kicks, it will come towards you.

2. Blad spins away from you

Now you get the dust firing in to your leg, but grinder would now
'kick' away from you!.


I am guessing that the 2nd of these is the safest, but which is
correct?

When using an angle grinder, should the blade spin towards or away from you?
 

"Jon Weaver" wrote in message
om...

2. Blad spins away from you

Now you get the dust firing in to your leg, but grinder would now
'kick' away from you!.


I am guessing that the 2nd of these is the safest, but which is
correct?

I've always used mine this way. Seems the safest to me - though shortly
after getting my first grinder, when cutting some metal pipe, I nearly set
myself alight (a slight exageration I melted a hole in my fleece but it
could have been a lot worse) So now I'm always careful as to where the waste
flies.

Matt


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When using an angle grinder, should the blade spin towards or away from you?
 

On 31 Jul 2003 09:28:51 -0700, (Jon Weaver)
wrote:

I have been cutting some slabs and found that by rotating the guard on
my 230mm grinder, I could use it 2 ways:

1. Blade spins towards you.

In this method, the the dust fires AWAY from you, BUT if/when the
grinder kicks, it will come towards you.

2. Blad spins away from you

Now you get the dust firing in to your leg, but grinder would now
'kick' away from you!.


I am guessing that the 2nd of these is the safest, but which is
correct?

I've only a little Bosch grinder but have used that both ways. I
don't think I'd like to try stopping a big one if it kicked back
towards me though.

Got enough holes in my t-shirts already from grinding metal. :-)

Mark S.

When using an angle grinder, should the blade spin towards oraway from you?
 

Mark wrote:

On 31 Jul 2003 09:28:51 -0700, (Jon Weaver)
wrote:

I have been cutting some slabs and found that by rotating the guard on
my 230mm grinder, I could use it 2 ways:

1. Blade spins towards you.

In this method, the the dust fires AWAY from you, BUT if/when the
grinder kicks, it will come towards you.

2. Blad spins away from you

Now you get the dust firing in to your leg, but grinder would now
'kick' away from you!.


I am guessing that the 2nd of these is the safest, but which is
correct?

I've only a little Bosch grinder but have used that both ways. I
don't think I'd like to try stopping a big one if it kicked back
towards me though.

Got enough holes in my t-shirts already from grinding metal. :-)


Leather welders apron is what you need

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...19481&ts=80831

Mark S.

When using an angle grinder, should the blade spin towards or away from you?
 

On 31 Jul 2003 09:28:51 -0700, (Jon Weaver)
wrote:

I have been cutting some slabs and found that by rotating the guard on
my 230mm grinder, I could use it 2 ways:

Sparks away from you, kicks towards you.

When a grinder kicks (unlike a chainsaw) it will tend to kick in a
fairly straight and predictable manner. It doesn't tend to twist and
buck. You can resist this quite easily. Besides which, grinders don;t
kick in anything like the way that saws do.

One hazard you do find with 9" grinders is the gyroscopic effect of
the disk. I don't much like mine because of this, and tend to use a 7"
flap wheel for much of the time. A 9" grinder is also slower than a 4
1/2", so the wheel linear speed is about the same. Unless you really
need the motor power, there's not really much extra capacity to a 9"
and they're much more awkward.

When using an angle grinder, should the blade spin towards or away from you?
 

"Matt" wrote in message ...
"Jon Weaver" wrote in message
om...

2. Blad spins away from you

Now you get the dust firing in to your leg, but grinder would now
'kick' away from you!.


I am guessing that the 2nd of these is the safest, but which is
correct?

I've always used mine this way. Seems the safest to me - though shortly
after getting my first grinder, when cutting some metal pipe, I nearly set
myself alight (a slight exageration I melted a hole in my fleece but it
could have been a lot worse) So now I'm always careful as to where the waste
flies.

Matt


Sparks from metal grinding are very dangerous - my father set his
workshop on fire and died in it. We reckon that he was grinding metal.

Rob