What is the difference between a cut-off wheel and a grinding wheel? This question comes to us from someone else talking to you the other day. I’ll just leave it at that, that they weren’t quite sure what to use and they were sure what the difference between the two devices was. Now what we’re talking about is that an angle grinder is a beast. Right 4 and a half-inch angle grinder. It won’t have to be made by the wolf.
All right. Good. We’ve had it for years and years. And basically what this tool is used for is a couple of things. You can stand it with the appropriate and attachment. You can cut through steel with it and you can also just grind. OK, now what’s the difference between cutting and grinding? Cutting Wheel is just that you were cutting through a piece of steel or like rebar or angle wire or something like that. You’re going to use cuts directly through it. All right. Or you make it cut out in something. All right.
That’s a you that Grinding Wheel, on the other hand, is just removing the surface material. OK, so say, for example, you got a piece of equipment and it’s got kind of an ugly weld job on it. It looks like glue. It’s not a rocket and it’s just like crap everywhere. It’s a bad job of welding. What you do to get an angle grinder and clean that up a little bit.
OK, now as far as the wheels go, I think to get a check for is make sure that based on the size tool that you have, you have the appropriate size disk. OK, now these two look similar to this one. Got a little bit of a recess in it right there. And this one is flat right now. Which one is which? This one. Yes, we’re grinding. This one is not for cutting.
OK, you can tell the thickness of the two of these things. This one is a whole lot thicker than this one. OK. Plus, there’s kind of an angle bump on this, right? It kind of goes right. And this one, on the other hand, is just flat. OK. Now, the reason for that is when you’re doing you’re grinding, OK? You want to use the thicker one because you’re going to be hitting it at an angle.
So you get a thing in your tool, you turn the thing on, get up to 10000 RPMs or whatever your tool goes to, and then you just drop that edge down and start grinding on your piece. OK, now, since you’re exerting an amount of force on that, you want something a little bit beefier, thicker than something. OK, now I understand these are made very, very similar. All right.
It’s your kind of texture. It’s kind of a wooden texture with abrasives that are built into it. OK, same thing on this one. As I said, they’re built about the same and very, very similar. On the ground, you can buy one by different ones for stainless steel or soft metal or whatever. There’s a bunch of times, but essentially they’re made the same way. OK, but again, when you’re doing some grinding on something, you want to use the thicker one.
Not before you start pushing down on this one. What’s going to happen? It’s going to snap. OK, you’re going to have a bad day. And again, the rating on this, 10000 r.p.m., OK? There’s even a whole lot faster than most of your other tools in the shop other than maybe your Dremel or your Bispebjerg retool. OK, so if that thing blows, you’re going to have chunks flying everywhere and you’re going to have a bad situation.
Safety tips on using these things to make sure that, one, you’re wearing eye protection. And I’m not talking just regular prescription glasses. I’m talking like fool goggles or some safety glasses. If you got them even better, do a full face shield, cover up everything because the sparks start flying all over the place. All right. Are getting on your lips, are getting on your nose, are all of your face and your hair, all that.
So you just at a minimum wear a face shield. OK, plus these things are loud as hell. I’m not sure why they’re so loud, but they are loud as hell. So I always try to make sure that they weren’t some sort of your protection on the inserts are you can get them for like nickel or something stupid. Put those things in the ear and see your hearing guys.
I also watch the sparks, OK, years and years ago I was in fact when it was after I got out of the Marine Corps. But I’m still working on my thing. I was using a plasma cutter. All right. Not an angle grinder, but still throwing a whole lot of sparks, if you’re familiar with what that is. And I wasn’t paying attention the first time, used it, and set myself on fire. OK, I’m serious to the bottom of my jeans, all the freeze and stuff, you know, it caught those sparks.
And sure enough, I set my leg on fire. Thankfully, you know, I got to put out pretty quick after the oh, shit, I’m on fire. Dance with Hejazi competitive out and, you know, everything’s good to go. But again, you want to make sure that you know exactly where those sparks are flying. OK, so don’t do this in your garage where you happen to store paint thinner gasoline, kerosene, and all that kind of crap.
