- 12 Comments
- HOTNESS UNHOT
Harbor Freight has the Drill Master 95578 4-1/2" Angle Grinder on sale for $10 + $6 shipping = $16 shipped. Features 11,000 RPM, removable side handle, spindle lock, aluminum gear housing, and easy to replace carbon brush.
$16
This weekend is their parking lot sale, so if you live near one, they have his deal and many others
And if you illegally park at their sale and get clamped, this will come in very handy.
Angle grinders are neat, but they don't usually last very long, especially $10 ones. Even the more expensive ones seem to have a limited lifespan. YMMV of course, depending what you're cutting.
So get some kind of extended warranty on them, with unlimited replacements and no deductible. Harbor Freight will sell you the warranty for a few bucks, and you can get yourself a new grinder every few weeks.
^ Both my $50 Craftsman 4" and ~$200 Bosch 9" angle grinders have held up fine for years. Granted, I get out the Bosch for any larger job so the Craftsman only sees 5 minutes of use at a time when I need to work in tight spaces or the (larger) Bosch is just overkill.
Oddly the price on the Bosch 9", and their 7", seems to have remained stable in recent years instead of a slight rise like with many contractor grade tools so I wonder if overall quality has declined on their newer models to keep price down.
The Harbor Freight version... don't know, but for safety's sake I would get high quality name brand grinding wheels even if you opt to get a low quality grinder... chunks of wheel flying off at 11K RPM isn't much fun.
Must wear hearing protection w/ this POS. LOUD! Sounds like a jet engine.
Gotta love Harbor Freight for all of there awesome deals
#3 I originally bought a Ryobi years ago. When they die I return them with a full refund/replacement. You get to keep the grinding wheel too.
#5 Never heard of a quiet grinder. After all you're grinding metal/stone.
If you have a Northern Tool near you, it's also worth checking out. I got a similar grinder there for $8.
#4: I'd expect a $200 Bosch one to hold up for years, but I've burned up my share of even $50 ones grinding cracks out of concrete and cutting through bigger chunks of metal.
#7: "When they die..." getting one with a built-in lifetime warranty or something is an option too. But they DO die, and if you're buying a B&D or $10 one, expect them to die and not get replaced unless you buy a warranty thing.
^ Two key things to make them run longer.
1) Do not run them continuously for long periods to the point they are running hot.
2) If you do much grinding on things that create dusty abrasives like concrete, you need to periodically strip the tool down, clean the gunk out, and lube any bearings that are not sealed. Otherwise you might as well pour sand into it. In this respect an air grinder is better because instead of a motor that sucks air in to cool the tool, the air version expels air pushing gritty dust away from the tool.
For $9.99, you can't go wrong with the Drill Master grinder.
Just don't use it for a long time, and do heavy grinding. It's only a 4.3 motor.
^ You are aware this deal was ~ 15 months ago?