Great Deal on 4 1/2" angle grinders at Home Depot

My home depot had TWO Makita 4.5" angle grinders for 85 dollars as a "two pack" deal.

Yeah, Lowes has that one on clearance for ~$45 and the dewalt was $49. Just couldn't justify TWO grinders!

I was tempted too. I needed a grinder buddy to share the deal though.

Laughing_Gnome said:

I was tempted too. I needed a grinder buddy to share the deal though.

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If you want to pay to ship it to me I'll give ya $45 for the grinder .

You can get a really inexpensive Black & Decker 4-1/2" at WalMart for $20.00.

Laughing_Gnome said:

I was tempted too. I needed a grinder buddy to share the deal though.

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Really now? A grinder buddy. Hehehe.:fro:

Thankfully, I was able to borrow my dad's, but when I went to menards to get some new cutting wheels, I saw an angle grinder for $15 with a $5 MIR, for a total of $10. Granted it was the menards store brand (Tool Shop I believe), but if you're only going to use it to cut 1-3 kegs, the price is definitely right.

Kahluaman said:

If you want to pay to ship it to me I'll give ya $45 for the grinder .

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In the end, I bought a cheaper Skil. It ain't like I use a grinder often enough to warrant having a good one. I'm kicking myself now though. If I had thought to ask this forum I would have been ok with that!

Don't cut yourself short on hand grinders be it 4" or 4 1/2" leaving 7-9" out of the picture for now.
What is handy is to have one grinder with a cutoff wheel, one or two hard wheels in different grits plus a couple different grit flexible disk flap wheels. One must add a grinder with a made for stainless only flap disk if your working with stainless materials. Like a bench grinder with one dedicated wheel for dressing tungsten Tig tips if your a Tig welder.
Nothing wastes more time than changing out wheels working off one grinder, this is worse than a full on nagging wife.
If you only have one grinder and it takes a dump your screwed right in the middle of a project. I use my grinders many times a week on projects if the back allows me to move around.

Check out Harbor Freight- I got a 4" angle grinder from them on a black Friday for $5, and a recip saw for $10. Harbor Freight is great for stuff that doesn't need to be top quality- clamps, roughing tools, etc. I wouldn't buy their router bits, but they do have some great deals on stuff.

My Home Depot has all power tools locked up with display items on a chain with half the parts missing.
On one big job we had 11 welders busting butt 10 hour days and all they used were 4 1/2" 8.5 amp Milwaukee grinders. About every month a Milwaukee factory service repair person would come by to pick up damaged grinders. Grainger listed them $165 each. Were talking over 50 grinders in one gang box divided good and bad. I was given 6 good or factory rebuilts with one of 'em as brand new. I'm sold on Milwaukee grinders as well all their other power tools. The "El Cheapo" grinders I had went down to a friends truck wash yard, when they crap out they feed the chit can.
Cords and brushes are the only parts that need replacing if Milwaukee's are treated right and I mean many many hours use. Clean them then add some extra gearbox grease keeps them happy a lot longer. Bosch would be second choice.
We had a apprentice that was a Makita factory repair person, was told if the Makita grinders labored down without a load stop at once as a bearing is beginning to seize and will get hot and melt into the plastic housing. Repair it or destroy it with use.

mattmcl said:

Check out Harbor Freight- I got a 4" angle grinder from them on a black Friday for $5, and a recip saw for $10. Harbor Freight is great for stuff that doesn't need to be top quality- clamps, roughing tools, etc. I wouldn't buy their router bits, but they do have some great deals on stuff.

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Can't tell you how much stuff i've purchased from harbor freight...
some of their machines work pretty well,
and you can't beat them for simple tools.

I'm going to put my question on the end of this thread.....

Got a hold of 2 sankeys today and will be making an HLT and kettle. Lots of options for grinders. Will the cheaper ones do it effectively or is there a certain brand/RPM that works. I'd like to keep the price of the grinder under $50 if there is something useful in that price range.

After more reading, it looks like the cheap ones will do the trick.

drunkatuw said:

Thankfully, I was able to borrow my dad's, but when I went to menards to get some new cutting wheels, I saw an angle grinder for $15 with a $5 MIR, for a total of $10. Granted it was the menards store brand (Tool Shop I believe), but if you're only going to use it to cut 1-3 kegs, the price is definitely right.

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Yeah, that's the one I have. The amount of money I spend on a tool is directly proportionate to how often I intend to use it. I only spent $20 on my Tool Shop grinder, but I spent $400 on my 18v cordless DeWalt drill/recip saw/worklight kit.

for anyone afraid of the hf grinders i can tell you i have a couple grinders fomr there. a 4" a 4.5" as well as a 7.5" none cost me more then 20 bucks. the smaller ones were actually like 10 or 15. I have a friend who uses grinders every day. he bought the hf as they were cheap and it allows him to have different wheels on each one. and like i said he uses them for work daily.

I have a 4" HF with many hours on it. $12. Not a precision tool but I don't need it to be.
I am sure I would be happier with a Makita...

I have bought quite a bit of crap from HF as well. It totally depends on what it is that you need.

The strange thing about that store is that is smells like mothballs. Everything smells that way. Wonder why.