Quick Potentially Dangerous Angle Grinder Question

So I'm about to cut the top off of my keg.. and when I put my cutoff wheel on my angle grinder (I have never used one before) I noticed the wheel is not secured at all. The Nuts holding it in are tight, but the wheel has range to move in beaten the 2 nuts. Is that normal?
at first I thought it felt very unsafe, but I managed to talk myself into thinking it was normal and that when the blade spins at such a rate, it should keep the wheel level..
I start to cut and the wheel starts wobbling all over the place and I cant imagine thats normal.. or safe.. so I quickly stop..
Im worried about over tightening the nuts so i haven't really tried to get it tight, but it does seem to want to stop at a certain point..

please help

Are you screwing the nut on straight, or perhaps missing a spacer, because that is definitely not normal, and definitely is dangerous.

you are not using the proper nut, or its not locked down. no slack should be there at all - additionally a angle-grinder generally uses thick discs which is not going to make for a nice cut. use a Dremel or a pneumatic cut-off wheel....

Thats a dangerous freakin tool, if your not sure about the operation of it using it could result in a trip to the ER at best and a prosthetic at worse

Take the nut back off and flip it over and seeif it tightens up they are made to hold different thickness of cut off wheels.
PAT.

Try flipping the nut around and see if that secures it. On my grinder the nut is concave on one side and I have to use that side facing the cutting wheel when using thin disks. If it's a thicker one (grinding wheel) it will secure it regardless of what side of the nut faces it.

If that doesn't work the disks you are using may have a bigger diameter hole in them that what your grinder should be using.

lehr said:

Take the nut back off and flip it over and seeif it tightens up they are made to hold different thickness of cut off wheels.
PAT.

Click to expand...

I had to flip over the nut on mine as well. Don't know if this is technically the right thing to do, but I tightened it well and had no issues.

wow, even quicker than I expected..

Well this is a brand new makita 4 1/2 inch angle grinder, I am using all the nuts and parts that came with the tool. It came with a thick grinding wheel like hayabusa mentioned, but it also came with a "bonus" thin general purpose diamond blade. and I cant get that secure either..

I'm going to try to over tighten it and see if its just suck on something...

edit.. ok or try flipping the nut around.. thats probably it..

lehr said:

Take the nut back off and flip it over and seeif it tightens up they are made to hold different thickness of cut off wheels.
PAT.

Click to expand...

Isley said:

Try flipping the nut around and see if that secures it. On my grinder the nut is concave on one side and I have to use that side facing the cutting wheel when using thin disks. If it's a thicker one (grinding wheel) it will secure it regardless of what side of the nut faces it.

If that doesn't work the disks you are using may have a bigger diameter hole in them that what your grinder should be using.

Click to expand...

maltymike said:

wow, even quicker than I expected..

Well this is a brand new makita 4 1/2 inch angle grinder, I am using all the nuts and parts that came with the tool. It came with a thick grinding wheel like hayabusa mentioned, but it also came with a "bonus" thin general purpose diamond blade. and I cant get that secure either..

I'm going to try to over tighten it and see if its just suck on something...

edit.. ok or try flipping the nut around.. thats probably it..

Click to expand...

This is how my dewalt is. it is correct. The nut goes one way for the thick grinding wheels and the other way for thinner cutoff wheels.

hayabusa said:

you are not using the proper nut, or its not locked down. no slack should be there at all - additionally a angle-grinder generally uses thick discs which is not going to make for a nice cut. use a Dremel or a pneumatic cut-off wheel....

Click to expand...

They sell cut off wheels for angle grinders not just the thick grinding wheels. The cutoff disk he most likely bought was designed FOR his grinder.

It's the same thing as using a pneumatic cut off wheel.
I would like to see someone take a dremel to a keg. Call me next week when you're done.

IrregularPulse said:

They sell cut off wheels for angle grinders not just the thick grinding wheels. The cutoff disk he most likely bought was designed FOR his grinder.

It's the same thing as using a pneumatic cut off wheel.
I would like to see someone take a dremel to a keg. Call me next week when you're done.

Click to expand...

20 minutes with a dremel and 2 cut off wheels....

ok guys, thats for your help.. all i had to do was flip the nut around.. i feel dumb but im glad you were all here..
So i started cutting the keg and on about my 3rd rotation and piece of metal shot up and hit me in the eyeball.. YES I was wearing eye protection but jees that scared the F out of me..I checked myself out and sure enough, a little tiny bent piece of stainless now resting on the part of myeyelid that touces my eye.. Time to find my full protection goggles.. so so scarey.

OMFG!! WHATEVER YOU DO, TAKE VIDEO!!! Very important step..... And make sure the spouse knows how to post a link to it here on the forums while you are laid up in the hospital. Probably earn yourself a free premium membership for that!

Well, you ARE typing, so I'm assuming you're ok...?

A face shield should be a required piece of safety equipment whenever you're using a grinder. Ear protection is good too.

Mine required a special backing washer that allowed it to tighten, you do NOT want to use it if its got any play/slippage, its too dangerous. Its a 4 dollar part or the like, and will make it work w/ those thin cutting blades correctly... or if flipping it works, that should be fine too...

Full face is a good idea, I should get one of those.

FYI, my grinder also requires a flip of the nut for thin wheels.

Well thanks for the concern (and ridicule I guess) but the top is cut off.. took me a little longer than I expected but I got it off, now its time to grind it to make it smoother..

I don't have any cutting oil for drilling my holes.. Home Depot didn't carry it... I should be ..okish right?

Mike, be careful, or reconsider this DIY and find help. I made a jig based on Bobby M's:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LthGdMk_avk]YouTube - Keg to Brew Kettle Conversion[/ame]

The jig made the job much more controllable than free handing it. Pics of mine attached.

I've done a few now and a thin cut off wheel will do almost 2 keggles. Each one takes less than a few minutes. I like the rush of air that comes out when the disk finally gets through the keg!!

Linc

maltymike said:

Well thanks for the concern (and ridicule I guess) but the top is cut off.. took me a little longer than I expected but I got it off, now its time to grind it to make it smoother..

I don't have any cutting oil for drilling my holes.. Home Depot didn't carry it... I should be ..okish right?

Click to expand...

I've used, if I remember correctly, WD-40 and/or chain oil and it worked out. Just remember to back off to avoid grounding out the bit.

Were you able to remove the metal from your eye ok? I mean, you don't want your brewery logo to be a pirate with an eye patch...or do you?

You know....a plasma cutter isn't thaaaaaat expensive.

Drilling stainless... SOME KIND of lubricant is necessary even if it's olive oil. Slow speed, medium-high pressure.

Cool cool.
About the eye... .Yes everything is ok.. I felt the metal hit my eyeball, and it hurt a bit, but i saw out of it fine, and by the time i got to a mirror it was already safely sitting on my eyelid and easy enough to get out.. it looked like a metal splinter curled up into a ball.. it was scary..

about the Jig, Yes I would have loved to, and had planned on using the jig, but I have a crappy Miller Lite Keg and was unable to get the valve out of the keg because of the stupid locking clip mechanism..

As of now, the top is cut, its grinded pretty smooth and my lid fits pretty well.. time to drill my 2 holes..

maltymike said:

Well thanks for the concern (and ridicule I guess) but the top is cut off.. took me a little longer than I expected but I got it off, now its time to grind it to make it smoother..

I don't have any cutting oil for drilling my holes.. Home Depot didn't carry it... I should be ..okish right?

Click to expand...

doesn't have to be cutting oil. Any light oil will do I have used mineral oil before with good results and its food grade just dont use to much its a laxative too.

Cool,

On my grinder, I had to flip the backing spacer over. It had the large step for a grinding disc on one side and the shallow step on the other.

maltymike said:

I don't have any cutting oil for drilling my holes.. Home Depot didn't carry it... I should be ..okish right?

Click to expand...

Use whatever is handy- WD-40 will work. So will a few drops of motor oil.

IrregularPulse said:

They sell cut off wheels for angle grinders not just the thick grinding wheels. The cutoff disk he most likely bought was designed FOR his grinder.

It's the same thing as using a pneumatic cut off wheel.
I would like to see someone take a dremel to a keg. Call me next week when you're done.

Click to expand...

haha I used a dremel on my 1st keg. Wasnt nearly as fast as the cutoff wheel but was faster then I expected. Wouldnt ever try it again though.

missing link said:

I've done a few now and a thin cut off wheel will do almost 2 keggles. Each one takes less than a few minutes. I like the rush of air that comes out when the disk finally gets through the keg!!

Linc

Click to expand...

Seriously? You need to let the pressure out first; thats dangerous not too!!

Glad to hear you are OK, definitely SAFETY FIRST at whatever measure needs to be taken. As far as the OP, as long as the arbor size of the disc was the same as the grinder, I wouldn't think it would be a huge safety factor, probably more of an efficiency factor, as soon as you would have tried to cut through, the disc would have stopped.

I got a small piece of hot metal in the eye once, grinding on a guitar bridge. I didn't notice the speck, as it was over my iris and they are brown, and I was looking around the cornea. The next day the pain was excruciating, I felt like a vampire, any light was intensely painful. A quick trip to the clinic , the doctor saw it right away. He numbed my eye with some drops, and picked the metal out with a scaplel. You have no idea how bizzare it is to have your vision shift by the picking motion of a scalpel, much less the visual of a blade going right at your eye. I now wear eye protection when grinding, etc. It took at least a week before going outside during the day was feasible.
-Ben