is there a difference between a grinding wheel and a cutting wheel?

[twobrain]

i plan on cutting the top off a keg

i have some milwaukee 4.5" x 1/8 x 7/8 grinding discs, type 27, medium steel

can i use these?

thanks!

 

[Catt22]

Yes, the difference is the thickness of the disc. A cutting disc will be thinner than a grinding disc. The 4-1/2" x 1/8" disc you have should work well. Typically the grinding discs are at least 1/4" thick. You can't put much side load on the thin cutting discs without breaking them, but you can use substantial force with the thicker discs. You would be well advised to use a full face shield when working with the cutting discs. The thin discs are rather fragile and if they bind they can easily shatter and fling shrapnel in all directions. The thicker grinding discs are somewhat safer, but I would still recommend a full face shield when using those as well.

 

[Hoodweisen]

With out knowing that paticular disk (I tried to google it) i would say yes while keeping this in mind the thicker the wheel the longer it will take to cut through if its a thick grinding type wheel it may take so long that youll give up. Also keep in mind that some thin wheels (sanding disks) are not paticularly designed to take pressure on their edge they are designed to sand something with the face and using the edge could cause it to blow up in your face so make sure to use safety equipment.

 

[Hoodweisen]

cool you replied while i was replying and we replyed the same thing can you say JINX

 

[twobrain]

I also have a dremmel with cut off discs. Would that be easier

 

[Catt22]

I also have a dremmel with cut off discs. Would that be easier

Some of the guys have reported success using a Dremmel, but the tiny cut-off discs are very fragile and you will likely go through a bunch of them in the process. Using an offset grinder would be the better way to go as it would be both faster and easier.

This one is on sale at Harbor Frieght right now for $12.99:

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-1-2-...ce=retail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=0711c

It would be hard to go wrong at that price.

http://widgets.harborfreight.com/ws...11c_retail.html&cust=78069096444&keycode=0000

 

[Bobby_M]

I'd recommend getting a 1/16" thick disc. Basically it would take 1/2 the time to cut because it's removing less metal.

 

[Flomaster]

I have never owned a grinding disk and probably never will. I have the thinnest cut off disks and sand paper flapper wheels IMHO I have never had a situation that a flapper wheel couldn't handle.

-=Jason=-

 

[Bobby_M]

Flappers are pretty expensive if you have a lot of material to remove, like cleaning up horrible welds. It is rare, but I use the grinding wheel now and then.

 

[evilhomer]

I just cut my keg and out of laziness used what I had. Definitely get a thin one marked "cutting disk" or somehow mentions metal cutting, the thinner the better. My thin wheel was making real nice work of the keg but wore away pretty quickly.

So instead of driving 5 minutes to get more I used a thicker one which seemed to melt the metal more so then cut through it, ended up taking a little while but it worked. The thinner one was making a much cleaner cut too. Smoothed it up with a 60 grit disc and some blue textured thing and finally some 100 grit sand paper by hand.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I buy 1/32" cut off wheels. They work very well and make fast work of cutting sheet metal and other thin stock.