Saturday, July 10, 2010

I love my angle grinder

One of the nutserts for installing the rock rails on my Jeep spun out when I tried to bolt it on. Solution: Drop the rock rail, drill out the nutsert, and put another nutsert in there. Problem: How can I drop the rock rail when the bolt is stuck in the spinning nutsert? Answer: Grab my angle grinder, slap a cutting disk in there (as vs. a grinding disk), and whiiiirrrr! Sliced through that bolt like butter :). No bolt head, no problem, heh.

Best $40 I ever spent on a tool, heh. Just remember to wear your welding gloves, long sleeve welding shirt, and eye protection when doing this, because it sends sparks shooting out big-time, and that hot metal *will* burn a hole in your arm if it lands on it. (Yes, I was wearing all my gear, I ain't a stupid penguin, heh!).

- Badtux the Tool Penguin

7 comments:

  1. My Makita grinder is 30 years old and gets used on a daily basis. I barely pick up a hack saw anymore.

    A set of brushes a new switch and a power cord is all it has ever required. An amazing tool.

    It needs a new operator as this one has become tired.

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  2. Yah, Makita makes some good shit, I have a couple of their saws and a drill, and they're all righteous. My grinder's a Porter Cable, not Makita quality but I don't use it on a daily basis (I'm strictly a weekend shade tree warrior) and cheap enough to toss if it breaks and buy another one. But it seems put together pretty righteous. It's not as if I went to Harbor Freight and picked up one of the cheap Chinese jobbers, heh!

    - Badtux the Wrenchin' Penguin

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  3. Well you guys are lucky, having bought tools all my life, My oldest son has ALL mine. He opened up a repair shop about three years ago.
    Every time I stop by at the garage I recognize some of my tools. It's so bad I'm having to go out and purchase new ones again. Kids!

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  4. Gosh, Tim, my heart bleeds for you. :-)

    I bought a diamond cutting wheel for my Makita so I could cut pavers. Only time I take it off now it use the grinding wheel.

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  5. I have two air powered cut off tools that work great for such things. And I love my air powered saw like body shops use.

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  6. Well, Tim, I inherited my Dad's tools. But I don't have many of them left, due to wear and tear and a thief who stole one of my toolboxes. Grrrr!

    Yogi, I'm gonna have to get one of those diamond cutting wheels for cutting pavers. The back patio of this place is pavers, but it needs redoing big-time.

    BBC, air tools are great but would be a waste of money for me, I don't do shit that needs air tools often enough to justify the dough.

    All: When I dropped the rock rail today, I put the grinding wheel back on the angle grinder and ground off the bolt flush and ground off part of the flange of the rivnut. Then I used a chisel to fold up the edges of the rivnut and punched it clean into the frame. Hopefully at some point in time it'll rattle around and eventually fall out the end of the frame, but so it goes. I put a new rivnut in there, making double sure to put it in straight this time, and the rock rail went back on righteous. The right tools sure makes jobs like this easier than futzing around with hacksaws and shit!

    - Badtux the Tool Penguin

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  7. Hey Tux,

    It took me a while to get used to the idea that I wasn't going to use a chop saw/wet saw for the job, but a friend convinced me and it worked like a charm. Lots of dust, but good clean cuts.
    Blade was around $20, I think.

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