grandpa liked the flap discs

[JonnyTIG]

Paulrbrown:
It was a 5" Klingspor, on a 5" air grinder. The disk broke into four pieces: three large chunks about one third the disk area each, and the fourth piece was the date stamp, located near the hole in the center.
I wanted to deburr an edge of a five inch pipe flange, so I held the flange flat on the table top with one hand, and pulled the trigger on the grinder. Within a second the disk fractured. My thumb was only 6" at most away from the disk.

I did a shock test using Klingspors and Orange Walters, to see how many times I could hit each disk with a ball pein hammer before they shattered.
Results I found were quite different. The Walter disk just got mis-shapen after 17 hits, it didn't actually shatter apart like the other disk did after just three hits.

Anyhow, any kind of grinding / cutting wheels can blow up, so I always check disks and wheels before use. There's too many stitch-up stories floating around for my liking

[paulrbrown]

Jonny, have you used any of the Klingspor double disks? They have a plastic center piece and 2 disks which are facing opposite directions. They were ok, but I still like the single type. I have not seen the Walter brand here in the US. I am a firm believer in holding the grinder with both hands, and never using one with out the handle. Both times that I have been bit by a 4.5" grinder, it was not having a hand on the handle, my boss did not like handles, so I had to use his handle less grinder and got my hand into the flap disk, the other time, I was holding 1 inch square tubing and had a cup wire brush jump off the tubing and into my T shirt at chest level and wind up, I could not get the switch off fast enough, so I had to run away from the extension cord to unplug the grinder, anyway, I had a real sore chest and nasty gouge in my chest. NO more one handed grinding for me, that picture of your hand is still ingrained in my head....ouch!!!!!! it would be great if someone made a conical disk so you could chamfer the inside of pipe, those stones they make just chatter around and don't do a good job. Till later, hope this helps someone out there....Paul 'the 2 handed grinder dude'

[hit_em]

Paul I too am a firm beleaver in useing two hand and keeping the handle, I have yet to be bit by a grinder and I dont really feel like giving it the chance to get me

[paulrbrown]

Back in ArtSchool days, yeah I know!!!, I saw a guy grinding with a 7 inch sanding disk on his big 7 inch grinder, he had his shirt unbuttoned and hanging out his pants, well, when that bad boy grinder blew his shirt up and got wrapped into it, it went into his ribs, I always think of that image, especially with the biguns....Scaredy Cat Paul

[Burnindaylight]

I'm a firm beliver in leaving the gaurd on, alot of people I know take them off cuz they "get in the way", I don't think that is a good enough excuse to do away with a saftey feature

[fun4now]

i mostly use the walters, no tools needed to put then on or change them out as they have there own threds built in. only drawback is the price i have used some nice ones from e-bay at about $2 each but they dont have there own built in thred so you need to use the grinders chuck, they are also a fiber backed disk unlike the walter plastic backing so the cheepoes dont alow for cutting it back like the walters, the walters also last longer, so i guess the $$ kinda evens out in the end a little?? if $$ is tight the e-bays work great for the $$ but if ya got the $$ the walter is a nicer setup, wal-marts are ok but even the e-bay $2 version was beter in my opinion, that being said there are lots of diferent versions out on e-bay, the ones i got were from pionear abrasives and worked realy well.
just like may of you as soon as i tryed the first flap disk i was hooked, they are great.

[JonnyTIG]

I never use a grinder without a gaurd. The company I work for allows the gaurd to be cut down from 180 deg to 120. I found in doing this the gaurd never gets in the way. The air grinder I was using that day when the disk blew up was some strange brand, almost a combo sander grinder. It had a gaurd, but was a single handed tool. I've never seen nor used one like it since.

When I was 14 years old I had a bunch of old dirtbikes I messed around with. One day I was doing some painting on a bike frame, and my dad set me up with a wire wheel chucked into a 3/8" hand drill. I was holding the frame down with my foot, until the wire wheel grabbed my sneeker laces and wound them up tight. The drill was bound up so tight against my foot, I couldn't shut it off! Just like in the previous posting, I had to run away from the extention cord to shut the drill off. I learned a good lesson that day.

[JimYoung]

got my order of flapper disc and cutoff wheels from Bullet Industries the other day... quality seems exceptional. Good company to deal with..
Jim

[MetalCrafter]

I just used a flap disk on a big pipe rail job I just started. I have to say it is better then Apple Pie. Mind you I paid a wopping $10 for 1 disk from a local hardware store but it was well worth it. I need to find out and share with you Gents. the grading and the make.

[Synergy]

What are you guys paying for good quality flap discs. Pearl maxi-disc work well and last long they about 14 bucks, Sait is 10 or 11. Metabo and Radnor are not a bad value at 5 or 6 bucks. Anyone know a place thats sells them online for less?

[MetalCrafter]

I have to say for 1 disk they are expensive. I checked out the Walters on ebay they are offering 10 disks for around $68.00/shipping. not bad ha.

[fun4now]

thats prity good for walters. they last a good long time for a flap disk.

[bails18]

Flap Discs & Abrasives

If anyone is interested in Flap Discs shoot me an e-mail ([email protected]).

I will sell you Flap Discs for $4.99/each, and you would have to buy at least a box of each grit. 10/Box.

We stand behind our product 100%. If you are not satisfied, we will credit you on return of discs. I am positive you will be satisfied. Flap Discs are our 2nd biggest mover next to belts.

We also carry a full line of abrasives, so if you are looking for any other abrasives let me know.

[dabar39]

flap disc

I have found that the metabo and sait are pretty good discs for the price. Also I was one of those guys that never used a handle or a guard until I had a wire wheel catch in a corner and flipped over on my hand. I still have some nasty scars on the area between my thumb and fore finger from the flesh being ripped off my hand. It wasn't pretty and it definatly made me a believer in using two hands and a handle. Dave

P.S. those of you that take this subject lightly, I will gladly send you some pics of the scars

[JonnyTIG]

Heck, post your mishaps... Education and awareness doesn't come cheap, but we can all learn from each others mistakes.