Favorite angle grinder?

My main grab is the DeWalt. It has the easiest guard to adjust out of the all of them. The Milwaukee is meh, it definitely is not in the same class as the DeWalt. Both are the $60ish dollar varieties. The Hitachi hands down the best grinder I've ever had, thing is likely 10 years old. Doesn't get used much anymore since the guard is long gone. Usually only gets used when there's more than just me in the shop. The big bastard Milwaukee is a hoss, pretty sure it's like 4hp. It's kinda like riding a horse on cocaine and only gets used when there's lots of grand fuckery to clean up.

I saw above talk about the M18 fuel grinder, thing is tits but it will never beat a corded unit. I usually keep a flap disc on it for quick clean up. You'll straight murder batteries if you try and use it like a corded grinder. However it's a must have for quick and easy stuff, just dont expect to cut long in thick stuff.

Cliff notes, I'd buy the DeWalt again. Though I've never tried anything other than the above. Likely going to buy the DeWalt that @Mac5005 has above to add to the lineup for the fatigue reason he mentioned.

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Milwaukee has been owned by techtronic since 05 and Atlas owned them from 95-05 before that they had an investment group that owned them. DeWalt was a rebranding effort from Black and Decker in 92 or so after B&D bought ELU. in 2010 B&D merged with Stanley and in 2016 or 2017 Spectrum bought them and put them under their umbrella.

Both companies have been bought and sold , both make a decent tool. The return rates on Milwaukee are a 1/4 of DeWalt / B&D but theirs arent high by any means. The Milwaukee's have a little better parts on most of the tools , like bearings instead of bushings , sintered gears instead of nylon gears and a better grade of electric motors. Milwaukee still makes a fair amount of their tools here , but DeWalt is bringing back a lot of production beyond the made in the USA with global materials. They just opened a new 425'000 sf plant in Texas and are bringing most hand tools and a lot of the cordless lines back onshore.

I run mostly Milwaukee stuff myself and with DeWalt's recent service center debacles most of our customers are moving over to Milwaukee as well . We carry Milwaukee, DeWalt and Craftsman but the Milwaukee lines outsells the DeWalt and Craftsman lines 3 to 1.

Metabo and Hitachi are one in the same and are owned by KKR.

Bosch makes a great tooless grinder that I think will make inroads as people see it and use it . It attaches like their starlock oscillating tools do. They merged with Skil in the early 2000's but Bosch sold them to Chervon who makes the EGO line of cordless outdoor power tools.

Porter Cable is B&D and nowhere near the tool it used to be .

Ryobi is Techtronic (Milwaukee) Rigid (but not Rigid hand tools which are made by Emerson) and Hart.

Makita is still a stand alone company as well as Fein and Festool ( if you have Treadway level funds). Hilti is also still on their own and their tools are fantastic , a lot of rental places use them based on their longevity and ability to withstand abuse.

I'm not sure if this will help or not!
 
shawn said:
How long does the battery last?
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4.0 battery, not that long. Working a cutoff wheel or heavy grinding might even make it sub 5 minutes. Light-medium flap disc work is 10-20 minutes. 9.0 battery lasts a lot longer, and pulls harder too, but a bit heavy. I don't have anything in between. I think something around a 6.0 would be about perfect. Like @Chris_Keziah said, it's no corded grinder, but if you just want to do something quick without dragging out a cord, it is awesome. And for laying under stuff because the cord doesn't catch on tires or get under you.
 
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justjeepin86 said:
I have a 20ish year old Milwaukee the same. The bearings in it sound like shit and i keep waiting on it to lock up. I'm in the market too.
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drkelly said:
Haha! The bearings in mine sound like shit too, but it has sounded like that for many years. I've been waiting on it to fail for so long now that I've given up waiting. It might outlast me.
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I'm pretty sure they have straight cut gears. I looked mine up and it's a Milwaukee 6154-20 Super Magnum 4.5" that I paid like $140 for back in 2001ish.
www.milwaukeetool.com

4-1/2 inch Super Magnum Sander Grinder

The 4-1/2” Super Magnum® Sander/Grinder from Milwaukee Tool offers extra heavy-duty grinding capability in a compact, ergonomic design.
www.milwaukeetool.com www.milwaukeetool.com
At 12 amps, it was the most powerful 4.5er that they made at the time, and is apparently more powerful than the ones they make today, haha. It has always had a very rough sound to it, and it has never gotten any better or worse.
 
was using this at work a few weeks ago, used with cut off disc on 1/4” plate and it was pretty effortless. Swapped on a grinding disc and that was pretty effortless as well. Probably end up with one myself pretty soon. It’s around a year old and has had multiple idiots using it (including myself) and hasn’t melted yet, how bad can it be ?

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jeepinmatt said:
4.0 battery, not that long. Working a cutoff wheel or heavy grinding might even make it sub 5 minutes. Light-medium flap disc work is 10-20 minutes. 9.0 battery lasts a lot longer, and pulls harder too, but a bit heavy. I don't have anything in between. I think something around a 6.0 would be about perfect. Like @Chris_Keziah said, it's no corded grinder, but if you just want to do something quick without dragging out a cord, it is awesome. And for laying under stuff because the cord doesn't catch on tires or get under you.
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I have found the 6.0 battery to be the sweet spot on my Milwaukee. It will never replace a corded grinder, but I can usually make it a whole day doing smaller odds n ends type grinding/wire wheeling while working on a project. For a corded grinder I also like DeWalt. If I had to only have one grinder, or did a lot of fab work like some of these guys, it would be corded. But as a DIYer I don't think I will ever not have a cordless option.

Duane
 
sammi_davis said:
as well as Fein
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jeepyjman said:
I have a few of the soft start 5" feins and they are top notch!
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I believe the fiens are some of the best bang for the buck out there. They are much cheaper than I thnought they would be.

Side switch
Amazon product ASIN B016JYX8IG
with paddle switch
www.ebay.com

FEIN WSG 7-115 PT 4-1/2" Angle Grinder With Paddle Switch, 3 Year Warranty | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for FEIN WSG 7-115 PT 4-1/2" Angle Grinder With Paddle Switch, 3 Year Warranty at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com

One of the best things is it has the fein tool tradition, a super long cord!
 
I still have and use a DeWalt 4.5" that my dad bought me when I started building my first Jeep in 2000. Cord is nearly worn out, but it works like a champ.
Siince I don't do a ton of fab or anything, I use DeWalt from the Lowe's that is 1/2 mile from my shop.
 
Another Dewalt user. I have both the switch and paddle style. They have been great to me. One was bought in early 2000's and the other in 07 or so.
 
Love my corded Hitachi
 
I’ve got 2 dewalts. One I’ve had for a long time. The other I got a few years ago just because my original is getting a little long in the tooth. Both are the paddle style and hefty amp. I’ll have to look at the model numbers to tell you exactly but they’ve never let me down. Even when used as a hammer once or five times.

We’ve used Makitas at work but they’ve been phased out with metabo and Milwaukee.
 
mosley said:
I like my monkey I bought it from imeshbean, cheap and works perfectly so far.
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I've heard of them and they make the besterest!
 
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Does anyone at all run Makita?

@sammi_davis do you have any more to say about them?

I have a friend who swears by the stuff. Even has a chainsaw made by them with good results.

I have ran the red and yellow a lot over the years.
Teaching we run all the red stuff, same in fire truck fab. I do personally feel that they are definitely not what they once was.

You wanna see a real world first rate use/abuse and excessive load and heat? Give em to a bunch off students working 3/8 and thicker plate for structural welding and bend test. Wanna ramp it up? Give it to em about 3 weeks before the semester ends and they have been mostly slacking despite all efforts previous to motivate them......yep you gonna fail and take this shit over really ups the work load.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Does anyone at all run Makita?

@sammi_davis do you have any more to say about them?

I have a friend who swears by the stuff. Even has a chainsaw made by them with good results.

I have ran the red and yellow a lot over the years.
Teaching we run all the red stuff, same in fire truck fab. I do personally feel that they are definitely not what they once was.

You wanna see a real world first rate use/abuse and excessive load and heat? Give em to a bunch off students working 3/8 and thicker plate for structural welding and bend test. Wanna ramp it up? Give it to em about 3 weeks before the semester ends and they have been mostly slacking despite all efforts previous to motivate them......yep you gonna fail and take this shit over really ups the work load.
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I have a few Makita tools and only have good things to say about them. But they are all at least 10-15 years old.
 
I have a makita corded hand planer and a cordless nibbler. I like both
 
I'll weld (poorly) wearing shorts t-shirt and sandals, but I'm not gonna run the death wheel without the guard on.

I was wondering where the Makita's were too, here's mine...
Dunno or can't remember why I chose it over the red, yellow, or green grinders, it just seemed right, ~20yrs ago when I needed one.
It's been working for me. Reading this thread got me thinking a paddle switch might be nice.
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Makita is one of the few independent's left and they make great tools . Not sure how much they still make in GA , but at one time is was a large portion of their US sales. They have slipped in market share , but if anything they have cranked their quality up higher. They have a tough road ahead of them as most folks stick with one brand for battery interchangeability. We dont sell their product and dont get many requests for it . After 6 months of a fully stocked tool department we sell 60% Milwaukee , 30% DeWalt, 5% Craftsman and 5% Black and Decker. The most requested tools to add in are the heavier duty Milwaukee stuff and we have brought in a bunch since this picture was taken.

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sammi_davis said:
Makita is one of the few independent's left and they make great tools . Not sure how much they still make in GA , but at one time is was a large portion of their US sales. They have slipped in market share , but if anything they have cranked their quality up higher. They have a tough road ahead of them as most folks stick with one brand for battery interchangeability. We dont sell their product and dont get many requests for it . After 6 months of a fully stocked tool department we sell 60% Milwaukee , 30% DeWalt, 5% Craftsman and 5% Black and Decker. The most requested tools to add in are the heavier duty Milwaukee stuff and we have brought in a bunch since this picture was taken.

index.php
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Is there a way for us Milwaukee addicts to easily order through you?
 
www.harborfreight.com

13 Amp 4-1/2 in. to 6 in. Trigger Grip Angle Grinder

Amazing deals on this 4-1/2In 13Amp Angle Grinder at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.
www.harborfreight.com www.harborfreight.com
For what it's worth, i was in your boat a month ago and needed something right away without having time to ask around for best bank for buck. So I went to harbor and bought the most expensive one they had, this one in link above, and well I'm pretty impressed with it. I use grinder HEAVILY so keep that in mind, probably every bit of 30hrs a week average and this thing so far is up to the task. Everything I cut and grind is one handed so it does well with that too but a lot of that is due to rpms not being as high as dewalt and others which i wanted that. My Hitachi i had for 14yrs crapped out and I was so used to cutting with it, no way I would cut one handed with some of these other higher rpm grinders so I stuck with this one that had the same. Happy hunting!
 
I keep a pile of grinders just because my plasma cutter rarely works. The Makita and the smaller Metabo are my favorites. The 7” dewalt has its place and will move some metal. The Hercules cut off wheels from Harbor Freight are worth the difference in price vs the cheapos.
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