Milwaukee 7" angle grinder-- WOW!

Rafter-S

I spent the afternoon using a buddy's big Milwaukee 7" angle grinder. Wow! What a tool! It's the professional model that runs at 5500-RPM, and IT WILL GRIND METAL! This is my next tool...just have to have one!

Anyone have any recommendations as to where to buy such a tool? They sell for around $185 locally, but I was hoping to find a better deal on the internet.

Lowrider

Amazon has them for $162, or the 7in./9in. model for $179.

Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.

timberbeast

I worked there for 23 years. Buy a Dewalt. They just fired 300-plus people, about half of them friends of mine, and moved their jobs to Mexico. Two guys I know just lost their houses. Aside from that, they are owned by a Sewdish company named Atlas-Copco and at the headquarters, they fly the Swedish flag above the U.S. flag. At least half of the tools in the current catalog are actually AEG (German). A Dewalt is just a Black and Decker with yellow skin (true), but at least they didn't fire everyone and move the labor out of the country (although they still have plants in Jackson, Mississippi, Kosciusko, Miss., Blytheville, Ark. and the corporate headquarters are still in Brookfield, WI, not Milwaukee. Only thing made there are holesaws and Sawzall blades (and corporate egos, which will fall soon, when they introduce their made in China line).
Don't get me wrong, they still make great tools, but be advised that the AEG's are junk. The angle grinder isn't. I probably blanked out the spindle, it's 4140.
Some of my friends have been there 30-plus years. They're on the street now, and nobody is hiring skilled machinists in this area right now. Personal grudge? Yep. The managemant change showed no loyalty to those who made the company, and I reciprocate it times ten. I also knew the founder's son, and the last four presidents after him. The first two are rolling in their graves.

robsguns

My brother is a contractor, I'm going to ensure this word gets out to the Michigan builders in his area.

SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC

25-06

If you want something that really grinds metal, get a Black and Decker Wildcat. Do not know if they still make them since they merged with Dewalt. It is a 9" grinder that turns 6000 rpm. They are big and heavy however. If you are not going to do much metal work a smaller grinder might serve you better. I was a pipeline welder for a number of years and we used 5" Makitas, the model was 900B, I believe. It had a handle like a regular big grinder, not the body with a switch on the side. They turned 10,000 rpm and we ran them with 7" discs, you could really grind a stringer bead with them and they were light and easy to handle. And they lasted longer than other brands. Another thing to be careful about is the grinding discs you buy. There is a big difference in quality and how well they cut metal. I think the Saits are the best.

robsguns

25-06,
Wow, I cant believe it, I was just noticing at work 2 days ago that the name on the grinder I use at work for cleaning up HMMWV tire rims is Wildcat, and thought it oddly cool at the time. I never pay much attention to names on tools, but I've been using this for over a year and its the first time I've ever really looked at it. Must be the same as what you're talking about. Its one nice grinder, not too heavy for me, but sure isnt light either. You dont have to push down when using a steel brush, just let its weight do the work.

SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC

timberbeast

I really think that I should do this publicly, dongizmo, because I started the talk. I was not aware of B/D../ Dewalt doing this, I just know that they are the same tool company. Milwaukee does not release info on Mexico in the press releases that they give out, but assembly work has been done there for years, and much more is going there now. The AEG stuff is fact, and Milwaukee also builds tools for AEG. If you look at a current Milwaukee or AEG catalogue, you'll see the identical tools. There is another tool company in the mix there, and I think that it may be Kango (good stuff!!) but I can't swear to it. I think that it is sad that there are AEG tools flying Milwaukee colors, with powdered metal gears, as opposed to hobbed gears. Powdered metal is hard, but brittle, and doesn't have a tolerance for backlash necessary to any powerful drill that needs to crank hard nonstop. The beefiness of the drills and the Sawzall is what made Milwaukee. As well as the past CEO's and executives. Presently, the only thing being made in Brookfield (Milwaukee suburb), is holesaws, Sawzall blades and Self-feed bits. I'm not a union type, as for all but the last two years that I worked for that company, it was the greatest job in the world, but when Atlas-Copco bought them, the management became hard-nosed to the point of firing a friend of mine who had over 30 years in, because he had a bad back and was relegated to "light duty." You can do that in Wisconsin, since all employment is "at-will."
Not willing to risk a slander ot libel lawsuit, I will simply say that one of the top executives at the company now is borderline insane. My best friend was fired for "insubordination", defined by this guy, as comparing his production to the lower production of others, and quoted "Where does it say in your operational method sheets that you are supposed to look at what other people did on your daily count sheet?"
"Nowhere. but it's pretty hard to avoid, since we all use the same sheet."
"That's insubordination. You're fired."
I'm not making this up. I was fired for saying the word f*ck, not to anyone in supervision, but to a friend while joking, and he still feels guilty about it, though it was not his fault. I just wanted to make him laugh, and he did. Not much of consequence, though. because he's 51 and now has no job. I'm glad that the guys and gals in Jackson and Kozieeusko(sp!), Mississsippi and Bytheville, Arkansas have jobs, as well as the folks at the distribution center in Olive Branch. This was a company that at one point treasured its employees. And I'd like to give a personal thanks to the executives, who are no longer there, who made it a great place to work.. A.F. Siebert, Reg Siebert, Jack Jaeger, Les Erickson, Eino Tapola, Jerry Schnettler, and son, Kurt, Jerry McCormick, Don Reed, John Ames, Bill Herrmann, Warren Knuth, Gary Spencer, Carroll Fink, Carl Shorts, Dennis Schmidt, Bill Hein, Greg Herrick, etal......
The second-best guy who ever worked there was Jerry McCormick. The first-best was my late, great dad.
I have nothing good to say about the current executives in the corporation. They are nothing but figureheads for the "bigwheels" in Sweden. They make no day-to-day decisions without consulting Sweden, but they still bring home several hundred grand a year. I know, because my late father did the executive payroll. Now 8 people do his job. What the hell ever happened to "work ethic?" Milwaukee used to revere and reward that. Maybe those days are forever gone. A sad statement on today's post-high school educational system, and also a sad statement on integrity. When you put an American flag sticker on a box containing a German tool, you've just lost all integrity. Like I said before, personal grievance? Yup. Anyway, it was never 100% American. Chinese and Japanese bearings have been used since the late sixties, and the machines that I ran there were Mori-Seikis, Miyanos, Matsuuras, Liebherrs, Koepfers, Mitsubishis, Mazaks, Okumas, etc, etc. You know, the same ones they use at Harley. Currently, I'm machining Harley, John Deere, Cummins and Smith and Wesson parts on Mori-Seiki turning centers, Mori-Seiki horizontal machining centers and Brother vertical maching centers, for the second-largest investment casting company in the world. Made in the U.S.A. With Japanese machinery.

allen griggs

I have a DeWalt 7" grinder. It turns 6,000rpms and I like it. I use it to grind down the walls on log cabins. It takes about 50 hrs to do a cabin.

"Not as deep as a well, or as wide as a church door, but it is enough."