How bad can a cheap angle grinder be?

[Jeff Mills]

Against my own better judgement, I purchased a cheap 'made across the pond' angle grinder.

Problems after no more than five minutes of use:

• A screw had vibrated out from the gearbox to motor connection and was completely missing - I could not find the screw anywhere, it may have been missing when I took it out of the box?
• Another screw on the gearbox to body connection had vibrated half out, which caused considerable oil leaking from the gearbox.
• The connection cover protecting the electrics at the back was a clip-fit. It unclipped by accident and with almost no force whatsoever.
• The 'friction' clamp holding the wheel guard had loosened - another few minutes of use and it most likely would have fallen into the spinning wheel causing all kinds of sparks.

It's lifespan was very short no more than fine minutes. I decided that it was better off to put it back in the box, instead of trying to fix it and take it back to where I bought it from for a refund.

The angle grinder is not all that

[Bill Clemmons]

Thanks for the review Jeff. Would you be willing to post the name brand and/or where you purchased it to help the rest of us in our purchase decisions?

Bill

[manfre]

Thanks for the review Jeff. Would you be willing to post the name brand and/or where you purchased it to help the rest of us in our purchase decisions?

Bill

HF had been running a sale on an angle grinder for a very low price. My guess is that the brand is "Chicago Electric".

[jimwill48]

I have 2 of the HF Angle Grinders myself and know of at least 12 more owned by other people and all have seen hard service and still are going a few years down the road. A fabricator friend of mind only buys them due their tough nature. I always thought of these as one of HF's gems. But you can always get a bad one. I have a Porter Cable (grey) one that I bought from Lowe's that had zero oil in the gearbox when bought and still had swarf inside.

[Jeff Mills]

Thanks for the review Jeff. Would you be willing to post the name brand and/or where you purchased it to help the rest of us in our purchase decisions?

Bill

Hi Bill - I don't think I should mention where I bought it from, the manufacturer name or the country it was made in.

[tdhetrick]

I had a grinder that I got from Biglots for $9 (should have known). After using it a few times the disk shaft seemed loose. Upon further inspection it literally had NO bearings, no brass, no nothing just some sort of pressed trash metal disk about sitting where a bearing should have been.

I though how bad could they make? ...I will never ask that again.

Todd

[woodworker2000]

Hate you had a bad experience with a tool but my experience with an inexpensive angle grinder is different from yours. I picked up a $12.99 angle grinder from HF several years ago (Chicago Electric) and it is still running strong after moderate homeowner use. I consider it one of the better tools I've ever purchased from HF.

[junquecol]

Hate you had a bad experience with a tool but my experience with an inexpensive angle grinder is different from yours. I picked up a $12.99 angle grinder from HF several years ago (Chicago Electric) and it is still running strong after moderate homeowner use. I consider it one of the better tools I've ever purchased from HF.

Today's newspaper had a coupon to get angle grinder for $9.99.

[manfre]

My personal experience with HF power tools (and reason for my original assumption) is that it'll either break almost immediately or it'll work fine for years (purple brad nailer/stapler still going strong as long as I don't use HF brads).

[CarvedTones]

I am another happy owner of the orange HF grinder (I have heard bad things about the often even cheaper blue one). The only bad thing I can say about it is that it led me to purchase a couple of other cheap tools that I was less pleased with.