Selection and replacement of discs for an angle grinder What are the types of discs for an angle grinder, their typical sizes. How to change the attachment to an angle grinder correctly. What to do if the disc is stuck and the nut won’t loosen?
Using a penetrating lubricant
Liberally spray the flange-shaft connection with WD-40 fluid. It tends to penetrate into inter-threaded spaces and small cracks. After applying the liquid, wait about 5 minutes and try to unscrew the fasteners with a standard wrench.
How to properly change a disc to an angle grinder
Since the wheels for an angle grinder are consumables, sooner or later they have to be changed. They are attached to the spindle of the angle grinder using a clamping flange (nut) with an M14 thread. To unscrew it, a special open-end wrench with pins on one side must be included with the angle grinder.
So, to replace your tool with an angle grinder, follow these steps.
- De-energize the device by pulling out the plug from the socket.
- Lock the spindle of the angle grinder using the button located on the front of the housing. When the button is pressed, the stopper enters the hole of the disk installed in the gearbox, which fixes the spindle in a fixed position.
- Insert the pins of the key into the holes in the hold-down flange.
- While holding the latch with one hand, turn the wrench to the left (counterclockwise) with the other hand until the nut comes loose. Then it can be unscrewed without a key and removed from the shaft.
In this case, the spindle of the angle grinder rotates clockwise. But in which direction to unscrew the nut if your apparatus rotates the shaft counterclockwise? Remember: the clamping flange should always be unscrewed in the direction opposite to the rotation of the shaft.
- Now you can change the tool after removing the old one.
If you notice that dirt has accumulated inside the casing, then you should remove the bottom flange and use a steel brush to remove dirt from all surfaces.
- Screw the flange onto the shaft by hand. Tighten the nut until you can no longer turn it without a key. After that, holding the stopper, tighten this nut with a wrench, but no more than a quarter of a turn, otherwise the disc will begin to deform.
After performing the above steps, the tool change is considered complete.
Unscrewing methods if the disc is jammed
What to do if the pressure flange is stuck? This nuisance, when the nut is bitten, often occurs if, while working with thick and durable materials, the tool is jammed in the workpiece. In this case, the abrasive wheel often breaks, and the spindle continuing to rotate tightly tightens the pressure flange. There are several ways to spin an angle grinder if the disc is jammed.
Cut-off discs for angle grinder
Cutting discs are the most common replacement cutting tool for an angle grinder; there are a lot of them and they are able to overcome almost any material. The most used among them are angle grinders for metal, stone, wood and diamond wheels.
- Disc for cutting metal. It should be understood that angle grinder cutting discs can vary in both outer diameter and thickness. With the diameter of such nozzles, everything seems to be clear in this regard, they are intended for small, medium and large tools. Accordingly, their diameter can be 115, 125, 150, 180 and 230mm. As for the thickness of these discs, it can vary from 1mm to 3.2mm. Large diameter discs are made thicker, small diameter discs can be of any thickness. This approach to business is associated both with the speed of rotation of the disk and with the expected loads on them.
- Stone discs. They differ from their metal-cutting counterparts exclusively in the used abrasives.
- Discs for wood. In principle, the use of such disks is fraught with unpleasant consequences in the form of all kinds of injuries, you need to work with them very carefully. Compliance with safety precautions when working with such replaceable attachments is in your best interest. Firstly, you should not remove the protective cover from the tool and, secondly, for an angle grinder it is better to use a disc for wood with a fine tooth. In no case should you cut wood with a strong feed. And it is better to refuse to use such attachments on a large instrument altogether. The ideal option for using such a tool would be to use it in conjunction with special equipment (a device for stationary attachment of an angle grinder).
- Diamond disc for angle grinder. This accessory can be called universal; it is able to cut almost any material, from soft to durable. Such attachments are most widely used in the field of cutting porcelain stoneware, reinforced concrete, artificial and natural stone and tiles. There are separate types of discs for each of these materials, some of them have a solid cutting edge, and some have a ragged edge with slots. Also, depending on the purpose of these wheels, they can have a coarse or fine fraction of diamond dusting. For example, discs for an angle grinder for concrete have fine dusting and special transverse grooves along their entire diameter. In contrast, a diamond disc for a stone angle grinder has a solid cutting edge.
Visually, the purpose of diamond discs is difficult to determine, therefore, when purchasing such nozzles, carefully read the packaging about its purpose, everything is written in detail there.
Discs and attachments for an angle grinder: their types and purpose
Agree, it is always more convenient to have one universal tool at hand than several specialized ones, the issue of transporting a huge amount of rarely used rubbish is immediately solved. Instead of carrying around a lot of all kinds of tools, craftsmen transport a small set of them. The most versatile tool in this regard can be called an angle grinder. With its help, using different discs or attachments, you can carry out a fairly wide range of all kinds of operations. The angle grinder is capable of cutting almost any material, regardless of its strength, grinding, polishing, sharpening, stripping in general, performing all types of work for which rotational movements can be used. It is these nozzles that will be discussed in this article, in which, together with the website stroisovety.Org, we will study all the available discs for an angle grinder and understand their purpose.
Grinding and Polishing Discs for Angle Grinder
There are a lot of varieties of grinding and polishing wheels, depending on the required surface quality, discs with replaceable sandpaper, and felt, and spongy, and even cloth, can be installed on the angle grinder.
Most of them require the use of special fine abrasive pastes or even liquids to work. For coarse grinding and deburring, fine abrasive grinding wheels are used. Grinding discs for an angle grinder allow you to bring almost any material to the required roughness; such attachments are used even in auto repair shops for polishing car bodies.
Marking on cutting discs
In order for the owners of grinders to be able to correctly choose consumables in accordance with the upcoming work with this tool, manufacturers of cutting discs apply special markings on them.
Abrasive discs
The following information can be gleaned from the labeling.
- The material from which the nozzle is made is indicated by the first letter: A corundum, used for cutting metal; AS alumina (white), cuts stainless steel; C silicon carbide, good for cutting stone and concrete. Metal cannot be cut with this abrasive attachment.
- Further, after the letter denoting the material, there is a number. It means how many abrasive grains are in a unit area. Accordingly, the smaller the grain, the higher the figure. If you need to cut steel, choose a blade finer than 40 or 60. Coarse blades are used primarily for cutting non-ferrous metals.
- The next parameter is bond hardness. It is designated by letters of the Latin alphabet (H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T). The closer the letter is to the beginning of the alphabet, the softer the bond, and vice versa. For soft materials, the bond should be hard, and for strong and hard materials, soft.
- The last letters indicate the type of bundle. Ceramic is marked with the letter V. Such discs are distinguished by good water resistance, fire resistance and resistance to chemicals. Bakelite bond is indicated by letter B. Such circles have good flexural and compressive strength, but break when used with an alkaline coolant. Also bunches based on bakelite have low heat resistance. At a temperature of 200 degrees, it becomes brittle, and at high temperatures it begins to fade. The third type of bakelite bond with increased strength is marked as BF or BU.
- The maximum speed that cannot be exceeded for this consumable. The linear speed of the edge can be indicated in m / s or in rpm.
- Circle dimensions in mm: outer diameter, thickness and seat diameter.
- Manufacturing date. Usually indicated by a metal insert around the bore. It is not allowed to install an expired wheel on an angle grinder, as it may eventually lose strength and fly apart during operation.
- Purpose of the nozzle. Indicates which materials the tool is designed to cut.
- Color coding: blue is used for cutting steel, green for stone.
For cutting tiles and porcelain stoneware
The best way to cut ceramic tiles is to use one-piece diamond cut discs. These discs are usually labeled “Wet Cut”. As practice shows, this tool perfectly makes a smooth, with a minimum of chips, cut on a tile even without the use of water, although a lot of fine dust is generated.
The solid diamond disc can also be used on porcelain stoneware.
On tiles, of course, you can use segmented (dry) and turbo discs, but the cut quality will be very low, since chips will inevitably form along its edges.
Angle grinder attachments greatly increase the functionality of the grinder. Angle grinder is widely used in construction and many other fields. Together with various attachments, they become versatile equipment.
Features of using cutters:
- Do not remove the protective cover while working with the cutter.
- It is allowed to use the cutter only for the work specified in the instructions for it, with the recommended rotation speed, and other instructions.
Discs are produced in different designs. Their difference is the size of the grit size of the abrasive material.
Such abrasive discs are similar to the surface structure of a hand rasp, with a difference in processing speed. If you have the skill and acquired skills, such discs are used for finishing wood.