Got burned by a cheap grinder wheel on a big job last Friday

I always bought the cheapest grinding wheels at the supply house, figured they all do the same thing. But I had a 3/4 inch fillet weld to clean up on a storage tank in Baton Rouge and this bargain wheel just shattered after 10 minutes. Nearly took out my leg. The foreman handed me a Norton wheel and it lasted the whole shift without issue. Has anyone else had a similar close call with cheap gear?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancy4751mo ago

You had a wheel shatter too? I was smoothing out a weld on a bridge railing and one of those cheapos blew apart right in my face, scared the hell out of me. The chunk of wheel hit my safety glasses and left a scratch, if I hadnt been wearing them I'd have been in the hospital for sure. I only buy name brand stuff now, not worth saving five bucks to lose an eye.

mia7481mo ago

About eight years ago I was welding up some brackets for a trailer hitch and picked up a pack of six cheap cutoff wheels from a hardware store. One of them shattered on the third cut and a piece hit my cheek, just missed my eye by maybe an inch. After that day I switched to name brand stuff and never looked back, @nancy475 you're right about not wanting to lose an eye over five bucks. Have you ever had a close call like that with any other tool?

the_tara1mo ago

Doubt one bad cheap wheel is reason to swear off all of them forever.