Harbor Freight Grinder Alert

[CaveCreekRay]

Friend of mine was using a HF 4 1/2 grinder equipped with a wire wheel on his garage floor prior to painting. The grinder was "several" years old (4-7).

As he went to lift the grinder off the floor he noticed the wheel seemed loose. He switched off the grinder right as the entire mounting shaft, with the wheel attached departed from the grinder. It nearly severed his ring finger as it bounced off the floor. Fortunately, he was wearing a firefighter suit and that prevented bodily injury. The doctor said, they see a lot of grinder related accidents where the wire wheel or disk crosses the wrist and the victims usually bleed out.

Subsequent failure analysis found the mounting shaft was improperly hardened, prematurely worn and one or both of the bearings installed in the grinder were the wrong size.

Happened a year back. I haven't seen my buddy until today and he showed me his mangled finger they sewed back on. No guitar playing for him.

I know you guys probably have a few. (I have 5.) Double check the end play and it it seems excessive, discard the grinder or take it back to HF and demand a new one.

Be careful out there!

 

[OldeEnglish]

Grinders are dangerous as hell, it doesn't matter who makes them. An old boss of mine had one with a cutting disk fall apart on him and the blade cut him straight up the front of his body. Wether the grinder falls apart or the disk, it's never a good thing!

Never use one without a guard! It's the only safety feature they have and OSHA fetches big fines on job sites for using one without a guard.

I've never owned or used a harbor freight tool, but I was always curious how they held up. Sounds like you get what ha pay for....

 

[Tooljunkie]

Grinders, like alligators are just waiting to get you.cheap tools usually are worse. Like guards that do not stay tight. Cheap wheels disentegrate easily. Walter grinding and cutoff wheels rock! They take a little more abuse. Wire wheels on grinders ar the most dangerous of the power tools i think.that and really big drills with really big drill bits.

 

[Dieselbob]

There are many Harbor Freight tools that range from fair to pretty darn decent, but in my opinion, their electric power tools are beyond garbage.

 

[Bulldog]

A couple of years ago I was doing some welding on a bushhog for a friend. He handed me a new right out of the box HF grinder. I plugged it in and hit the switch. The instant the grinder came on it blew a fireball and split the case open. Lucky for me I had my welding gloves on so I had no injury but it has made me shy away from all electric tools from Harbor.

I know anybody can produce a bad tool but I'll take my chances with other brands and leave theirs in the store.

 

[Daren Todd]

I've had a shaft snap on one of there die grinders. Was using a cut off wheel and had it launch across the shop. I guess you get what you pay for I have one of there 8" grinders and have had decent luck with it. I make sure and wear the minimum of welding gloves and a face shield. Company provided us with some Kevlar impact gloves. Brought home one of the sets of gloves, and now use them when grinding.

 

[BadDog]

Most HF electrical stuff is garbage, but the 4.5" angle grinders are an exception. My oldest was bough around 2000, the newest probably around 2005. Total of 5 in use and 2 boxes on the shelf for the inevitable failure, which has not yet occurred. These are the orange and black ones, they sell 3 or so different grades, and only the orange/black (highest amp rating) is worth having. The only thing I've done is grease the heads as that clay waxy mess they come with is not functional. I started with one, got tired of switching for different wheels, eventually got one for each purpose. With these I've built a rock crawler buggy, an expedition K5, built gear and repairs for a lot of buddies trucks/buggies, built 3 big gates for my previous house lot (one a 20' wide tri-fold), and couldn't tell you how many countless hours as I restored a host of machines for my shop. Haven't had a failure yet.

I do have 2 Makitas that I like a lot, but they were only acquired in the last few years. All are 4.5" due to the best selection of wheels, balance of usability, and all interchangeable. I do prefer them, particularly if it's going to be a big job, mainly because they sound better and "feel" better in use, as well as having more power. But the grinders that hang off the side of my grinder table/cart are all the HF grinders, and they get used frequently. In fact, I put roughly 2 hours on the knotted wire wheel, 30 minutes on the flap disk, and 10 minutes on the cut-off disk in the last 2 days. And that's a pretty light weekend workout for them, particularly compared to when I was building my rock crawler.

I suppose there is always the chance of a bad one, and at the market point the odds are higher, but I've had good results.

 

[Donystoy]

Harbor Freight carries similar quality to Princess Auto up here. I refuse to buy any item with a power cord or air hose connection that has their Power Fist label. I have even thrown their hack saw blades and sandpaper in the garbage as it cost more to return them than they cost. The only thing that the blades might cut without destroying the teeth is a pound of butter.

 

[clay45]

I've had good luck with their orange 4"-4 1/2" grinders. The former blue ones didn't seem to "feel" right to me so I never bought one.

But other than the disk that comes with them I've never purchased another grinding, cutting, or flapdisk from them. I don't use the wire wheels either. My buddy did and had little wires all around his shop floor not to mention a few sticking in his face. Not me..............I've had enough eye surgery already.

 

[res]

Good warning but I am on board with the all electrical equipment can be dangerous. I worked in a foundry for 12 years and we used extremely expensive high frequency right angle grinders. We never had shafts separate but we did have bearings lock which would spin the blade off the shaft. We had to have heavy weight vinyl curtains around each grinder to help with the control of grinding spray of course but also to be sure other grinders were not hit by a wheel if it spun off the shaft due to bearing failure.