Our resident expert mechanic Matt McLeod reveals what he looks for when buying an angle grinder.
Where would we be without the grinder" It lops off subframes, removes tabs and brackets in seconds, and provides pretty showers of sparks for what seems like every short film about a bike builder.
Joking aside, power tools like grinders are great for speeding up your tasks. Can you cut steel with a hacksaw" Can you remove metal with a file" Sure, but it?s a lot quicker if you use an angle grinder.
I?ve collected a few different angle grinders over the last few years. Let?s look at each one of them and why they?re useful?and what accessories I?ve set them up with.

Angle grinders are generally classified by the nominal diameter of the accessories they use. The typical cutting and grinding accessories are described as ?abrasive,? with particles bonded onto a wheel or disk. The materials used, and the construction of the wheel or disk, will depend on the application. Discs used for cutting steel will be different to discs used for grinding stone, for example. The abrasive particles ?scrape? away material as they spin. Eventually they dull and break away from the bond, exposing new, sharp particles. This means the diameter of the wheel or disk decreases in use, until it is too small to be useful.

The Four-Inch Grinder These three grinders are all 4-inch diameter tools, and are the cheapest ones you?ll generally find on the market for mass consumption. This is th...