Boneheaded grinder mistake

[cx]

Might be a bit difficult with that plastic dust shield behind the wheel, Mike. What's your plan there?

[Tile & Stone Guild]

Use a pipe wrench. I’ll add that putting a rubber hose washer will keep that from happening.

[Tiger Mountain Tile Inc]

Lay it down on a piece of plywood and screw in a couple chunks of 4x4's on each side of it. That'll clamp it into place.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

With a sharp blow with hammer and screwdriver, you don’t need the tool clamped down. Yes, it will jerk a bit with each blow. But simply cradling in your lap between your legs will suffice.

[speed51133]

Originally Posted by cx

Might be a bit difficult with that plastic dust shield behind the wheel, Mike. What's your plan there?

Keep the heat localized using a soldering torch. You can also place a wet rag on the plastic. It doesn't have to be cherry red.

[GHR]

Excellent news!

Finally! I finally the wheel. It's always been about leverage.

I used my visegrips to clamp the spanner tool to the holes of the wheel
from the underside. I got the motor to the detent for the motor lock to
engage and had the grinder clamped in the table vise.

Thankfully once pressed the motor lock button stayed depressed so I was
putting force only on the wheel. LOTS of force later (and my palm is bright
red from it) , but it finally turned and unthreaded.

Better news, the motor is not dead. Hooray! I bet the smoke in the original event
was from the carbon brushes which are replaceable. And the dust shroud seems none the worse for wear.
Remains to be seen how badly I damaged the wheel teeth.
There are marks all over it from the visegrips.
Nothing broken, but I sure bit into the diamonds.

Will the action of the wheel being used expose more diamonds as a cinderblock does for dressing a wet saw blade?

[cx]

I would make no attempt to "dress" such a wheel, Henry. Just use it until it no longer works.

[bottlefed]

If thats a Dewalt grinder wheel (looks identical to the one I have which is Dewalt) it has plenty of diamond left under the paint. As CX said simply use it and it will expose more teeth as needed.

I have mine on a 13 amp brushless grinder and every time I use it the wheel is pretty much stuck on....the easiest way I have found is to lock the button put the tool between the legs and simply take medium sized pry bar and place the end between two of the teeth (this will not touch the diamond only the teeth they are bonded to) apply force to the pry bar with one hand and then smack the pry bar with a hammer. I have never broken teeth or bent the wheel....as far as applying a lot of pressure to the tool with just your hand as it is clamped between your legs I would be very careful....particularly if you plan on having kids.

[GHR]

I had no intention to 'dress' the wheel. I was just wondering if the damage I did from the visegrips on the wheel has damaged the diamonds and if the act of using it will serve to reexpose the diamonds so it wlll still work.

Such is my hope that there is enough diamond left to have it still be useable.

This wheel was not only stuck it was jammed. No attempt to hold it between my knees or bare handed was going to work it was essentially over-threaded.

The problem as I've said was I removed the bottom clamp which stands off the wheel from doing what it did binding itself to the motor. It was jammed from making full contect w/ the dust shroud which acting like a friction plate. If not for using the spanner for the clamp as a lever I would still be fighting with it. I wish someone would make a wheel wrench that fit the hole pattern and had a handle.

I put the wheel back on w/ the aforemetioned clamp in place and the wheel was still dragging on the dust shroud. I put the top clamp on too. So the wheel will not get *that* stuck anymore. I hope the extra spacer though won't make the dust shroud ineffective, but having the wheel project beyond the bottom. I'll see tomorrow when I get to testing it.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

As another Henry used to say, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t…you’re right.”


Glad you got it loose.

[GHR]

The grinder worked, but the wheel does project a little below the dust shroud so some fine dust kept escaping. Not so much as it would w/o the shroud though. I could smell it though.

That wasn't why I called a halt before finishing. After 20m of using the grinder my hand, wrist and leg muscles were twitching from the grinder vibes. Was all I could do to stand back up. And it took an hour for the muscles to return to normal.

So I guess I can only do small bits of this floor at a time or suffer for it.
How do construction workers get used to that? I've used 4 inch grinders and never had it feel like that. Guess 7inch 1.5HP is different.

[Kman]

It's definitely a young man's job. I used to do hundreds of feet with a grinder, but no more. Someone would have to help me up off the floor nowadays.