Grinder Power Tools

Power Grinder Safety 

Learn some basic safety tips to make sure you have a safe and enjoyable grinder power tool experience. 

Grinder power tools are an absolute necessity for every tool room and workshop. These tools have been around since the beginning of mankind, as sharpening metal has always been a priority. Agricultural tools, weapons, and hunting devices have all needed sharpening since they have been invented. As useful as sharpening tools are, they are also extremely dangerous machines. Consider just what is going on, you have a highly abrasive surface that is being turned by an outside force at an extremely high rate of speed. Doesn’t take much force at all for these devices to take off skin or remove fingers, as unpleasant as that sounds. Here are a few case studies to consider.

A teenager was having problems with his bike chain so he removed it and decided to try and clean it with a large bench grinder.  As he was holding his chain sideways against the grinding wheel, the chain caught inside the wheel and pulled the young man’s hand though the device.  The result was that both of his thumbs were severed clean off.  What had happened is that he decided to remove the guard to get the chain closer to the wheel.  If you have to remove safety equipment you need to understand that you are not using the right tool for the job and you need to immediately stop.

A field hand decided he needed to make a small repair in the shop.  You strapped the part to a cradle and started using his angle grinder to remove unwanted pieces of metal.  As he was doing this sparks were flying all over the floor, and accidentally fell on an open can of diesel fuel.  This resulted in a small fire that eventually burned the shop down.  The field worker was a victim of a cluttered shop, and failed to recognize the hazard before starting the job.  One should never place substances that can easily catch fire around a work area that generates sparks.

A young father of two felt it was time to complete some long overdue maintenance on his car.  He needed to use a belt grinder to smooth out some rough spots on the left side panel.  He was careful when placing the part on the bed and it bound up on in the wheel and seized the motor.  This caused the grinder to fling forward due to the force right into his chest.  This sent him flaying backward leaving a huge gash in the middle of his left pectoral muscle.  It was likely that this father did not understand which tools to use for which jobs, and he obviously should not have used the bench grinder for this.  Make sure you know what types of functions your tools are best suited for.

These are just a few small examples of the type of danger and havoc grinder power tools can generate. You can stop this by be extra careful with grinder safety, so you won’t have as story like this for yourself. Using your grinder properly will help you from being another victim.