Cut Off wheels

Chris_Hamilton

Chris_Hamilton

Trying to be the best me, I can be
Gents, need to restock some 3" and 4" cutoff wheels. Who makes good ones? I like the Norton ones and 3M ones but they are pricey. Any cheaper alternatives? I want ones that will last, not the ones that you can see dissolving as you are using it. Thanks.
 
I get the 3” from McMaster-Carr:
3A96C29E-A241-43BF-AC92-D6BD5E888CEF.jpeg

I like these for the air tools, they hold up pretty good.
Thicker ones last longer but cut slower and leaves a bigger kerf.
I have some 4” but rarely use them.
 
For 4 1/2" & 6" wheels, I've been using CGW stainless quickie wheels as a sheetmetal shop owner friend swore by years ago before he passed. Having my work order from Fastenal lately. Better than any other brand I've used, which is many. Home Depot Diablo is fair if you need in a pinch. Pretty sure all the better wheels are a Zirconia based grit, not cerum oxide. Haven't heard of Walter brand before, may check out sometime.
These days I just use electric grinders. My 20 volt dewalt is great for smaller stuff, mobile of course, is lighter & slower speed, which can burn less & is safer for operator. Use a 15 amp corded dewalt with a 4 1/2 or 6" for most uses. Also have a bosch with a variable speed, which can help burn less, particularly with a larger wheel. I keep smaller wore down wheels for tight spots or some curve cuts.
Also waiting on our purchasing guy to get some more bi-metal multi-tool blades with the angled ends. I've cut round speaker holes in door panels with em and some precise light steel or aluminum cutting, mainly in tight spots. Use the 20v dewalt multi-tool these days, while my $400 plus old Fein unit sits in it's box. First got a Fein multi-tool nearly 20 years ago when they were the only choice, but blade cost made use prohibitive. Even now homestore prices or even HF are steep. Amazon has packs for less than 2 bucks a pop according to our purchaser.

I know a little off subject, but very relative. For most of use, if we ain't cutting stuff almost daily, we ain't happy. Probably mainly put aside small pneumatic cut off tools 30 plus years ago due to lack of decent blades back then & have hundreds of hours of cutting practice with 4 to 9" grinders & have the feel for using them. Probably biggest downside is most optimum cutting position generally involves throwing hot s--t right on your arm. Denim arm sleeve helps that.
 
norton had a plant here when we moved to the farm . since closed but i got use to using norton stuff .
 
I had a box of the cheap ones given to me. They didn't last very long at all. The last box I bought were the 3M Green Corps and very satisfied with them.
 
I like the 3M Green Corps (used probably hundreds of those over the years) and the Norton Norzon's, just thought there might be alternatives to them, like with Sunmight sandpaper which is so good and half the cost of 3M.
I've ordered an assortment to try out. Some 4X1/32 from Supergrit.com. Said to be either USA or German made. Some Sato's. Never heard of them but I decided to try them out. And some of the 3M Cubitron II's. I've heard good things about them. Expensive but if they perform like some of the other Cubitron products they will be worth it. I'll report back with my thoughts on the ones I purchased after I use them some. :)
 
Just bought and tried the 3in Cubitrons at $35 a 5 pack I'm not thrilled with them. Seemed to cut good at first but when it wore down to a certain spot it really dissolved to nothing like nobody's business. It could have been a bad wheel out of the pack but we shall see what the others do. I used it to cut down a repair patch panel, got one panel cut down looking to see what happens with the other patch panel and another wheel. If it does the same thing then I will go back to the 3m green.
 
many of the cut off wheels are designed to wear down only so far then stop cutting for safety . i've shopped around but always end up back at mcmaster carr . or grangers .
 
Occasionally there is a reason to pull the guard off the grinder (rarely) don't want to have sketchy wheels then, or really anytime.
 
jlcustomz said:
For 4 1/2" & 6" wheels, I've been using CGW stainless quickie wheels as a sheetmetal shop owner friend swore by years ago before he passed. Having my work order from Fastenal lately. Better than any other brand I've used, which is many. Home Depot Diablo is fair if you need in a pinch. Pretty sure all the better wheels are a Zirconia based grit, not cerum oxide. Haven't heard of Walter brand before, may check out sometime.
These days I just use electric grinders. My 20 volt dewalt is great for smaller stuff, mobile of course, is lighter & slower speed, which can burn less & is safer for operator. Use a 15 amp corded dewalt with a 4 1/2 or 6" for most uses. Also have a bosch with a variable speed, which can help burn less, particularly with a larger wheel. I keep smaller wore down wheels for tight spots or some curve cuts.
Also waiting on our purchasing guy to get some more bi-metal multi-tool blades with the angled ends. I've cut round speaker holes in door panels with em and some precise light steel or aluminum cutting, mainly in tight spots. Use the 20v dewalt multi-tool these days, while my $400 plus old Fein unit sits in it's box. First got a Fein multi-tool nearly 20 years ago when they were the only choice, but blade cost made use prohibitive. Even now homestore prices or even HF are steep. Amazon has packs for less than 2 bucks a pop according to our purchaser.

I know a little off subject, but very relative. For most of use, if we ain't cutting stuff almost daily, we ain't happy. Probably mainly put aside small pneumatic cut off tools 30 plus years ago due to lack of decent blades back then & have hundreds of hours of cutting practice with 4 to 9" grinders & have the feel for using them. Probably biggest downside is most optimum cutting position generally involves throwing hot s--t right on your arm. Denim arm sleeve helps that.
Click to expand...
Aint a lot of that the truth!
I have a box of 50 Green Corps 3" wheels I got back in 2002. Still have probably 35 of them. One because they wear really slow, and a bigger factor is I pretty much hung up my 3" pneumatic in favor of 4.5-6" electric grinders and cutoff wheels back about the same time. And like you, I use my 20V DeWalt grinder most of the time these days.
I dont mind the Diablo wheels from HD. They are cheap enough and easy enough to get, and they cut really fast. I bought some the other day and they now come in a 10 or 15 count blister pack for like $35.
I also bought this "long life" Diablo cutting wheel. Its a metal disc with some sort of cutting material on the perimeter, similar to tile blades. That thing sucks. A few minutes ago took it out of the pack to cut a floor pan down. It took forever and wanted to grab like crazy.

But yeah, the only time I use my 3" is when its the only tool that will do.
 
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