It's time for me to buy a grinder. Do you recommend a bench grinder or an angle grinder. I gather "angle grinder" is the name for a handheld grinder, but why?

I looked at both types at Home Despot. The angle grinder looks more versatile but the bench grinder easier to control. But those are just guesses. I've never used an angle grinder. I almost lost an eye using a bench grinder without goggles. My boss didn't tell me to use them, and he didn't use them.

The dudes at Home Despot didn't know what a bench vise is. Jeez. But I found them. I might replace my vise with one of those rotating vises.

Neither. Get one of these. Available in a variety of sizes and price points.

Bench for when you grind small items, angle for when you grind big bulky items.
Can't believe they didn't know what a bench vise was!! Sad.

guess it depends what you need to use it for. to grind small to medium pieces, the bench grider. when i want to clean up welds on a motorcycle frame, the angle grinder.

i can't see much use for an angle grinder and bicycles.

Bench grinder with a buffing wheel on one end, leave the other end for grinding or a wire brush.

Khatful has the scoop on really cleaning stuff up, and Ray Dobbins web site shows it to an extreme.

Funny this should come up. A lady at one of my clients got divorced last month and firesaled all the exes tools (nothing fun metric). However, I did get a nearly new Craftsman bench grinder for $10. I haven't mounted it to the bench yet nor gotten cloth wheels but mine will get cloth on both sides different rouges for each.

I agree with this, I have both and can't think of a time I've used the angle grinder for bike work. The bench grinder is also useful for mounting a wire wheel or polishing wheel.

Tom. I'd get an 8 inch bench grinder, remove the stone wheels and replace them with a Scotchbrite wheel on one end and a very fine wire wheel on the other. Very fine wire, hard to find and not at Sears or Home depot. Way more useful than two grinding wheels will be, although it's nice to have both set-ups. An angle grinder? Not unless you need to weld up some bike racks.

Ever since I've gotten an angle grinder I've found way more uses for it than I realized i had. Cuts metal like butter--most likely flesh & bone as well--and way faster than the knock-off sawsall. However about the only use I've found on bikes is to cut old padlocks off of yardsale bikes. If you hold the lock with a big clamp to steady it you can often save the cable for future use.

I've used mine to grind down boltheads on my concrete pad, grind/cut off nail ends on the soapbox car I built, cut metal for fabrication purposes. Cut a hatch in a 55-gal drum for my future garden composter. It's useful to be able to move around with it.

A year or two back I also bought an old black n decker bench grinder at a yardsale for 2 bucks but haven't bought wheels or mounted it up yet.

Eye protection required for both.

I agree that the angle grinder is very handy when you need to take the tool to the work. I've got an ancient Milwaukee angle grinder that I fitted with a "wire knot cup" for heavy rust removal and weld clean-up.

The guard was misplaced long ago, so it's utterly terrifying to use with a grinding disc. I have a very clear memory of the damage that a friend did to his knee when his disc came apart at 10,000 RPM.

Thanks, guys. I've already made my decision, as a kind, generous person is giving me his old bench grinder.

The 8" costs $85 at Home Despot, so I can't really consider that combo tool above. It is pretty nifty, though.

Carry on discussing. I know we will.

I have both and I rarely use the angle grinder and never for anything bike related. The bench grinder is used often. Consider a bench 4" Belt/ 6" disc sander. I use mne constantly for all kinds of things. It's more suitable for the kind if precision work you do on bike parts than a bench grinder. Delta no longer makes the one I have, but Skil makes a one that looks good. It has to be cast iron.

I have a nice bench grinder, a sander and a Ryobi angle grinder.

The latter is what gets the most use by far, but I only use it with a cut-off wheel. You have to treat it with as much respect as a chain saw, but nothing cuts housing cleaner, and it's faster than a hacksaw for lopping off the tops of stuck seat posts!

You can buy an angle grinder at Harbor Freight for less than $20 (they put them on sale all of the time). Be sure to use a 20% off coupon and get the free item.

I use a 10" Delta bench grinder for bike jobs fairly often. I generally only use my angle grinder for car jobs. I would buy used long before purchasing anything from the (current) Craftsman. The Depot does have some good brands, and some crappy brands. I prefer Milwaukee for power hand tools.

This is basically what I have. Fine for my uses but I do not make my living with my tools, if I did this would be unacceptable. It is not cordless, but I prefer a tool with a cord as there is no battery to run out mid-job. YMMV I agree with auchen, when I use this tool I am just as attentive as using my chainsaw, it only takes a split-second to ruin your day.

My general rule of thumb is:

If you can move the part to the tool and control it easily, use a bench tool. (Either a bench grinder or disc sander)
If you can't move the part to the tool or control it easily, use a hand tool. (angle grinder, Dremel, etc.)

At work, we use a disc sander more than anything for cleaning up and light shaping. It works well and is easy to get a clean square edge. Bench grinders are used more for sharpening tools than anything, but the occasional bolt modification or polishing job is done on it too.

The biggest problem that I have with bench grinders is that they typically don't come with decent stones. These can be as much or more than the grinder was on its own.

I have a bench grinder. Ive had it for 5 years and only used it for car/truck stuff. I have an angle grinder. I ve used that the most, with both cut off wheels and with a grinding wheel, but always for house/car/welding projects, never bike stuff. I have a sawzaw too, and have used that a lot. Never for bikes.
Now, i did buy cloth wheels for the bench grinder, and the polishing stuff intending to polish bike stuff, but, it will make a huge mess doing so, and i havent gotten around to it yet.

I find both very useful. I really like the angle grinder with a wire wheel for removing paint and rust in a hurry. FWIW, if you ever need to cut a lock off a bike, as many flippers do, you can get a metal cutting blade to mount in your circular saw. It's quite a bit more controllable than an angle grinder, with more oomph. Also works a treat for cutting cottered spindles.

I have 3 bench grinders and 4 angle grinders & two belt/disk sanders( I have more then this but these are what I use the most), they all have a place in my shop and are the most used tools I have when I do bicycle rebuilds, My 8" grinder has a very heavy duty fine wire wheel on one side and a fine grinding wheel on the other this grinder is no toy it is over 50yrs old and will remove body parts if they get caught in it. My small grinder is a 6" Craftsman that I keep two wire wheels on, a coarse and a fine/med this is a toy and is very easy to stop and because of that you need to worry about getting work caught in it and locking it up ( happens more then I like). My third grinder is a old 6" that I use for polishing wheels , I don't use it as much as I thought I would as I prefer to do bicycle parts by hand, I did my 600EX crankset with it and it worked great for that but I don't get the same results all the time when I use it and haven't figured out why.

The angle grinders I have are one 3", two 4 1/2" and one 9", on the 4 1/2" grinders I keep a metal grinding wheel on one and a 5" cut off wheel on the other and the 9" just sits in my tool box until I have a big job to do. I use my 3" cordless grinder with a fine cut off wheel which is great for cutting cables. I use these for all kinds of fabrication work on bicycles. The belt/disk sanders are very useful but lack of room keeps me from using them much anymore, one is a small 1" belt Craftsman that I bought new when I opened my power equipment repair shop 13yrs ago & the other is a monster 4" belt that is belt driven from a separate electric motor. These are great for making all kinds of things and if you have the room for one I recommend getting one along with a good bench grinder first, just remember one can never have to many tools to get the job done.

Glenn

I have a 6 inch bench grinder with a stone and wire wheel, electric cutoff wheel, a dremel for really small jobs, and a die grinder which is probably my most used power tool but it also requires an air compressor. Pneumatic tools are great as they don't have an electrical components which makes them lighter in the hand, less prone to break down, and are well suited for commercial applications.

The die grinder cuts, polishes, and of course grinds things and can be used with a great deal of precision whereas a cutoff wheel is a crude beast of a tool that can make short work of things that would otherwise require a hacksaw.

Use the grinding wheel to face housing ends and the wire brush is good for cleaning up pieces and threads on fittings... having a fixed unit means you work from the parts end and do not have to wield the cutoff wheel. I need to get some polishing disks for the bench grinder as I do a lot of polishing and this would handle the gross stuff while the dremel and die grinder can handle the finer work.

Angle grinder is great for taking off derailleur hangers. It's the "clean look" friend.

I use my bench grinder all the time (fine wire wheel on one side, grinding stone on the other).

Is this wrong? My favorite use of the wire wheel is to clean up rusty, crusty threads on bolts I'm re-using.

If you want an angle grinder that will last do not buy the Harbor Freight one. I
bought one to use as a spare and after about three uses the worm gear in it
self destructed.
I have a Craftsman that is at least 15 years old that is as good as new and I
have not treated it well.
You get what you pay for.

..Really, don't buy anything from HF. Terrible, terrible tools.