I used those particular dremel cutting wheels ones you pictured on another project. Not much better, though they last a little longer.

It sounds ultimately like you need a cnc machine or a plasma jet stream laser cutting doohickey. Yeah, that'd be awesome.

drgary wrote:Do you mean something like this?

Before you suggested it, I've been using the tiny breakable ones and that just takes forever. Didn't know they made these of metal.

No, no... those aren't real tools; that's hobby stuff. You are beyond that level with the sort of fabrication you are doing these days.

For what you are attempting to do, you really need to get into something a little more serious. The cut-off wheels I'm talking about are generally sold at Welding Supply stores. You can find some at Home Depot, but they aren't as good as the professional stuff at the welding stores (or on ebay). What you need is a fibrous metal die grinder cut off wheel.

And then you'll either need an air die grinder (if you have an air compressor) or an electric 4" grinder / die-grinder. I've actually been thinking about picking up a little electric die grinder, as my air tool draws too much CFM from the smaller compressor I run these days.

Let me make you a quick video... hang on a min.
The Dremel stuff might work if you are building a doll house out of wood or something, but for the most part, it's not practical for serious metal work.

Ray

Like this? http://m.homedepot.com/s/Hilti%20grinder/

This is more along the lines of what you want Gary:

http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW887-1-1- ... 00004RHIS/



Ray

Looks like they have a few different models:

http://www.dewalt.com/tool-categories/m ... nders.aspx



It appears the DW887 is probably the best. It is smaller and has a higher RPM.

I'm probably going to pick one up myself; like I say, I'm tired of using my air powered one. DeWalt makes very good quality tools. I have a whole collection of them and they are well made and well thought out. My air compressor is DeWalt also. Most of their stuff is engineered to be used on job sites, where very little thought is put into service and maintenance of tools. As such, if you maintain them, they will last a life time.

In reading over the reviews, the only "con" I can see on this die grinder (unlike the air powered variety) is that it's either on or off; there is no variable speed control from what I can see. With the air powered ones, you can vary the speed while cutting, which is handy. With the electric ones (as is the case with my DeWalt hand grinders), when you pull the trigger, they spin up to full power immediately.

That may or may not be a concern.

Ray

I called DeWalt.. unfortunately, they do not make a variable speed die grinder. In reading over reviews on the different fabrication forums, this one appears to be pretty well regarded:

http://www.amazon.com/Metabo-GE700-6063 ... 0013SSVJK/

It has variable speed from 7000 RPM to 27,000 RPM. Still not as good as an air die grinder as far as the variable speed stuff goes - and also, for the cost, you can buy yourself a nice air compressor and then pickup a cheap die grinder on-line.

Anyway, no offense to the Dremel tools, but they are pretty much worthless in my opinion (unless you are doing some sort of very specific task which requires very detailed - i.e. small - stuff). They are good for jewelry work and stuff like that, but when you start getting into fabrication and cutting sheet metal and things like that, you really need to step up to something more industrial in nature. The tiny little Dremel tool cutting wheels just can't hack it most of the time. I think I might even have a Dremel tool floating around here some place, but I don't think I have ever used it for anything if I do.

Ray

I'll second RayJohns warning about angle grinders. They will work we'll, and you can get narrow cutting discs for the kind of work you will be doing. But, they have a lot of torque - holding one is a little like holding a gyroscope. I use mine a lot, mostly masonry stuff, but some metal cutting, and am happy to still have a good level of fear around the tool.

All true.

If you look in my video, you'll see that I removed the protective half circle shield on mine. Well, the other night I was grinding down some semi-free floating buttons on my front motorcycle brake disk rotor (to convert over to fully free floating buttons) and I accidentally bumped my knuckle into the metal grinding disc. It took a swath out of my knuckle about 3/16th wide and I was lucky it didn't penetrate down to the tendon.

You've got to be very, very careful with metal work and stuff. It's easy to lose a finger or hurt yourself very badly if you aren't careful. I had my arm pulled into a drill press when I was younger (the work bound and spun the vise on the drill press table - the handle of the vise grabbed my sleeve and twisted my sleeve and arm around and into the entire mess). It cut my wrist up and bruised me, but luckily didn't snap any bones. I was able to reach up with my free hand and slap the emergency shut off.

I've also had the tip of my finger snatched down between a grinding wheel and the little table you grind on - not a fun feeling. Nor is having a lathe chuck spin around and hit the tip if your finger.

The guy who used to do my machine work had a key chain with a fake finger on it, just as a reminder to be extra careful. And I knew a tow truck driver who was missing a finger at the 2nd joint. He said he wasn't paying attention and got his finger stuck in the cable of the winch and it just cut it right off without even blinking.

I'm currently in the process of buying a second lathe and the guy selling it is missing his index finger. I didn't bother asking how he managed that, but I'm sure it wasn't pretty.

A Dremel tool probably won't hurt you - but these other tools will and they won't even drop 50 RPM's in the process. Be very careful as you start working with some of these tools.

Ray