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Carpenters, plumbers, ceramic tile installers lend me your ears!

On a whim I purchased a DW-400 as a cut-off tool and soon discovered that the “small angle grinder” is possibly one of the great tools that most people have never heard of. My dewalt lasted about a year (at the time it was the least expensive 4.5″ grinder on the market)- but in that time I learned many wonderous things. My money was well spent.

Grinding - How useful is a portable grinder?

Bad marketing - perhaps better to say - rotary, precision cutting tool.

It’s not about different manufacturers or models, although the tool will have greater longevity if the bearings are held in metal as opposed to plastic (used in this model) - It’s about the specialty disks and blades available for 4′ and 4.5 ” “grinders/rotary, precision cutting tools.” The 4.5″ units can also hold the 4″ discs. (Useful when cutting the hole for the toilet flange in ceramic tile.)

Carpenters: You pull off a board that was nailed from the other side - casing nails - pull ‘em through, commons? Cut them off with a 4-4.5 cut-off disk. Joist removal - nails sticking out - cut them off.

Plumbers: Cutting up to 3/4″ galvanized water pipe or black gas - 4 times faster than sawzall (reciprocating saw.} Hey jackass make sure that there is no water or gas in pipes before you start cutting.

You might say - “My reciprocating saw does the job well enough.” So what do you do when you have to cut cast iron or terra-cotta? Well if you had an angle grinder you would use an abrasive cut-off disk to cut the cast iron or a diamond wheel to precisely cut the terra-cotta. My Ridgid chain cutter never see’s the light of day anymore.

Reciprocating saws need to have the subject material held firmly in place - cutting with small angle grinders/rotary precision cutting tools also have a potential problem with binding. When a reciprocating saw binds - inadequately clamped material moves back and forth with the blade, When the angle grinder binds the fiber cutting discs usually break and may fly away in small pieces. For this reason it is a necessity to wear eye protection and gloves.

Ceramic Tile Installers: With the diamond wheel you can cut a toilet flange or sculpt to moldings like an artist.

So what’s wrong with the DW- 400 that I only ranked it 4 of 5 stars.

Head bearing failed and was more expensive to repair than to replace.

I went out and purchased the ryobi 4″ angle grinder $29.00 at home depot. I had realized that they are cheap enough to throw away when they break- but while they work you will find endless ways to make rotary, precision cutting tools re-define the way that you work.

Caslo

Update (5/18/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen.

The featured review for this product, DEWALT DW400 4-1/2-Inch Small Angle Grinder Tools & Hardware, was written by Caslo Cranston.

The average rating for this item is 2.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.