Anything welding

what's the best grinder for prepping Tacoma metal for welding?

 

Does the cold have an effect on your welders feed rate? I'm guessing it's likely because mine is just a cheap harbor freight Titanium but it barely pushes any wire out in my 30* garage. Only complaint so far with it.

 

I have the Ironton 14" dry cut metal saw from Northern tool, specs are almost identical to the Evo I bought it on sale & used a $20.00 coupon last November & I love it.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200641810_200641810

 

The Chicago Electric 4.5" at HF is hard to beat, I just replaced 1 that was over 20 years old & it had been beat on. Not bad for $16.99 with a coupon

 

I was worried about that with my Titanium 140. I bought one of those ceramic space heaters and turned it on about 20 min before I go out there. I keep the heater on a low setting just to bring the cold out of the garage. I haven't noticed any feed issues in 40* temps.

 

What happens is the colder weather just like The Hot days causes higher electric demand dropping your input voltage causing all sorts of interesting problems in most cases.

To much grease or the wrong type in the wire feed motor.

Now if you were having problems at 20 below zero I could understand

Since I don`t work on that Brand maybe the just like warmer climates.

I have never had a feed problem in 15 years related to cold temperatures

 

Same. The cold should not be causing feed issues. There has to be a simple reason for that happening.

 

Haven't had any issues at ~40F with my Titanium 170 - no heater

How's the tension on the spool? Should be enough to keep it from unspooling itself but not so much that it binds up. What's your feeder tensioner set to?

Note that the wire speed starts slow then speeds up, so you need to hold the trigger more than a couple seconds to check speed.

 

A cheap Northern Tool or HF 4.5" ~5amp model will get that sort of job done just fine.

Biggest thing I find with the better stuff like Milwaukee is the ease of adjusting or removing the guard. My ~20 year old Northern Tool model needs a phillips screwdriver and thus seldom sees the guard adjusted.

 

This one threw me for a loop when I first got my titanium and I was trying to feed a new spool into it. I was like "WTF, why is it going to damn slow?"

 

If your serious I also can plug the Harbor fright Grinders buy 3 or 4 that way your not changing discs all the time.

I gave a few away so don`t know that story but The only one I killed was from a 20' drop a few are around some place I let the new helpers use them

I will say the trick is to only use one hand on these small grinders if you need more grinder get a 7" or 9"

Let the disc do the work

 

I had an old HF or Northern one which had put up with ALOT of us/abuse that finally died on me. Went and bought another one, and it died in 5 mins... Instead of messing driving back and forth across town I picked up a Dewalt, works great. Those Benchmark Abrasive 80grit sanding discs are no joke!

 

I have a HF grinder I got for free (unsure of amp rating) and a Makita 7.5 amp. There is a extremely noticeable difference in power between the two and the smoothness of operation. The HF feels like there is sand in the motor and vibrates the shit out of my hands with extended use. I usually use my Makita with a cutoff wheel and my HF with a flap disc. I typically spend much less time on the flap disc and prefer the smoother grinder for long cuts. If you can afford a nice name brand with a higher amp rating, I wouldn't hesitate.

I also have a battery powered dewalt which I use for quick cuts mobile work.

 

Wonder if there's a connection...

My cheapo NT/HF 5amp grinders don't seem to vibrate excessively, have had one 20+ years and the other a couple months. I do also have an 11amp Milwaukee and yes there's a big difference in power but don't know that I've noticed a difference in smoothness.

 

I've had both. Yes the hazardfraught will get the job done, but the wilfuckye has twice the power and will get the job done faster. It's a matter of what is your time worth to you and how often you're going to use it.

 

I have just about every brand out there .

One of the most important things I forgot is it needs to be comfortable in your hand if it is not I just set it aside and give it away.

Myself I don`t grind enough I notice much difference time wise my labor gets billed the same in any case

 

Someone watches AvE or at least would enjoy him if they don't already

 

I weld in -15C, no feed issues ( approx 5*F ) I'm running a Lincoln 140 mig.

its funny, the colder it gets, the more time I spend in my un-heated cold ass garage grinding and welding

 

I'll give it a check but after being in the house for 30 minutes it seemed to be working just fine.

 

I'd suggest rechecking the tensioning adjustments after it's been outside a while -- It's entirely possible the cold affects the tensioning adjustments.

Mine stays in the garage so it doesn't see any temp swings.