How to cut
1 8 Steel
How I Make Straight Accurate Cuts With The Angle Grinder
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hey there I'm making this video to show
how I make straight cuts with the
grinder and steel I've had people
comment on that before first thing I
need to talk about is some realities of
this and the first and foremost and most
important is that I have a lot of
experience using a grinder and
experience is something that you simply
can't discount a lot of people seem to
think that you know they should be able
to pick up a tool and it immediately
it'll work for them the same way as
someone else who's been using it for
years does and it's it's not like that
I've often made the comparison because
it's something a lot more people do you
know to driving and they're good drivers
and there are bad drivers and there are
experienced drivers and they're
inexperienced drivers and the same thing
holds for any other skill that you
develop through experience so the other
reality I want to talk about is guards
now I'm going to be using a grinder in
this video without a guard because
that's the way I use the grinder I
normally wouldn't use a grinder with a
guard because the guard too often the
guard gets in the way and the fact is I
don't really need it a lot of people get
confused about what the guard is
therefore they think primarily it's
there to keep things from flying at you
when in fact it's mainly there to keep
you from touching the plate you know
you're holding the tool back here and
the blade is spinning out here your
fingers are close to that that's what
the guard is supposed to be there for as
a side benefit it also will keep debris
flying back at you but any cutting
operation with any circular disk
we'll throw the majority of the cutting
like straight off the disk where it's a
tangent to where it exits the material
so if you're cutting through a thin
piece of steel it's going to be throwing
the majority of that steel down through
the bottom reality number three I'm
going to be using a zip cut blade that's
what these are called this is a thin
cutting blade for steel and this thing
here is about one thirty seconds of an
inch thick probably a little bit thicker
than that but the key to this cutting
blade is that it's fiber reinforced I'll
put a picture on the screen showing the
mesh that's in there and that holds this
disc together and the only way that it
can break apart is if you severely
damage it or wear into those fibers so
that you you know where those way they
let go and then parts can break off but
for the most part these things and this
is another myth that you know going
around these will not explode like a lot
of people say unless you misuse them
drop the thing on the on the ground it
breaks the disc a piece may come off if
you wear it to the side of them while
you're cutting because these are only
for cutting straight they're not for
grinding well I see a lot of people
grinding with them when you shouldn't be
grinding with these at all they are not
for that they're just for cutting that
can cause following with the disc it'll
undermine the structure of the disc and
cause pieces of it to break off but if
you don't do any of that and you're
fairly careful with it then you'll be
okay I'm not suggesting here and please
do not take this as this that anybody
use the grinder without the guard that's
not what I'm saying
I'm saying I use the grinder without the
guard because I'm comfortable doing it
like that I'm confident that the disc
will not shatter and I'm also confident
that I won't touch the disc I've touched
this a few times while making cuts
and it's not fun and it leaves a memory
with you so you don't want to do that
again so I'm very careful we're using
the tool not to touch the disk next
reality a reality number four is that
I'm not using a side handle with the
grinder side handles and cutting
straight don't go together unless it's
something that you can get used to with
a lot of practice
it's like anything else you can get good
at something using it in the less
optimal way and still get good results I
don't have a side handle on my grinder I
never have a side handle side handle in
my opinion is only handy if you're
grinding a surface like if you've got a
big Cup wheel on here that has a lot of
mass and you're grinding the surface of
a piece of steel or a concrete floor or
something like that then you can hold
your grinder like this and a handle like
this and you're fine but it's not in my
opinion it's not good for making
straight cuts so I've got my grinder
here it's a plug in one when you want to
make a long cut it's not worth it to use
a battery-powered grinder first of all
they they turn a lot slower then the
plug-in type ones or record it and the
faster that this spins the more
efficiently it will cut so I've got my
line drawn for the length of the piece
and I'm gonna flip it over and I'm going
to support one of my table here and I'll
talk about say reality number 5 and
that's clamping things down you don't
always have to clad things down if it's
small yes it should be clamped down but
something like this that has this much
mass this is a heavy piece of steel it's
very unlikely that this piece of that
this cutting disc can grab it with
enough force to move it to you know
flinging at you type thing so just
holding it with your other hand while
you're cutting should be sufficient now
in the meantime it doesn't hurt to clamp
it down but again I'm not going to be
doing that here okay I'm all set up and
ready to cut I'm gonna be holding the
grinder like this I'm gonna be using one
hand to hold it I'm holding it tight but
I'm not holding a too tight that it's
you know I can't let the cut guide the
blade that's half of what it is to cut
straight letting the grinder follow the
line that you're making and not pushing
it over to one side or the other and
holding or two hands to rigidly better
to start a cut and then let the blade
follow it it's also very helpful to keep
the blade moving and that increases the
cutting efficiency and it'll make the
blade wear more easily so it doesn't get
jammed up in the cut I've noticed that
if you keep the blade in one position
without rocking it like I'm doing here
it can bind up in the Tuck
then after the cut is started the blade
will follow that curve and keep the line
going straight as long as you're not
wrenching it to one side or the other
just let it make the cut at its own pace
without forcing it or pushing it too
hard
all right I finished that first cut
which is the long one I gotta check out
how straight it is even though this
doesn't have to be perfectly straight
for this it helps and this looks pretty
darn good
look there's no way you'd stand a chance
against those guys but she said I was
the best prospect you'd ever seen easy
you said you can make me a champion I've
been liquored up for 17 years my
judgments not what it once was
