What Is A Grinder?

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What is grinder used for drugs?

Be Informed. Search for information about a drug. – An herb grinder is used to break up marijuana buds, making the drug easier to roll in paper.

What is a grinder American slang?

In Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and parts of New England, the term grinder usually refers to a hot submarine sandwich (meatball, sausage, etc.), whereas a cold sandwich (e.g., cold cuts) is usually called a ‘sub’.

What did a grinder do?

History – Grinding is the craft of shaping, sharpening and polishing blades on a grindstone. Grinding was a subsidiary stage in the making of cutlery and other bladed tools. Once the item had been forged to the required pattern, the blade would be passed to a grinder for shaping and sharpening, before a handle was fitted.

  • Sheffield was the centre of the cutlery industry in the UK, and historically grinders were self-employed and rented a work space.
  • In the late-eighteenth century there were roughly 1800 grinders working in Sheffield, specialising in particular items depending on the size of the wheel required, which could vary in diameter from two inches to six feet.

There are two types of grinding: wet grinding where the stone ran through water (saws, files, sickles, table knives, edge tools and scythes) and dry grinding (forks, needles, brace bits and spindles). Some items were both wet and dry ground (scissors and razors) (M.P.

Johnson). Dry grinding was much quicker than wet grinding, but created far more dust. Grinding was a dangerous job – there was the risk that the wheel might explode, and the fine dust from the grinding would get into the lungs. In the mid-nineteenth century, wet grinders rarely reached 45 years old, and dry grinders rarely reached 35 years old (Paul Allen, 2013).

Today, there is only one self-employed/’jobbing’ hand grinder left – Brian Alcock – who rents a workshop in Sheffield and grinds for other people. However, various firms also employ in-house grinders and most knife makers need to be able to grind. Most people grind on machines where possible, but there are some things that can only be done by hand.

What is a grinder in food?

Grinder is a variety of a submarine sandwich and it is especially popular in New England. The sandwich consists of a long roll that resembles Italian bread, but the interior is much chewier and the exterior is crustier.

Is grinder safe?

Grinder Safety -Hazards, Precautions, PPE All types of grinding machines, whether pedestal, bench mounted, free-standing or portable, can be potentially hazardous if they are not well maintained and used correctly. In addition to the common hazards of flying particles, dust and sparks, shattering abrasive wheel while in Motion can cause severe injury to both the user and others. What Is A Grinder

When should you use a grinder?

Best Uses For An Angle Grinder What Is A Grinder You can use an angle grinder for grinding, polishing, sharpening, cutting, and much more. With their rapidly rotating discs, angle grinders are versatile power tools that can cut, grind, polish, sharpen, and clean a variety of difficult materials, including iron, copper, brass, brick, tile, stone, or mortar.

Some tools rotate the discs with as little as 2,800 revolutions per minute (rpm), but some have variable speeds that can operate at a higher speed. You can change the speed and disc on the angle grinder in order to grind metal or polish metal according to the project’s goal, so it’s important to select the proper angle grinder for each project.

The tools can be powered by a battery or directly connected to a power cord to provide a constant supply of electricity to the motor. The cordless grinder is a great choice for small projects or specific cutting and grinding tasks. It may be better to invest in a corded angle grinder if you are going to use the grinder for an extended period of time.

Metal Grinding and Polishing : Angle grinders are primarily used to grind metal. It does this by using abrasive grinding discs made from aluminum, carbide, and diamond-tipped discs. Attach a grinding disc and turn the grinder on to start the disc spinning rapidly. Abrasive discs can be used to flatten, smooth, or completely remove pieces from metal. By using a smoothing or polishing wheel at a lower speed, the metal can be improved and the color enhanced. A smooth finish is achieved by removing a thin layer from the metal. Polishing wheels are made of soft materials, such as cotton, and they actually add a layer of polish to smooth metal surfaces to produce a mirror-like finish. A smoothing or polishing wheel may damage the surface if the speed isn’t adjustable. Remember that both smoothing and polishing require more time and patience than grinding.

Cutting Metal: In addition to smoothing, polishing, and grinding away metal, an angle grinder’s rapidly rotating disc can also be used to cut through metal. Plumbing contractors often use this tool when working with galvanized iron or lead pipes. Welders frequently cut pieces of metal to clean up projects or prepare pieces for use as matches. Replace the abrasive grinding disc with a cut-off disc. Disks used for cutting off are thinner than grinding discs and come in different thicknesses. Because of the thin size, the spinning disc can more easily cut through metal than if you used a thicker grinding disc. Cutting discs are also more susceptible to bending and breaking because of their thin size. When grinding metal, allow the grinder to cut it at a moderate pace rather than trying to force it through at a fast pace.

Cleaning Metal: Angle grinders can be used to remove paint, rust, and lacquer from metal surfaces. Take off chipped and peeling layers with a plastic stripping disc or a metal cleaning wheel without damaging the metal underneath. For removing paint, lacquer, and similar coatings that aren’t fused to the metal, plastic stripping discs are an excellent option. In order to remove these coatings from the metal, these discs are made with nylon webbed material and silicon carbide. You should use a metal cleaning wheel if you need to remove rust. The metal cleaning wheels are made by twisting together a series of metal wires to create an effective rust-removal tool. This wheel scrapes away rust from metal surfaces when it spins rapidly. Because broken wire can sometimes shoot from these wheels, wear appropriate personal protective equipment.

Sharpening Tools: You can also sharpen other tools with angle grinders, such as lawn mower blades, axes, or chisels. Angle grinders should be equipped with abrasive grinding discs, and the tool’s blade should be properly secured in a vise to help you control and steady its movement. It’s important to align the grinding disc with the angle on the blade when sharpening tools with a grinder so that the sharpened blade will have the same angle of cut. By altering the cutting angle, you can significantly reduce the effectiveness of your tool and possibly ruin the blade. You can quickly sharpen your tools using a grinder, but you might want to use a sharpening stone afterward for a more precise edge before putting them away.

Cutting Tile, Stone, and Other Masonry Materials: The angle grinder is mostly used for working with copper, iron, steel, lead, and other metals, but it is also capable of cutting through masonry materials such as tile, stone, and brick. Cut straight through these difficult materials by switching out the metal cut-off disc for a masonry cutting wheel. An angle grinder can be used to cut custom angles in tile to make a garden path from brick or stone, or to replace broken pieces of a backyard fire pit due to its precision. Metal cutting discs are fragile, but these wheels are made to withstand substantial strain. The material can still be chipped or broken if the grinder is forced through it. With older used cutting wheels, the risk of chipping and breaking increases, so be sure to regularly replace the masonry cutting wheel for smooth, clean cuts.

Mortar removal: The exterior of a home can be repaired from leaks, drafts, and recurring insect infestations by replacing the mortar. The only way to remove the mortar without damaging the bricks is with an angle grinder. You can use either a thick abrasive grinding disc or a masonry cutting wheel to begin chipping away at the lines of mortar between the bricks.

: Best Uses For An Angle Grinder

What is a grinder for smoking?

A grinder is a tool used to break down cannabis into small bits so they are a similar size and consistency. Weed is commonly ground down for rolling joints, blunts, and spliffs, but can also be done for packing bowls in pipes and bongs for a smoother, more consistent burn.

What does grind mean for boys?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A man and woman grinding. Grinding, also known as juking, freak dancing or freaking (in the Caribbean, wining ) is a type of close partner dance where two or more dancers rub or bump their bodies against each other, usually with a female dancer rubbing or bumping her buttocks against a male dancer’s genital area.

Why is grinder called grinder?

A Hero, Sub, Grinder, and Hoagie? – Some things in life are simple: we know that two pieces of bread with stuff between them, for example, is a sandwich. Swap in a long roll, however, and things get a lot more complicated. Let’s start with the submarine, or sub, What Is A Grinder Pennsylvania — what is going on?? What Is A Grinder Pennsylvanians — Philadelphians, in particular — have their ” hoagies,” A hoagie is just a sub — the Oxford English Dictionary literally defines it as a “submarine sandwich” — but the Pennsylvania folk have insisted on making it their own. According to Bon Appétit, the term likely comes from Depression-era jazz musician and sandwich-shop owner Al De Palma, who started calling his submarines “hoggies” because you “had to be a hog” to eat a sandwich that big.

  • So judgy!) “Hoggies” somehow morphed into “hoagies,” and you got yourself a regional sandwich term.
  • Head over to New York City, and you’ll see a similar sandwich referred to as a ” hero,” The term likely comes from New York Herald Tribune columnist Clementine Paddleworth (yes, that was her name), who in 1936 described a sandwich so large “you had to be a hero to eat it.” More so than a sub, a hero can refer to both hot and cold sandwiches, which is why you’ll see things like meatball heroes and chicken-parm heroes on menus around the area.

Lastly, we have grinders, which is the New England–based term for a hero. According to Bon Appétit, “some claim that it was named for ‘grinders,’ Italian-American slang for dockworkers (who were often sanding and grinding rusty hulls to repaint them),” but the term most likely comes from the fact that they were harder to chew than normal sandwiches: “that toothsomeness got translated into ‘grinder,’ since that’s what your teeth had to do to get through a bite.” • What’s the Difference Between a Hero, Sub, Grinder, and Hoagie?

Why are grinders good?

To control these elements, weed must be broken down into a fairly uniform size. Grinders can help you achieve this. Some people use their fingers, mortar and pestle or fingertip scissors, but grinders are undeniably the fastest way to break down buds.

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What is an example of a grinder?

In a kitchen, a grinder is a device for crushing food such as coffee or meat into small pieces or into a powder. an electric coffee grinder. A grinder is a machine or tool for sharpening, smoothing, or polishing the surface of something.

Who came up with a grinder?

Who invented the meat grinder? Home meat grinder with a hand wheel was the progenitor of today’s professional electric meat grinders. Read more to find out how long meat grinder has been around and learn about its inventor. What Is A Grinder Meat grinder was invented in the mid-19th century in Germany (picture: Wikipedia (CC)) Meat grinder was invented by Karl Drais (full name: Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Freiherr Drais von Sauerbron), who lived in Germany in 19th century. He was a forest official by education and profession, but also had an outstanding acumen for mechanics and machinery construction. What Is A Grinder Portrait of Karl Drais (picture: Wikipedia (CC)) Main components of a meat grinder are a sturdy metal body and an auger (screw conveyor) with cutting blades. The auger, hidden in the body, was powered manually with a rotating handle. The auger pushes meat towards spinning blades mounted at the end of the auger’s axis. Further, the meat is pressed outside through a mincing plate with small holes. What Is A Grinder Meat grinder parts (picture: Rainer Zenz (CC)) After taking off the locking ring and the eye screw located on the handle, the grinder can be dismantled for cleaning or blades and plates replacement. Apart from meat mincing, the grinder, outfitted with a sausage stuffing attachment, can be also used for producing homemade sausages.

  1. It serves just as well for other culinary purposes such as grinding fish, poppy seeds, cooked vegetables or dough for pastry baking.
  2. Anyone who used a manual grinder knows how much effort it takes.
  3. Therefore, especially in industrial production, the grinders are now powered with an electric motor.
  4. The engine speed is controlled with gears.

Such machines can even be refrigerated and their capacity is calculated in hundreds of kilograms of meat. In Karl Drais’s mother tongue, meat grinders are called Fleischwolf (eng. meat wolf), or shorter: wolf (eng. wolf). Larger machines are called Ladenwolf (shop wolf) or Tischwolf (table wolf). What Is A Grinder Drais’s running machine (picture: Wikipedia (CC)) Even though the inventor died poor and forgotten, today in Karlsruhe, the town of his life and death, there is a dedicated Karl Drais Museum.29 April 2020 will mark 235th anniversary of Karl Drais’s death. On this occasion, let us remember his merits, also for the meat processing industry. : Who invented the meat grinder?

What is a grinder vs sandwich?

Grinder – What Is A Grinder ‘Grinder’ is a New England term, used to differentiate sandwiches with hot fillings (i.e. meatballs or sausage) from those with cold fillings, which are typically referred to as subs. In Philadelphia, a grinder is a hoagie that is heated after assembly, whether the filling is made up of traditionally hot ingredients or not.

  1. Like the hoagie, the grinder may have its origins among Italian-American labourers, this time in the dockyards of New England.
  2. Grinders’ was Italian-American slang for dock workers, who spent much of their time grinding the rusty hulls of ships for repainting, and it is thought that the sandwich may take its name from them.

Another origin story is simply that the crusty bread rolls were hard to chew, leading to much grinding of the teeth.

What else is a grinder called?

Sub, hoagie, hero, grinder, spuckie, po’ boy, wedge : here’s why you call the footlong (or longer) sandwich whatever you do.

Where is it called a grinder?

When was the First Grinder Sandwich Invented? – While it’s uncertain exactly when people started calling these sandwiches grinders, there are many theories to consider. For one, we know that the term most likely originated in the United States. This fact tells us that the term grinder when talking about sandwiches came to fruition early enough not to be tracked but late enough to be popular in the United States.

Can you be private on grinder?

Incognito is an Unlimited feature that hides your profile from the Grindr grid while still allowing you to freely use the app. While using Incognito, you’ll appear offline to people you tap or message. No one will see if you view their profile, nor will you show up on Viewed Me lists.

Is grinder like tinder?

Why isn’t there a Grindr for straight people? M y friend – call him Henry – thinks that we should start at the Equinox gym. But I don’t have a membership and another friend is insisting that we have to check out the Whole Foods on East Houston in Manhattan.

  • I’m intrigued: it had never occurred to me that a grocery store would make a prime pick up spot at 6pm on a Friday.
  • But the place is crowded.
  • Who knows who’s in here? The checkout line snakes around the stacked 24-packs of organic beer almost to the door.
  • I am 95% sure that the willowy blonde hiding under her poncho while waiting to pay for her vegetables is Taylor Schilling, the star of Orange is the New Black.

I can’t resist following her out, so I am standing on the corner playing on when Henry calls my name from across Second Avenue. By playing, I do mean playing: I have been happily married for a year and a half, and am not looking for dates, just subjects to chat with.

My editor asked me to write a piece on what seems to be a perennial question: why isn’t there (a dating app for gay men with a reputation for facilitating quick hook-ups) for straight people? In other words, why, after decades of feminism and sexual revolution, at a time when new HIV infection rates aren’t rising in the United States and contraception and abortion are legally available – – are there not more venues for straight people to have no-strings-attached sex? Why don’t more straight couples want it? Why are there not more venues for straight couples to have casual, anonymized, No Strings Attached, sex? I’ve heard the question many times before and I’ve disliked every answer.

Most of them seem to boil down to stereotypes. They go something like: gay men are promiscuous. Straight women are frigid. Heterosexuality always has been, and always will be, a sad compromise between men who want to get as much sex for as little affection as women can wheedle out of them, etc.

  • I think these stereotypes are both unkind and untrue.
  • I wanted to see whether I could come up with something better.
  • Henry arrives and we cook up an experiment to try to answer my editor’s question.
  • I reactivate my Tinder account.
  • He gets on,
  • We spend a night hopping from bar to bar together and see what kinds of romantic or sexual prospects each of these apps presents us.

I tell anyone I match with that I am in this for research as soon as meeting IRL comes up. Hey we’re all on here for something, one 28-year-old replies without missing a beat. But I still fret about the ethics of it. Because Tinder simply draws photos from Facebook, my husband is in most of mine.

I’m gonna go ahead and assume that’s your brother you’re with, one 32-year-old messages me. Na. That your cat? I joke about the caged tiger he is crouching over in one of his. Radio silence. M y initial hypothesis is that Tinder is the Grindr for straight people. Of the different apps that tried to corner the market circa 2010, Tinder certainly seems to have been the most successful.

However, Henry – who uses both – is skeptical of the idea that the two apps are comparable. “Grindr has an immediacy that Tinder doesn’t; Grindr shows you only people who have logged on in the past hour, and you can see whether they are online at the moment.

That immediacy makes hookups much more possible than I think Tinder does.” Both Grindr and Tinder are mobile dating apps that rely on geolocation technology: they propose prospective partners in some proximity to your physical location. Grindr, which is geared toward gay and bisexual men, came first; it launched in 2009.

Tinder followed in 2012. They are similar in purpose but their designs are different. Tinder displays just one person at a time, while Grindr presents a grid of active users, listed in order of how close they are to you in space. “Grindr is different in New York,” the friend who recommended Whole Foods pointed out.

“Anywhere else, you’re dealing in miles. In New York, it’s feet.”It’s true. By the time Henry and I settle in a bar, the app shows 179 active users who are less than 10 minutes away on foot. One especially cute one appears to be within 20 feet but Henry shakes his head. “You’ll never find him. He could be anywhere.

He could live in one of the apartments upstairs. He could be walking by on the street.” By the time Henry and I settle in a bar, the app shows 179 active users who are less than ten minutes away by foot Henry seems to be right about immediacy: my half-hearted Tinder efforts do not generate much data.

  1. So I let my app idle and start up Facebook chats with a dozen friends and friends of friends who have agreed to speak with me about the subject of apps that let men look for men.
  2. As I do, I start to understand the problem with the design of our little experiment.
  3. A friend, in his mid-20s, who currently works at the University of Michigan, put it this way in a Facebook message: There’s a sort of sexualized hierarchy that is well understood among the different applications.

I don’t know any gay people who cruise digitally on OkCupid. But it’s not at all uncommon on Grindr or Jack’d or Scruff. The ‘straighter’ an application’s user base, the more likely someone is to be either: 1) presenting as super mainstream or 2) looking for a LTR rather than casual sex.

By “LTR” the University of Michigan friend means “long-term relationship”. For the first-time Grindr user, browsing through other users – whose profile photos are arranged, like tiles, in a grid according to proximity (with filters by eg, age, if you like), and can be tapped to reveal a short profile – there is an entire lexicon to learn.

Regulars, FWB, role, now, looking, POZ, hung, BB. From the beginning, as I said, I was skeptical of my editor’s question: why isn’t there a Grindr for straight people? Why is there no quorum of heteros who want truly casual, convenient sex? In the research that I conducted for my book, I found that there were countless varieties not only of apps but of ways of using apps, of mobile phone enabled sexual communities and cultures.

  1. For instance, last November, I interviewed a group of trans women.
  2. They talked about using Facebook to meet and screen dates, for who might be dangerous – or simply promiscuous, serial daters in their community, fetishists, fantasists “Sometimes you go out with a cis guy,” one African American woman in her late 30s guffawed, “and you think, ‘This is great.

This guy is holding his head up high, walking with me, walking his truth.’ Then you find out he lived his truth with the last hundred trans women! You have a hundred mutual friends and every single one is a member of the community. You find out he’s been with all of them” I n casual conversations about dating apps, I have often heard friends refer to how men are or women are.

  1. How gays are or straights are.
  2. Specifically, they often rely on stereotypes – for instance, that gay men are universally promiscuous or that women, gay or straight, do not really like sex.
  3. We are accustomed to think of sex and love as eternal and unchanging.
  4. Tech entrepreneurs are therefore inclined to believe that if they could simply create the right widget to plug into eternal human desires and behaviors they could make untold fortunes.
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However, these are fantasies. The history of love, sex and dating show that our beliefs about romance and its rituals change much more dramatically over time than we tend to remember. As recently as 1905, advice columnists told straight young men and women that romantic interest ALWAYS had to be initiated by the female party – and her parents.

  • More recently than that, LGBT folks were told that their desires were dangerous, deviant and would make them sick.
  • But dating apps that work well don’t work well because they capture any such essence of gender or sexuality.
  • There is no one way all men or women desire; every person has his or her own sexuality.

All successful dating apps succeed because they recreate versions of older dating institutions and experiences in a new, digitally networked form. And what Grindr seeks to approximate are specifically sites of LGBT liberation and community: gay bars, bathhouses, gyms and so on.

  • Successful dating apps succeed because they recreate versions of dating institutions in a new, digitally networked form You can see it in the way they emphasize strangers mingling in space.
  • You can see it in how many of the profile pictures literally depict muscled bodies with lockers in the background.

Some friends I chat with lament the fact that these apps have replaced the significance of the brick and mortar bar, which was such an important institution of the gay liberation actions of the 1960s and 1970s. Henry emphasizes that today, in gay bars, the app lays a new kind of social network onto an old one; virtual and real space interact.

“Today, most men who go into gay bars alone, whether locals or tourists with mobile data plans, are on Grindr while at the bar, instead of interacting directly with new people around them,” Henry says. He demurs as to whether this is good or bad. App users are building on these preexisting institutions, which were themselves created through decades if not centuries of development, tradition and political struggle – and not because they tap directly into something about universal “gay” nature.

There is no such thing. Those places had particular protocols, and they were different from the protocols of the straight singles bar. There is a long history of entrepreneurs who saw the commercial potential of sexual subcultures that developed organically, and tried to make them “mainstream”– ie to make a “straight” version, as a way of scaling it.

For instance, the founder of TGI Friday’s, the first singles bar in America, was inspired by the thriving gay bars he saw in the West Village in the 1960s. His gay bar for straight people made a splash for a while before being franchised into the internationally ubiquitous chain restaurant that has to be the least sexy place on earth.

This is why I was wrong: Tinder is not the straight Grindr and never will be. It more closely approximates the institution that its founders came out of, and the kinds of behaviors associated with it: not the bathhouse but the frat house, not political liberation but the college campus free-for-all.

This article was amended on 23 May 2016. An earlier version said the rate of new HIV cases in the US had fallen; in fact the rate has remained steady.

: Why isn’t there a Grindr for straight people?

Why is my grinder banned?

Download Article Download Article If you are banned on Grindr and want to try and get unbanned, you can consider filing an appeal. While Grindr has Community Guidelines and corresponding violations that can result in getting banned, there may be times when an account is banned for no reason. This wikiHow article will teach you how to file an appeal to get unbanned from Grindr.

  1. 1 Familiarize yourself with the reasons for getting banned. Writing an honest appeal is the only way to get unbanned from Grindr, so you should first be sure that you haven’t violated any guidelines.
    • Grindr states that harassment, illegal behavior, underage activity, spam, nudity, impersonation, and discrimination are all in violation of their Community Guidelines. These behaviors are counterproductive to the safe, welcoming environment that Grindr seeks to create.
  2. 2 Confirm that you have not violated any guidelines. A successful appeal will only work if you have been wrongly banned (that is, if you have not violated any rules). Therefore, be sure that this is the case before you take the time to write out an appeal. Advertisement
  3. 3
  4. 4 Fill out required information. In the corresponding boxes, put in your information: email address, the version of Grindr you use, how you created your Grindr, and your device type.
    • Also be sure to check off the two required boxes directly underneath “Your email address.”
  5. 5 Fill out the subject of your appeal. Do this in the text box labeled, “Subject (fewer than 5 words).”
    • This should be concise and non-accusatory. While this will vary case-by-case, your subject can be as simple as, “Appealing my Grindr ban.”
  6. 6 Write your appeal. Type this out in the text box labeled, “Tell us what’s happening.”
    • Your appeal should be professional, clear, and detailed. You should carefully explain the timeline of events, as well as the reasons why you believe your account should not have been banned.
  7. 7 Read and check off each Community Guideline box. There are nine checkboxes at the bottom of the page that each describe a community guideline violation. Checking each one of these ensures that you have read, understood, and not violated any guidelines.
  8. 8 Add attachments (optional). If you have any photos or screenshots that you think would help explain your case, feel free to add them. Do so by clicking Add file at the bottom of the page.
  9. 9 Click Submit, Once you’ve filled out and reviewed all of the above information, click this yellow button at the bottom of the page. Now just wait a couple weeks for Grindr to get back to you.
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Ask a Question 200 characters left Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Submit Advertisement Article Summary X 1. Review the Community Guidelines.2. Go to Submit a Request,3. Fill out required information.4. Write your appeal.5. Click Submit, Did this summary help you? Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 34,608 times.

What should you not do with a grinder?

Operating the Angle Grinder – What Is A Grinder While operating an angle grinder, there are various things to consider that will ensure your safety and the safety of those around you.

Maintain control of the angle grinder with one hand on the side handle and the other on the back of the grinder. This gives you maximum control and leverage over the tool.Grinding discs should be applied at a 15 to 30-degree angle to the material to prevent the grinder from pulling away from you.Don’t apply the angle grinder to any material until it’s up to full speed to avoid grabbing and kickback.Ensure the disc has completely stopped turning before putting it down or moving it.There is a lot of vibration involved with grinding, so take periodic breaks to prevent hand and arm fatigue.

Do you need a mask when using a grinder?

Respect your angle grinder Operators should wear safety glasses, FR clothing, and gloves while using an angle grinder. Depending on the application, an operator might also require a face shield and a respirator. Terry Tuerk, senior product manager—North America at, West Chester, Pa., uses two analogies to describe just how dangerous it can be to operate an angle grinder.

  1. The first compares using an angle grinder to a machine with a knife (the wheel) attached that is moving 220 MPH just inches away from your finger.
  2. The second is a person attempting to get out of the way of a Formula 1 car that is only 5 feet away and traveling 220 MPH.
  3. In both scenarios it is humanly impossible to remove yourself from danger (i.e., impact) should something go awry.

Angle grinders are power tools found in just about every metalworking environment. And just like other metalworking equipment, they are dangerous if they are not treated with the care and respect that they command. Tuerk candidly discusses some of the most common mistakes angle grinder operators make and why those mistakes could be detrimental to their personal safety.

  • TW: What makes angle grinders so dangerous? An angle grinder is a tool that needs to be respected.
  • Whether the accessory on that angle grinder is a grinding disc, a cutting disc, or a wire wheel, you have something that is spinning at speeds anywhere from 9,000 to 11,000 RPM, inches from your hands, fingers, body, and face.

We’ve studied the statistics put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on injuries, and it’s interesting to see that it’s generally two groups of people who are being injured while using angle grinders. It’s either very young people who are just entering the industry or it’s people who have been in the industry 15 or 20 years.

  • Injuries in the first group are usually the result of a lack of training, where either they don’t know the process, they don’t respect the equipment, or they don’t understand the safety features that are on the grinders.
  • The second group are the people who insist they have been doing it a certain way for years.

I can guarantee you, if you are running an angle grinder for your job without a guard, at some point you are going to be injured by that grinder. That is a fact, 100 percent. TW: Can you describe an unsafe grinding operation you’ve had to deal with? Several years ago we manufactured a 5-in.

variable-speed grinder, with a range somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000 RPM. Since it’s a 5-in. angle grinder, it leaves our factory with a 5-in. guard. Terry Tuerk, senior product manager—North America at Metabo, West Chester, Pa. All of a sudden we saw a rash of these tools coming back to us for service—all from one location—each with a 9-in.

guard welded around our 5-in. grinder, and the variable speed locked in at around 6,000 RPM. And we were like, “Eh, this is not safe.” So we removed the 9-in. guard and replaced it with the standard 5-in. guard. We also fixed the variable-speed dial so that it worked again up to its full range, and then sent them back to the customer.

  1. We started getting phone calls from the customer saying, “No, we’ve done that on purpose, we need our guards back.” We told them that as the manufacturer we could not do that.
  2. We looked further into this and found that they were trying to grind a root weld on a 36-in.-dia.
  3. Pipe that had a 6-in.-thick wall.

They had to get to the root weld on this pipe and the 5-in. angle grinder could not get down to the root unless it had a 9-in. wheel on it. This practice ran up through the ranks of the customer and was approved by their international safety people because it was the only way they could get their jobs done.

We wouldn’t send them back with their guards, but what it led to on our part was the development of the flat-head angle grinder. TW: Why is it so dangerous to use a wheel that is too big for the grinder? You greatly increase the possibility of kickback, which is when a wheel binds up or gets caught in the workpiece during operation.

The inertia created by the spinning wheel and the mass of the armature inside the motor cause the tool to stop suddenly, creating a situation where the tool wants to kick out of your hands. When this happens, it typically kicks back toward the operator.

  1. TW: Can you explain the primary function of the guard? Guards are designed to contain a wheel or disc in the event that it shatters or breaks.
  2. Specific design standards for the guard require the guard material to be a certain thickness and steel strength to contain a broken wheel.
  3. It also must have a locking mechanism so that if it were to shatter, that guard could not open itself automatically to the operator.

Most angle grinders have a burstproof guard. In the past you’d have a guard that just clamped onto the grinder with a steel ring and a screw. That’s no longer acceptable. You now have to have a locking guard, so we have developed a guard that has seven different locking positions.

You can lock it in a cutting position on the right- or left-hand side of the tool, and in many positions in between for grinding as well. But it’s locked in that position. If you had an event where the disc shattered, it could not open up toward you. TW: What are some ways operators customize their tool that might seem harmless but are actually very unsafe? The No.1 thing that we see is taking the guard off the tool.

The excuse is that the guard is in the way and people can’t see what they’re doing. In the past that may have been true, but today any major manufacturer offers positionable guards. You can change the position of the guard for cutting or grinding to allow you to get into areas that are tight.

Right behind that is not using the side handle on the angle grinder. Many users say the side handle gets in the way, so the first thing they do when they open the box is leave the side handle in there, which is a mistake. Never remove a guard from the angle grinder. Tuerk said guards are designed to contain a wheel or disc in the event that it shatters or breaks.

You should always have two hands on the tool. If you have one hand on the handle located on the back of the grinder and one hand on the side handle, it gives you so much more control than if you were to have two hands on the back of the grinder, like how you would grip a baseball bat.

  • We’ve tried to minimize the underuse of the side handle by developing a multiposition side handle.
  • Our small grinders still come with a side handle that can mount either to the left or the right side of the grinder.
  • Our large grinders typically have a three-position side handle where you can mount it from the left, right, or on top of the gear housing.

With the multiposition accessory, it’s a steel bar that connects to the grinder that allows you to position the side handle anywhere across the top of the grinder on a 180-degree arc from left to right. And it also allows you to position the side handle at 90 degrees to the tool and back toward you at 45 degrees.

We’ve given the operators a reason to keep that side handle on the tool to increase safety. It takes away the excuse that it’s in the way. On many large job sites anymore, not using a guard or a side handle is reason enough for termination. You’ll be taken off the job. If it’s a union job, you’ll be asked to leave.

If you’re a hired employee, you’ll be fired. It’s that serious in a lot of cases. I’ve even seen people using accessories that are not designed for an angle grinder, for example, a toothed saw blade. Every instruction manual in the industry warns operators not to use a toothed saw blade on an angle grinder, and the reason for that is obvious.

  • Think about it: An abrasive cutting disc can injure you fairly significantly, but a saw blade designed to operate at 3,500 RPM now attached to an angle grinder running at 10,000 RPM? The damage would be a whole lot worse.
  • We’ve seen it; it’s out there.
  • The chances for kickback on this is multiplied 10 times over.

When there’s a job that needs to be done, sometimes people act before they think it through. TW: What PPE must an operator wear at all times, no exceptions? You absolutely need to wear safety glasses that not only cover the front of the eye, but also shield the side of the eye.

You need hearing protection. The angle grinder itself might not be loud, but the sound the disc makes on the material greatly amplifies the sounds that are made. You should wear spark-resistant gloves at all times, and I would also suggest wearing a fire-retardant (FR) jacket or clothing. Those safety items are the baseline.

Depending on your application, you may need to wear a full-face shield in addition to safety glasses. If you are working with your face very close to the grinder, the sparks could bounce off the workpiece and come at you. If you’re working inside or in a confined environment like inside of a tank, then you should wear a dust respirator of some sort.

  1. You need to be aware of the material that you’re working on.
  2. If you’re grinding stainless steel or if you’re grinding on something that could include a leaded component—a wire brush removing leaded paint—then you need to wear a respirator that will protect you from those hazardous dusts.
  3. The side handle allows the operator to use two hands during cutting or grinding applications.

Placing one hand on the handle located on the back of the grinder and the other hand on the side handle gives the operator more control of the tool. More control equates to more safety. TW: Are there any characteristics operators should look for in their grinding or cutting wheel before they begin work? When you remove a disc from the packaging, the first thing you should do is inspect it for any defects.

  • Look for chips, cracks, or anything that looks off.
  • If something looks questionable, dispose of it.
  • Do not mount it on your tool.
  • After you’ve inspected and mounted the wheel, run it at no load for at least a minute before you do anything else with that tool.
  • In that time you’ll be able to determine if that disc has full integrity.

If you’re working in a shop environment, make sure you are pointing it away from anyone else. You should run the disc at no load for about a minute any time you change accessories to make sure it doesn’t come apart. I don’t think many people do this but it’s definitely a recommendation found in angle grinder instruction manuals.

It’s also found in ANSI B7.1, the regulations for abrasives. It’s an end-user standard developed by Unified Abrasives Manufacturers Association (UAMA). T W : What are some general best practices users should adopt to provide an extra level of safety? If your angle grinder goes in and out of a tool crib every day, and if that tool crib issues you a grinder with an accessory on it, make sure to let it run no load for a minute.

This will allow you an opportunity to inspect the tool and the accessory. Do the same thing if you go on break—you don’t know if someone else has picked up that grinder and dropped it. If you ever drop your angle grinder with an accessory attached, the safest thing to do is assume you’ve damaged it in some way and change out that accessory.

  • The cost of changing out that cutting or grinding disc pales in comparison to what a potential injury will cost.
  • Last, the operator is the biggest component in ensuring a safe operation.
  • Never operate the tool under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
  • If you see something unsafe, bring it up to your supervisor or safety person.

Don’t ignore it. We need to take care of each other. If you’re not feeling 100 percent, you probably don’t want to have a power tool in your hand that day. When you get tired—operating these tools is hard work so it happens—take a break and get away from it for a while.

Should I wear a mask when using a grinder?

The speed at which angle grinders can propel small particles is much faster and farther than hand tools. Certain power tools may require using a face shield in addition to safety glasses or goggles. For example, a face shield is suggested while using a grinder due to the amount of hot metal particles generated.

What are the benefits of using a grinder?

No matter which types you choose, using a grinder will make your weed easier to work with and also allow for better control over how finely ground the herb is. This makes rolling joints easier as well as ensuring even burning when vaping or smoking, resulting in improved flavor and potency each time.

How do you grind a bud?

Bits of Buds: 5 Ways to Grind Cannabis Flower Without a Grinder The best strains are even better when properly ground. Well ground bud makes it easy to roll your own joints, and offers a smooth hit when used in a pipe. Whether you prefer a coarse or fine grind, breaking up your buds enables air to flow properly and helps your cannabis burn evenly.

  • A cannabis grinder is a useful tool that easily does this job for you.
  • Most grinders also have a bottom section that is designed for catching kief– the potent powder that is loosened from the buds as you’re grinding them.
  • Ief is made up entirely of cannabinoid-rich trichome crystals, so it’s worth holding on to.

If you use an alternative method, you should do so over a tray or foil to collect the kief that will fall. Grinding cannabis flower is an essential step in preparing it for consumption, but what do you do if you don’t have a grinder? Maybe you’re on a trip and couldn’t bring along your accessories.

Scissors and a Shot Glass

One of the easiest, mess-free ways to grind cannabis flower without a grinder is to use a pair of scissors and a shot glass. Place your cannabis bud in the bottom of the shot glass. Then put your scissors point down into the glass and quickly open and close the blades into the bud to chop it up into small pieces.

Break up the Buds by Hand

If you don’t have a grinder or any other tools on hand, you can always break up your cannabis buds by hand. How to grind weed by hand? Your fingers are the perfect tool for breaking up buds and rolling joints. Simply use your fingers to gently pull apart the buds and remove any stems or seeds. Gently rubbing the bud between your fingers will break it up even further. This method may not produce a fine grind, but it’s a quick and easy way to roughly prepare your cannabis flower for smoking or vaping.

Use a Cheese Grater or Microplane

If you have a cheese grater or a microplane in your kitchen, you can use it to grind your cannabis flower. Simply hold the grater or microplane over a bowl and rub the buds against the surface in a circular motion. This will produce a grind that is perfect for rolling joints or packing bowls.

Utilize a Mortar and Pestle

If you have a good ol’ fashioned mortar and pestle in your kitchen, it can be the perfect tool for grinding up your favorite strain. It’s the O.G. herb grinder! Simply place the buds in the mortar and use the pestle to grind them into your preferred size of crushed herb– from coarse to fine. What Is A Grinder Coffee and cannabis are a great pairing, and you can use the same tool to grind them both. But in a pinch, a coffee grinder can be a quick and easy way to grind cannabis flower. First, clean your coffee grinder extremely well– or you’ll be smoking caffeinated cannabis! Then start by pulsing the grinder a few times and checking the consistency.