Angle Grinder - Safety Question

I would be very careful, like what has been said (PC Brigade -14 year old) you will need eyes in the back of your head while your son has that grinder in his
hand, avoidable accidents happen all the time, I have seen people lose fingers my own brother sliced through his leg last year, he's a builder/roofer been with him while he's walked up a roof valley when cutting in with a 12'' petrol cutter in his hand, he's done it hundreds of times he's never had problem, I lent him my little Electric Grinder, he for some reason turned it off at the plug socket, while he sorted out what he was doing next, so the grinder switch was in the ON position, so with the grinder in one hand he turned the switch on at the plug socket with the other, Grinder came on, jumped out of his hand and fell straight on his leg = 27 stitches, then theirs the ones who are over confident and decide to take the guards off when they have over size sanding disc they want to fit, a few months ago I seen a chap at work do this, his hand slipped down the grinder Body, onto the sanding disc he took a nasty lump of flesh off the side of his fingers= month off work, he didn't get paid for being so stupid.

Avoidable accident at 14 years of age, pretty dodgy!

To quote Malcolm
"It's very irresponsible - he'll be playing with fabrication when he should be out meeting girls"

Surely a good thing. By getting into this business he will avoid all that nonsense, might even remove himself from the gene pool altogether, or at least for the next umpteen years. Saving loads of potential hassle.

Otherwise I would go with Hitch, learn how to do it safely at an early age when he is able to listen and he will accept it, and know how to do it safely, my boy is 12, he learned to weld at around 9, still wary of angle grinders, but can lay a lovely bead of Mig. When they are asking to try it is the time to share The Knowledge. You might get a load of cobblers from other 'responsible adults' but what do they know?

Chunko'.

My dad wasn't one for DIY and I wished I could have learnt how to use tools at an earlier age when I would have paid more attention to safety etc. Got my head around it all now and managed to keep all body parts and no trip to hospital but there was a couple of close calls! I now teach apprentices and most have no idea how to use basic tools safely excerpt the farming lads etc that have used the things since they can walk!

id be tempted to buy him one of his own.one of the cheaper ones,then if he does wrap his jumper around it theres less chance of it causing him real injury.
my old man used to be into making stuff out of wood i was more into sticking old banger back together so most of his tools met there death in my hands

With some proper gloves,no loose clothing flapping about and a decent set of goggles,he's not likely to do himself any serious harm.
We all have to lear.Better to show him now than run any risk of him having a go unsupervised 'just to see what it does'.
One thing I'm very wary of with an angle grinder is using the thin cutting discs.The cheap ones seem to fly to bits rather easily.

i never trust cheep disks only get decent ones as they are going very quick and after snapping the first disk i used in a 9inch Makita i am always weary.

A couple of years on can the OP let us know what happened next? Want to put to rest the PC/HSE worriers (I'm not having the government etc stopping me teaching my son everything i can that the schools won't) but also just curious to know

My Dad was a joiner and like me did all the jobs he could. Unfortuantely he broke his neck in the firebrigade when I was young. By then he had a very nice workshop at the bottom of the garden. Me being me made alsorts in there. I rebuit my first motorbike engine (a CZ250) when I was 8 or nine.

One of the other things I made was a wood lathe, I was about 11. A washing machine motor (that would rip arms off) on a 3" angle iron bed and a few other bits and bobs. It worked very well. One of the first things I made was for my Mam. It was stool for her dressing table. Four nicely turned legs, seat made from foam from yet another bike and covered with some pink fabric I asked my Mam for.

My lads arnt interested in what I do. My youngest does show some interest but not a lot and never have done. I wish mine wanted to learn. The youngest is now 17 so I dont think theres any hope

That's not the first time i've heard someone say that by a long way. My son is 20 months old and copies everything i do, i bought him a very realistic toy drill which he likes but when he sees the real thing he goes crazy for it, one of his first words was "hammer" etc, was yours like that at that age and if so what happened next? Honestly if you could do anything different or not do what would it be? I know making things isn't very fashionable, unless you can make an iphone, but i'm going to try my best.

I guess for your son you taught him a fair few things, probably more than you realise, and he'll find them more useful when he has more need for it later on, when he has a car and a house to keep up, then he'll appreciate what you taught him. Most people don't know even how to use basic tools, in fact a guy i know asked me how i'd done something the other day and it came out that at mid 30s he didn't know what an angle grinder was

jabr72 said:

it came out that at mid 30s he didn't know what an angle grinder was

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theres a couple off old boys up the road from us that run an old sawmill in the wood at the back of there place, i popped in to get some bearers from them and found them cutting an 2" steel drive shaft with a hacksaw, i said to them "you'd be better with an angle grinder for that" to which they replied "we need it cut on the straight not at an angle"

i had to go home and change my trousers

I was building a fence for someone who's son was giving me a hand, after banging on a fair few feather boards i handed the hammer to the son (must have been late twenties) and it became instantly clear he didn't know how to hammer a nail, i don't mean not very good at it i mean really had never held a hammer before. Naturally he works in IT

Don't know how we're going to pay off all this national debt but it better be IT based as we're fooked for anything else. Unless we can make money assembling Swedish flat packed furniture for the Chinese or something as that's the extent of 90% of the populations practical experience.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jabr72 View Post
it came out that at mid 30s he didn't know what an angle grinder was
theres a couple off old boys up the road from us that run an old sawmill in the wood at the back of there place, i popped in to get some bearers from them and found them cutting an 2" steel drive shaft with a hacksaw, i said to them "you'd be better with an angle grinder for that" to which they replied "we need it cut on the straight not at an angle"

i had to go home and change my trousers

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That's fife for you

Hitch said:

My 3y/o wants a kettle and toaster for her birthday

Sounds like shes getting ready o move out

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How about this one?

http://www.mailorderexpress.com/Klein_BOSCH_Toys_Right_Angle_Grinder.asp?aid=froogle08

Andy from Workshopshed said:

How about this one?

http://www.mailorderexpress.com/Klein_BOSCH_Toys_Right_Angle_Grinder.asp?aid=froogle08

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i got my son this bosch toy drill

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Theo-Klein-To...vr_id=&cguid=5d5ed4081210a0aad4c1eaa1fecfa67c

and it's excellent, makes a very realistic noise and when you press in on the drill bit the pitch changes and red light flashes. He prefers DeWalt but what can you do

jabr72 said:

i got my son this bosch toy drill
He prefers DeWalt but what can you do

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Paint it yellow?

jabr72 said:

I was building a fence for someone who's son was giving me a hand, after banging on a fair few feather boards i handed the hammer to the son (must have been late twenties) and it became instantly clear he didn't know how to hammer a nail, i don't mean not very good at it i mean really had never held a hammer before. Naturally he works in IT

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We're not all like that. I work in IT and have almost finished restoring my first car. Built couple kitchens and many other things along the way.
Theres hope for all geeks yet you know

Shug said:

We're not all like that. I work in IT and have almost finished restoring my first car. Built couple kitchens and many other things along the way.
Theres hope for all geeks yet you know

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I'm also an IT chap, missed that slur from jabr72

We were taught to hammer in nails young in our family, had one of those boards where you hammer in the pins to keep the blocks in place.
http://www.taosgifts.co.uk/tap-tap-art-hammer--nails-hammering-fun-for-kids-225-p.asp

Got into grinding and welding quite late as mostly lived in flats and rented accomodation with no outside space, managed to strip and rebuild a bicycle in the corner of my bedroom in one place though.

Had great fun watching out HR manager's face when I asked to be sent on a welding course for a work long service award.

Andy from Workshopshed said:

I'm also an IT chap, missed that slur from jabr72

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wasn't a slur unless you read it that way. "Naturally he works in IT... as he can't do anything else so what else could he do" is how i meant it, might have been retail or hospitality though i suppose. Likely to be a correlation between the increase in clean fingered jobs and the loss of basic skills though, wouldn't you agree? Personally i work in medicine so the dirty fingernails on Monday are a problem for me

jabr72 said:

"Naturally he works in IT... as he can't do anything else so what else could he do"

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Yup, still sounds like an insult...

rikrobson said:

That's fife for you

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lol yeah we call them the mountain monkeys

good old boys but a bit dim