Extending the life of your cutting wheels...an interesting test

I just watched a video comparing plunge cuts and gouge cuts with an angle grinder. It was enlightening! The plunge cuts were much faster, but the wheel wore down nearly 10 times as fast as compared to doing gouge cuts.

Plunge cuts are where you let the wheel go all the way through the material, then work your way across. Gouge cuts are where the bring the wheel over the surface of the material, over and over and over until you eventually cut through.

The slow mo shots show small fragments of the wheel actually coming off during the plunge cuts. Good to know!!

Of course he tested on 1.2mm thick material, which would vibrate much more than thicker stuff. Still a neat thing to know though however. I will stick with my gouge cuts, unless I am very short on time for completing a project.

This was very interesting to see! I have not tried any form of metalworking yet, but this will be something that I keep in mind for the future.

Glad you found it interesting!

Here is a video confirming.