Parkside (Lidl) Cordless Angle Grinder

I picked up a £29.99 cordless angle grinder (no battery, no charger) as I already had a 4Ah battery and charger that came with the £59.99 400nm impact gun (which is a superb quality piece of kit, and its got some serious oomph, way more than any pneumatic hand held gun ive used!)

Back to the grinder....

2 issues, the no load speed is only about 7500rpm, not the 10,000 advertised, I didn't charge my battery (as I dont intend on using it and long term storage outside of 30-60% charge is very damaging for a lithium pack). My 3 bar battery indicator shows full, however these show full at anything over about 30% from what I've read online, so not to be trusted. I'll charge it up tonight and see how it goes.

Issue 2...
It's easily got the worst on switch I've ever seen, horrible wobbly bit of plastic that latches in at the end with a nasty sharp feeling hook thats held in by the spring tension of the switch trying to return to the off position. The side of the "slot" that the thumb switch slides up and down is notched on one side so assuming you're right handed, its like a sort of safety feature, you have to guide the wobbly switch away from it, as your right thumb naturally pushes towards it - no "safety" for lefties I guess! Its pretty awful, and its the looseness of the switch and the sharp cheap catch feeling that makes it so. It frequently gets caught on something and won't move from off, must be a notch or catch under the button that cant be seen, perhaps you're supposed to press it in before you slide it.

The casing plastic is cheap, sharp looking flashings etc.

Overall, looks nice, but the quality is absolutely no where near that of the big 400nm impact driver I bought. Bit of a let down to say the least. Although it was only £29.99 and I've got the battery and charger and I'm sure it'll do exactly the job its supposed to - I'm still tempted to take it back.

This one is the newer version that looks the same as the old one, but the battery is at an angle to the body - not sure if thats any different.

Anyone else got one, what are your thoughts?

I would take it back and wait for the corded 240v angle grinder if I were you

The corded one is fabby, like the impact gun, a pure pleasure to use

I use a battery drill driver, they have incredible low speed torque, that battery compressor is great, the battery impact guns are weak but great for general nut and bolt work

Of course this may be the one tool that saves your a** one day because it is so portable...

My main worry would be whether it has enough high speed grunt to cut properly, which is harder to achieve for a battery than low speed grunt

A small grinder disc cuts up to 3 inches away from the power delivery centreline which is very different from drilling holes and screwing screws

GL

Those grinders are a heap of crap. My friend bought one [ignoring my advice ] and found that it would not accept a grinding disc, only the cutting disc which came with it and lost power after a very short time.

Best left alone.

Don't keep one in your car or carry it around. You are committing the crime of "going equipped" or to be exact

"A person shall be guilty of an offence if, when not at his place of abode, he has with him any article for use in the course of or in connection with any burglary or theft."

Applies to a lot of tools of course but battery grinders are used a lot for theft including bikes and catalytic converters.

Rubbish, offence is only committed if it can be proved it's intended for something illegal- burglary or theft. Just having a battery angle grinder is not any kind of offence.

I'm a bit out of touch with recent Lidl diy stuff, is the grinder 12 or 20V?

They are congregating most of their kit around a generic 20v system at the minit

so some stuff can be sold without a battery+charger

most of my stuff is the old 12v system but I need lighter kit because of thumb and wrist trubbles

The 20v system will be more powerful but there's a weight penalty to deal with

Edited By Ady1 on 20/02/2020 16:47:14

Ady, I'm cuffed to bits with my 20v impact gun (the biggest of 3 or 4 models they did) it's extremely powerful and top quality, mag alloy casing etc. I've got a 240v grinder I already (B&Q pro, done a hell of a lot of mileage over the last 10 years, getting noisy now, never serviced it....) I was buying this cordless grinder based on the quality of the impact gun.

Larry...... Yeah, you've hit the nail on the head I think.

I'll check this will take a grinding disk but I don't think it matters, it's going back, the poor quality of the plastic switch alone is an indication of everything else, CLEARLY not cut from the same cloth as the 400nm 20v impact gun.

Old Mart the 12v stuff I've seen just doesn't have the guts, but some of it is extremely portable, perfect for light tasks, general screwing drill driving die grinding etc.

Lesson learnt, even though the range of 20v powertools from Lidl use the same battery charger, they are clearly not all made to the same standard, take each one in your hand and judge quality! (Wasn't possible in this case, they were all cable tied shut)

Ahhh well...

I missed that impact gun Russ, lucky you, I will look out for it

Got the corded gun which has yet to be defeated by a wheelnut or anything else

Well worth keeping an eye out for it just make sures it's 400nm and not the 300 or less, it's motor is 4x the size!! I had to take a big 32mm nut off my dad's van that hasn't moved since 98' and has andbeen well soaked in road salt, it blitzed it straight off, me and him were getting ready for a fight. It hit it so hard it damaged the flanks of the nut even with a good 6 sided impact socket (which wasn't welcome but we know to dial it down a bit next time, it has a digital torque selector on the grip, a button cycles through them)

Not rubbish at all. To get a conviction, the prosecution only has to show you're away from home, have the tool, and have an intent to use it. In practice showing 'intent' is woolly, down to a court to decide. A tradesman with a legitimate reason for having tools in his van is much safer than a youth caught going into a bike shed with an angle grinder up his jumper.

Better to have a solid reason for having the thing than to claim it's not a crime until they've proved intent. Won't be a problem if the officer is persuaded, otherwise he'll have you down the station, an unpleasant time-waster even if they subsequently decide not to proceed.

Best advice about the law is to steer clear. Although it's amazing what ne'er do wells get away with, the full weight of the law tends to fall on anyone rich enough to pay fines whilst being too poor to pay a QC. My local paper often reports yobbos going equipped getting Community Orders, whilst a middle-class gent is fined £500 for letting his dog foul the footpath.

Dave

You are obviously ignoring the first line of what I called rubbish " Don't keep one in your car...You are committing an offence" which is total rubbish. Your interpretation/opinion has nothing at all to do with my reply which was just to the point that it's wrong. I don't need your barrack room lawyer spouting off with a lecturing "what's what", I know what I'm on about and I was right in what I said, actually dealing with the offence many times over 30years in the police helps a lot.

Ideal to have in the car if you get clamped

Mike

I stand by what I said, please don't edit what I said to suit your case.
While guidance is that there will normally not be any action without intent, the lettter of the law does not require it. The law (Theft act 1968) also says that possesion of an item made or adapted for burglary or theft is considered intent on it's own. Obviously the case of one in your car depends on you being in or near the car and not at home.
The point of the wording of this law is that it's does not need proof of intent, if it did it would be too hard to enforce. It's basically up to you to show reasonable cause for having the item.
Hopefully it is applied with reason, but you could end up on the wrong side. Try not to fail the "attitude test" for startrers. Finally it's not the police who decide what is an offence or who is guilty.

Robert G8RPI.

What have I editted that makes any difference to your misleading post? Since when has having angle grinder in your car makes it made or adapted to commit theft/burglary.?

You removed "or carry it around" leaving just the car part.

I just quoted the law on made for or adapted items, I did not say that a grinder met that test.
You are just reading what you want to see, not what is there, I won't be responding further to this.

Edited By Robert Atkinson 2 on 20/02/2020 20:03:51

Mike,

Your choice of words is unnecessarily aggressive. Using the word 'Rubbish' on Robert and accusing me of being a 'Barrack Room Lawyer spouting off' is surely excessive. Try to keep it polite please.

Dave

Complete and utter bunk, if you have no previous and are of good character you need have no fear in carrying anything which isn't illegal in itself, no one will be interested.

Gentlemen,

Once again a resonably interesting post has turned into a barrack room brawl, does it always have to end this way and spoil everything. We all have our opinions whether right or wrong but dont spoil the post, do it somewhere else.

Martin P

Don't think that "grinder" would get you into any trouble since I doubt if it would last long enough to cut anything !

Looks like junk

Feels like junk

Is junk.