Converting sander/polisher to grinder

Darwins Child

Thanks for the advice, Chase. I appreciate it.

I contacted a Hitachi tool service center this morning, described what I proposed to do with our Hitachi sander / polisher and then went there with the tool so that the tech could more adequately advise me.

In short, my tool's max. 3400 rpm and an arbor that does not have flat spots on its side near the gearbox make it inappropriate for even occasional conversion to use as a grinder.

The good thing is that after having explained to the guy exactly what temporary task I wanted to accomplish with a grinder, he marched over to a shelf full of used tools that were for sale, picked up a grinder, handed it to me and said "here, you can borrow this until Monday". "Borrow"! Now, there's a word you don't here too often at a business nowadays. Not only that, but no deposit or credit card was required and he even refused my offer to leave my Hitachi as collateral.

To sum up, I took him up on his offer, shook his hand, walked out the door and drove to PA, where I bought a 4.5" masonry grinding disk for just over $4. So this job is going to cost $4, plus some gas to take me back and forth a couple of times to the tool service place. How's that for a happy ending?

The only possible downside is that he also said "if you break it, you've bought it, OK?" And I agreed. This means that for this job, this particular tool is going to be treated probably the best it has in its entire life.

BTW, the guy said that a grinder is one of the most useful power hand tools that one can buy, and went on to explain some of its various uses. I was impressed to the point that I might actually buy one of the things.