Kevin is looking at one of his older 80-grit flap disks for his 4-1/2″ grinder. He’s used the grinding pad he’s showing quite a bit on aluminum, and you can see how it loads up with the metal. Lots of tiny bits of aluminum are stuck into the grit.

That makes it harder to grind and harder to get a good finish with it. It also makes the grinder run harder, so then you start to burn the disk and burn the metal. But Kevin found a way around that.

He shows a disk from Cibo. Kevin shows the label, which says “INOX” and “steel.” He’s not sure what “INOX” means, but apparently it’s intended to be used for working with steel. But Kevin discovered it doesn’t load up with aluminum while giving the metal a beautiful finish. Whether you’re cleaning, polishing or grinding aluminum, this disk does a great job.

Kevin puts on his safety gear and grinds a small aluminum sculpture. Afterward, you can see how shiny the aluminum is, took out a huge glob of weld, and cleaned the edge of the sculpture without gumming up the grinding pad.

The metal grinder pad stays nice and clean, so it cuts really well. It doesn’t take a lot of pressure – you don’t have to hog it. That’s good because hogging it causes everything to get hot … which makes the aluminum melt … which makes it stick … which just compounds the problem.

But what if you don’t have one of these disks? What if you’re using an older style flap and it’s clogged up with aluminum? Just run your disk against the edge of a piece of steel to can raise some sparks. That’ll help clean out the aluminum in the disk and bring some life back to it.

Kevin hopes this gives viewers another tool in their toolbox to help make their lives a little easier. It’ll make your grinding go smoother and quicker, and you’ll have less of a mess on your bench when you’re done.

Kevin is ready to go back to work, making this a great time to hit that subscribe button to see more free how-to videos.

Well, you might want to stick around for another moment to test your reflexes ….

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