Angle grinders are OK but the cut off wheels are small compared to circular saw blades, You can get larger circular saw blades which both cut faster and have more material so they last longer. They cost about $3.00 a blade for metal cut off disks, I like the Circular saw also for its huge blade shields which reduce the amount of debris that hits you in the face.


Warning: long cotton pants, and boots should be worn. lots of hit metal particles will land on your shoes and burn through socks easily,  nylon, or vinyl shoes, with little effort, and bare skin will hurt and blister after prolonged contact. Safety glasses and working our doors is recommended. The fumes of the glue holding together the grit of cut off wheels (angle grinders and circular saws) are not good to breath.


-----Original Message-----
From: reno bikes <renobikeproject@gmail.com>
To: The Think Tank <thethinktank@bikecollectives.org>
Sent: Tue, Jun 23, 2009 6:16 pm
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Cutting Bike Locks

angle grinder with cutting wheel.



On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 3:56 PM, Stuart O Anderson <soa@ri.cmu.edu> wrote:
Bolt-cutters are low cost and pretty safe, and will get you through
cables and chains.  A hacksaw is slow and labor intensive but will
eventually get you through a u-lock.  An angle-grinder with a good
cutting disc is my preferred tool for this work, although I wouldn't
feel comfortable handing it to a random volunteer.  If you do get an
angle grinder, consider getting a 6" one so you can use it to cut up
frames too, I've also heard (but never used myself) that a portable
hand-held bandsaw
(http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200308967_200308967)
works well for this...

Stuart

On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 6:25 PM, Scott
Beardsley<scott@sacbikekitchen.org> wrote:
> I'm involved with the Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen in California. We
> recently sealed a deal with the local Police to take 30-40 bikes/month
> off of their hands in return for working with troubled (meaning
> law-breaking) teens (something we're doing already anyways). I'm
> really excited about this and it'll bring even more exposure to our
> quickly growing shop/org along with giving us a ton of extra used
> parts. I have a question about breaking/cutting locks. Most of the
> bikes we will get still have locks (U-locks, chains, cables locks,
> etc) on them. What is the best way to remove these? Right now we are
> passing it on to the customer, but it'd be nice to at least have the
> proper tools if they wanted to DIY it. So far we have zero power tools
> in the shop. This might end up being the exception. What do we need to
> consider? Eye protection for everyone? Tell me how you handle these
> issues in your shop.
>
> Thanks!
> Scott
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