An Electronic Brake for your Bench Grinder
It’s bad news for a bench grinder to keep spinning when it’s off. Luckily, there’s finally something you can do about it. Check out the links below to purchase the MAKESafe Power Tool Brake – A UL Listed Motor Control and Braking System for Bench Grinders. Shop Now.
Or, read on for more information …
Table of Contents
The Humble Bench Grinder
The humble bench grinder can be found in nearly every shop and it’s low cost and gentle hum can make it feel like an entry-level tool. However, it deserves the same respect as any other cutting machine. It can do amazing things if used well and can also wreak havoc if you don’t give it the respect it deserves. If you’ve spent a lot of time in shops, then you know that bench grinders and pedestal grinders are a frequent cause of serious injury and even death. It’s no surprise then that bench grinders are a favorite citation target of OSHA inspectors. See our Bench Grinder Safety page to learn more.
The Problem: Your Grinder Keeps Spinning (Coasting)
A well-balanced grinder will spin forever, even after you turn it off. An average 6″ bench grinder spins for over 2 minutes after being turned off and a 10″ bench grinder can spin for over 4 minutes. Everybody knows this is unsafe so they’ll often jab the spinning wheel with a piece of scrap material to slow it down. Doing that can load the wheel with foreign materials. At best, this reduces the effectiveness of your wheel. At worse, the thermal expansion of this embedded material (like aluminum) can cause a working wheel to explode!
The Solution: An Electronic Brake for your Bench Grinder
With the MAKESafe Power Tool Brake, you can stop your grinder in just 1-2 seconds. You also get an emergency stop button, accidental restart prevention, and a new control panel you can mount anywhere that is convenient.
Easy Plug-and-Play Installation
Our greatest innovation is making the entire process plug-and-play. All you need to do to install our product is to plug it into your bench grinder, set your braking speed, and mount the control panel. It takes most people about five minutes to complete the entire installation.
How it Works
The MAKESafe Power Tool Brake uses a principle called DC Injection – a braking technology long used in industrial settings to stop high-inertia machines. When you switch the tool off, a DC current is injected into the motor windings, creating a magnetic field that brings the spinning wheel to a stop in just a few seconds.
Traditional DC injection braking requires extensive wiring, custom installation, and a separate control system (typically a VFD). MAKESafe eliminates all of that – just plug it into your bench grinder and eliminate the coasting hazard.
Built for Industrial Use
Our products are UL508 Listed Industrial Motor Controls – designed, tested, and certified for use in industrial environments.
Just ask our customers!
