I do residential construction and was looking for equipment that can shape concrete foundations, piers and slabs. Although I already have a 4.5in angle grinder with a diamond cup, I was searching for something that would leave a smoother, flatter surface and would not put out clouds of harmful annoying dust. The Bosch 1773AK Concrete Surfacing Grinder is well designed and made from quality materials. It requires no skill to use. In fact, its boring. Just set it on top of a foundation wall or slab, apply a little pressure and drag it along at about 1/4in per second. The surface grinder has a dust removal port that mostly eliminates the dust clouds. An adapter (included) brings the diameter up to 1-1/4in and then another one on the vacuum hose (not included) allows connection to the 2-1/2in port on a Ridgid shop vac. Although the Bosch surface grinder functions correctly and does remove dust, I would call it strictly a surfacing tool rather than a grinder. Ironically, the equipment works best on surfaces that are already flat. This expensive, specialized tool leaves a flat, finished surface of exposed aggregate. It is for this specific task and does not replace the angle grinder. If I have to remove chunks, round corners or shape the material down to a somewhat flat surface, I go back to the angle grinder. Bosch 1773AK 5-Inch Concrete Surfacing Grinder
I purchased the Bosch surfacing grinder to perform some floor preparation for a tile job. The concrete slab was cracked at one of the induced cracking points. One side of the crack was raised about 1/8 inch higher than the other side. The crack was near the door, and the height difference made it impossible to set the new tile so that the new tile height matched the old tile height, outside the room.
I used the Bosch surfacing grinder to level the crack along a 3 foot length of the crack. It work flawlessly. In about 15 minutes, the leveling job was done. The tiles line up perfectly, now. The grinder was used with a shop vac, and there was virtually no dust, until the shop vac filter got plugged.
One of the previous reviewers mentioned a problem with the circuit breaker tripping when the grinder is used. I also experienced this problem. It occurred to me that the shop vac was operating on the same circuit as the grinder. The combined current load exceeded the circuit breaker rating. I switched the shop vac to an outlet on a separate breaker, using an extension cord. This fixed the breaker tripping problem. If you have high powered stereo gear, other appliances, or heavy lighting loads on the same breaker as the grinder, the breaker will likely trip. Make sure to put the grinder on its own lightly loaded circuit.
Over the years, I have purchased several other Bosch tools from Amazon.com. I find Amazon's service to be good, and I think very highly of Bosch's tools. Bosch's Bulldog hammer drill, router, jig saw, and 1/4 sheet sander all exceeded my expectations for quality, durability, and value. The Bulldog is excellent for broken tile and thin-set removal, by the way. You wouldn't want to tear up flooring for an entire house using this thing. But for removing tiles in a bathroom or bedroom, the Bulldog is a great asset.
My only gripe for the concrete surfacing grinder is the price, and the price for alternate grinding wheels. Both seem a bit steep. There aren't that many choices out there, and I think Bosch plays this fact to their advantage. I would buy it again, though, in spite of the price. I dinged the product 1 star for the price. A Bosch 8.5A, 5 inch grinder is about $150. Add $20 for more amperage, and $75 for a grinding wheel and you're up to $245. I think this is the true dollar value for this tool, and I would give 5 stars if the price was in the $250 range.
06/13/06 Update: I ended up grinding about 30 linear feet of concrete cracks to achieve a smooth and level surface. The Bosch concrete surfacer performed flawlessly. It easily paid for itself on that one tile job. I also used it to remove old drywall mud from the slab. The residual drywall mud was left over from the initial house construction. The carpet guys just installed carpet pad over it. The tool cleaned the concrete very nicely, thereby leaving a fresh concrete surface for the thinset to adhere to.
Make sure you get supplemental dirt bags, rated for concrete and drywall dust, for your Shop Vac. The regular bags catch most, but not all the concrete dust. The regular bags also allow the Shop Vac pleated filter to plug up very quickly. The bags rated for concrete dust work beautifully.
I used 1773AK concrete grinder to remove quikrete concrete resurfacer that never turned color and was streaky. It did excellent job of removing product that was applied 1/8" thick. Dust collection was outstanding provided you either cleaned or shaked filter of vacuum often. Product loses star because it tends to trip overload protection often even when not pushed hard;despite using a 12 gauge ext cord(50feet). Overload tripped more often w/ new wheel which grabs a bit at first. Overload trips less when wheel has some wear on it. So far I have ground 13 sections of sidewalk and went used 3 diamond cup wheels(2 dc510s, 1 Dc520). I like 510 wheel the best for my aplication. One wheel and 4 sections of sidewalk to go. UPDATE:Finished the job. Grinder did well except for annoying overloads.
We wanted to replace about 1500 sq feet of floor tile set on concrete with about 3/8" of thinset. The tile was easy to remove using Bosch's SDS Plus hammer drill, but the thinset did not want to come up. So I took a gamble a bought the Bosch concrete surfacing grinder. Its great! It's so easy to use my wife did about 95% of the grinding. And if you hook the grinder to a good shop vac there is hardly any dust.
This tool is amazing. I purchased it to level/grade a concrete slab beneath what was later to be a tiled floor. The slab was more than a year old, and filled with aggregate - very hard. I had to remove about an inch and a half at the thickest point, tapering down to nothing over a 2 by 4 foot area. I researched online and asked around, and settled on this Bosch product. I have owed other Bosch products, and other highly respected brands as well, having no particular loyalty other than to quality and value.
This grinder was impressive. Solidly built, easy to use, professional results. I followed the set-up suggestions, particularly those pertaining to the shop vac filter connections, and finished the entire job in about two hours. Virtually no clean-up, no dust escaped the well-designed skirt and grinder head assembly. My GC stopped by to help, stuck around for about an hour to try out the new tool, then left, concluding I had no need for his assistance. He was impressed as much as I (which is a rare thing as he is a perfectionist with 27 yrs experience and an impressive array of both old-school and modern-technology construction and power tools).
It's so much better for concrete leveling/planing than an open-skirt angle grinder (which we used for cutting some drainage slots). It sits flat on the floor and does its thing, leaving behind a smooth level surface with no ambient dust. I didn't have problems with overheating, though I could see how one might if applying excessive pressure for long periods (hours) at a time. To those who complained about it not being a general purpose tool, I agree, it is great for leveling and not at all useable for slots, tight detail work, or general purpose grinding. But then again, don't buy a race horse if you want milk - buy a cow! - Bosch'
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