Aldi 40V angle grinder mechanical teardown 

It's bizarro world, when Bg Clive is talking apart power tools and Matthias Wandell is measuring battery performance. I guess AvE will take up woodworking soon.

It's amazing how such a simple gearbox manages to sound so rough!

That right angle drive is called a spiral bevel gear set. The big one is the crown wheel and the small one is the pinion.

Nice to see Clive doing more mechanical stuff! I used to work in product development for power tools and have worked on some 20V/40V battery platforms. For those asking how the switching works: usually one of the battery connector pins is reserved for communication, and it happens there so that the battery knows what voltage is needed. Power tool batteries are comprised of a layer (industry term P, ie. 1P, 2P, 3P) of 5 18650 Lithium Ion cells, which produce 3.6V nominal (4V max) per cell -> therefore outputting "20V". If you add a second 5 cell layer (this is 2P) and connect them in parallel - you will double the capacity of your battery. However, newer battery platforms can switch these to 40V - there's a switch in the battery circuit that will allow it to change how the second layer is connected - parallel (20V) and series (40V). This also allows the battery to be backward compatible - it will just run in parallel unless it detects the tool is 40V.

Disappointed that we didn't get an AvE unboxing with a chainsaw. But the 20v/40v battery looks very intriguing. Looking forward to a teardown of the battery pack and the charger. Unbelievable steal for the price you paid, I'd go and get 4 more.

Handy thing to keep in the car incase you need to remove a wheel clamp.

Just found your channel. Former jet engine mechanic here. You are now my new bed time stories. Keep doing excellent tear downs! Ohh, and I have an Idea I’d like to run by you, it’s an invention of sorts. Have a great evening Clive.

BigClive stepping in AvE territory! Minus the "aboot" and "release the smoo!" 😀

They are on aldis web site for a tenner now. I have 3 of them which have been in use for a couple of years now really cant fault them. They may not be the same as the high end manufacturers but for the price including a 3 year warranty you really cant go wrong. I also have the hammer drill and impact from the same range and have found them all to be good value.

The captive ball bearings for the guard is a nice touch.

My first mains soft start angle grinder was from Aldi 10 years ago. Their tools are brilliant and great value

I like the adjustable "on the fly" guard mechanism. That would be very handy to have. Great video Clive.

Thank you for answering the BIG question I had about Aldi advertising of 20/40v batteries, even Aldi couldn't answer my question when I asked them! K Watt.

I used mine for trimming concrete slabs for a new patio. It's a capable machine.3 year no quibble guarantee and returnable at any Aldi.Batteries are half the price of some other brands and are sometimes discounted.

Thanks for doing this Clive, now I can use mine knowing its better quality than I thought.. 👍🏻

This is like the old school AVE videos that he doesn't do anymore. Great content and I love it.

I bought into the Aldi Ferrex dual voltage tool line a few years ago. The angle grinder is one of my favorites and works great for my needs. I trashed the jigsaw and the multitool but got replacements under the 3 year warranty. Although it took the months to send them to me, can't complain for the price honestly. Also got a bunch of 3d printed adapters to use the spare batteries as Powerbanks. Also retrofitted a trash picked NiCd drill to use the same packs and one to run any 18V Makita cordless tools on.

I love Aldi tools, the batteries are interchangeable so you only need a couple for all the tools. I have the brushless version of the angle grinder and it's very good.

Ave is proud of you. A good teardown

Amazed to see on such a cheap motor that it seems to have been dynamically balanced as displayed by the metal machined out of part of the rotor segments

Hey Clive. I've used a LIDL 20V angle grinder on a construction site and have taken it apart a few times. Things that make them fail A LOT quicker than their expensive cousins (it's not necessarily the mechanics!): - no protection against grinding dust ingress - no conformal coating of the PCB(S) - battery pack PCBS don't have coating either - motor switch burns out quickly (rated 20A, 36VDC!) as it heavily arcs when turning the tool on. Just clean those tools with compressed air when done working and you're good to go. Cheers!

more mechanical teardowns!

Aldi is my supplier of choice for power tools. Generally I have done well with them,, but not universally well. My hedge cutter worked for less than a second then no more, an angle grinder refused to work then worked, then stopped & a 20/30 volt battery refused to recharge. All of this covered by the 3 year warranty & the rest of the tools which count well in to double figures have been blessings that make so many jobs easier & faster & I don’t find that quality that different to the much more expensive brands. Thanks for sharing!

AvE would like to have a word. J/K I am happy to see someone else reviewing cheap tools. It does really help us consumers know what to tempt fate on.

It's nice to see metal gears and not plastic gears considering how cheap this item is, even though the gears are obviously very noisy. That is a pretty decent looking motor. Looks like this would be okay for a cheap tool.

Can't wait to see what they did to make these tools and 20V/40V batteries interchangeably compatible.

That's about the crunchiest angle grinder I've ever heard.

Thanks mate, I'm looking at buying this next week in Australia.

Good price for light duty use - The 20V/40V approach is interesting. As for video colour temperature it's much improved 🤣 Sound also seems a little less sibilant, to me very acceptable - it's a toss up, do you go for HiFi quality with booming bass etc. or clear sound with a little sibilance which gives better intelligibility - after all it's an instructional video not a Albert Hall concert! Looking forward to the circuit analysis.

The angle grinder design mechanically is the same as a wall powered one. My dad always takes the gearbox apart since the cheaper ones usually don't have the grease on the gears but beside them. They get quite a bit quieter with grease in the right place.

So fabulous. Thanks Big Clive.

Got brushed and brushless, work very well good vfm

10£ is an excellent deal...hell even the 20£ price is pretty good...assuming it will last a while. Can't wait for the next video...I like seeing the electronic bits :)

I have the Parkside (Lidl) one. So long as you use the 4Ah battery it's actually pretty good given I think I paid £30 for it. I also love that it has a speed control, it has 6 levels between like 10krpm and maybe 1000rpm or less, great for sanding. That said, like all battery angle grinders it eats through batteries rapidly. It's more for if you need to do a few cuts or grind a few things, same as every battery grinder. In fact I've bought into the entire Parkside system and most are amazing for the price. The impact driver (used to cost £20 but now £30) is actually absurdly high quality, it is competitive with the DeWalt equivalent even, and easily beats the middle ground tools like Stanley, Ryobi, etc. In fact if you want to know whether a Parkside tool is good, check the label on the tool. If it says Kompernass then the tool was actually designed in Germany. The entire 20V range is designed by them, and most of the tools are good. As far as I can tell they're exclusive to Lidl, because I can't find them rebranded under anything else. Another one I'm really impressed with is the little SDS hammer drill (the triangle one), it absolutely destroys any combi drill (I have a Makita drill with hammer mode and it's terrible compared to it), e.g. the Makita completely failed to get through our driveway concrete, but the £20 tiny lightweight triangle SDS one went through easily. They also have an ok 12V system. Sadly not made by Kompernass, and you can tell that even the molds aren't the same. That said they sell a 12V drill with a detachable chuck (to reveal just a hex bit holder}. And I absolutely love this thing as an electric screwdriver. It has a ton of power (I only really keep it on the 4th torque limit setting (it has 18 iirc, then drill mode), and in the fast gear is stupid fast. And the battery lasts an enternity between charges. I absolutely love this thing and use it every day. For £17.99 it has been so ridiculously good, the only thing I wish it had would be a locking hex bit (like the 20V impact driver has). And I also bought the £17.99 12V angle grinder that uses the small 76mm discs. I haven't used it myself yet. But my grandfather (who used to build houses his whole life, so knows quality tools) borrowed it to install a new shower, cutting tiles etc (he wanted a small grinder as his are large ones). He said it chewed through it all like nothing. Again haven't used it myself yet though, but for £18 I'm already happy. I would recommend the 4Ah battery for it over the 2Ah probably. Lidl also have a 3 year warranty on all 20V and 12V tools, that is very good. I really love the Parkside brand and must own over 10 of the 20V line, and I think 3-4 of the 12V line. For what I've spent on them + the tools, I'd only own a few Makita tools. If anyone has any questions about the other tools I own in the range, ask away. They aren't all as good as the impact wrench or that 12V screwdriver (technically a drill), but considering they all cost less than £35, I feel expecting DeWalt/Makita/etc performance out of all of them isn't fair.

Thanks for pointing this out, I have bought of course. I strongly dislike the way retailers keep changing the mechanical design of their 18/20/36/40v power tool batteries so I tend to buy without battery and then fudge in an external Bosch 18 or 36v battery. Looking forward to second part.

I got a couple of the 20V batteries, they are surprisingly good if you keep in mind they have no working protection if you misuse them for own projects.

I'm sad he didn't open the pack. For a tenner I wanted to know what kind and how many cells there were. 😔 Hoping for it to be in the "next video" if he does one.

Not a bad bit of kit for the price. It did sound like some greaze was needed on the bearings. I'm looking forward to going a lot deeper on the bench with you back on the IOM.

yes looking forward to seeing how that battery pack is working. thanks!

When I read Aldi I wasn't expecting something that seems to have some quality to it. Let alone a dual mode battery.

I'm always amazed at the variety of products sold by Aldi outside of the US compared to what is commonly found in the stores here. However, with that being said I don't visit either of the Aldi US locations near where I live very often so I may be missing out on seeing many short term non-food related items.

Hello Clive, I have two of Ferrex 240 volt 5¨ grinders and a bandsaw, which work well and seem to be good value for money. The grinders cost $29.00 Australian and have been running OK for about 3 years now. If they fail, I will throw them in the bin and by another one, rather that spend an obscene amount on the known brands.

First Aldi just opening in my town this year.

Jeez that gear drive sure makes a racket despite it being greased. It is an angle drive gear setup just like a car differential, the big gear is the crownwheel and the small one on the motor shaft is the pinion.

The Right Angle drive is a Spiral Bevel.

I bought a cheap angle grinder from harbor freight and it seemed to like it was extra noisy so I took the right angle drive apart and put a generous amount of wheel bearing grease in there it seemed to quiet it down quite a bit

First of all, Big Clive you're the best, ripping stuff apart to explain how it works for the benefit of others less well qualified, so they don't have to wreck their own gear doing so, BTW a bit like I often do myself. I like this 40v grinder with nice smooth start up and running speed. The standard 20/40v grinder Big Clive has dismantled here, its normal price is £20, The brushless model is about £10 more (both bare tools, no battery or charger). I have both models. The brushless model is supposed to be easier on the battery and runs at 20v, either smaller 20v battery pack or if you use the 20/40v battery it will still run at 20v 2X 20v in parallel (stacked) to give you extra current potentially providing more torque and slightly more than double running time due to shared load of 2X 20 packs reducing loss as heat, might need big Clive to explain that in more detail. The brushless grinder runs far too fast without any means to regulate it or slow it down, I am afraid to use it as I feel the poorly balanced disc that came with it might disintegrate at the high rpms, I had to keep shutting it on and off to keep the speed under control, I think it should have a recall for safety reasons, so I don't use it, it is probably ok for the lighter cutting blade but be warned its fast and powerful so wear all the protective gear. Hopefully before long Clive will do a teardown of it as well and maybe can guide on a speed control upgrade.

Bevel Gear. Was looking at those in my local Aldi. Angle grinders are always handy to have around.

Another good and actually useful vid- I wanted some bevel gears just like that for an RC car project that I've stalled on, the gear box did sound a bit rough but I guess cleaning up the teeth and improving the mesh/lash might be a good idea too- even at £19.99 they would be cheaper than similar gears used by Traxas, Arrma and the likes and probably just as good quality- And you get a motor, batteries and soft start circuit for any other future projects.... I bet you none the 3 Aldi's that I know of in Bradford don't have any left in stock, And definitely not at £9.99! knowing my luck. I was going to ask about the battery pack(it looks awfully small for 40v) but that's the next vid that's just popped up- lol. All the best.

On the subject of reduced prices, some time back, they were selling a Ferrex , free standing table saw, for £89-99, which, when they'd got a couple left in the store, they reduced to £59-99. I went in one day, and there was only one left, and it was down to £39-99. Needless to say, I bought it. 😊

Great teardown. Of all the tools I own my grinders make the worst sound. Next time I buy one I'll be happy to pay more for one that doesn't sound like it wants to kill me.

As soon as I saw the ferrex logo I knew this one was gonna be a banger

I had a Makita one like this. It lasted 2 years of DIY use and the board went and made it not economical to repair. I have various brushless tools on my scrap pile. This brand might be worth a look!

Cordless angle grinder or portable padlock pick?

I bought one of these a few years ago and its had some serious abuse and continues to work fine, the batteries hold up well too. I have other tools in the range, if you plug a 20V battery into this it does nothing but the 40V batteries work in the 20V tools. For the price and the guarantee their an excellent deal.

Hi you mentioned getting another tool from this range, strongly advise the cordless multifunctional tool. For me one of the best inventions of recent times , just so handy especially good at cutting square holes and cutting accurate small delicate things due to a very small amount of vibration 🙂

A nice teardown of a decently built device. Pity it doesn't have a brushless DC motor. And oh yeah, conformal coating on the PCB!

The right angle drive thing is a ring gear, which gets driven by the pinion gear. Similar to how the ring and pinion in a car's differential works.

man I have that same screw driver, and had no idea that the bits came out lol... big clive thumbs up for that ;)

Looks like I'm going to Aldi tomorrow for snacks and a grinder!

After testing out 2 machines with this battery pack we pretty much bought the whole set. So far good enough for personal use. You never know with this kind of things, but for this price you can give it a go. It's produced by the German company Walter. Can't wait for the follow up on the battery pack, since at some time i have to replace the 18650 in it or fiddle with the electronics. ;)

Honestly I want more of this because Ave barely does these anymore

Excellent. Just what I needed with my morning coffee... Yesterday I was reading about 3ph DC (I didn't know it existed) that is used in high speed motors and power tools. Apparently the magnets are on the rotor and the coils are in the housing or something. It is brushless. Maybe you can tear one of those down sometime. Cheers, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Interesting; and very easy to maintain. Assuming the bearings last, changing the brushes would be a doddle and this unit could potentially last for many years.

Have you noticed if the rotor windings copper or aluminium? Years ago I bought a couple of SDS drill from Aldi for emergency work but both of them burned out in a couple of days. When I dismantled them I found out that both rotor and stator windings were aluminium instead of copper.

Hypoid gear is probably the term you are looking for. Right angled drive with constant mesh teeth. Other methods of turning through 90 degrees do not give consistent pressure on the teeth and consequently have higher wear rates and/ or jerkier motion when transferring high power.

Ive got a ferrex set of tools and garden equipment ive had for 3 years the drill and grinder i have tried n my van and use regular as a forklift engineer. They work in a commercial environment . Id buy again . I have cut dozens of forklift fork tips off and buffed whiskey barrels for upcycling using dozens of flap discs . These tools are as good and probably better as any. Still going strong

Now I can’t wait for the electronics post of the video.

25 years ago, you'd be insane to buy something like this for actual use. These days, major brand names, bought ought by vulture capitalists, are this quality at best, if not worse.

Oh no, ive been shafted, Part 2 😫😫😫 can't wait ❤️

I like the old fashioned tools like my orange Black and Decker...cheers.

I like that it is so easy to dismantle

I own several Ferrex power tools and have never had a problem with any of them and the batteries are as good as some top makes

Free standing to-92 package in an angle grinder, Nice.

A very good Sunday morning to you all

That is a real bargin at that price. Almost disposable. I think that gear arrangement is known as 'Crown and pinion', with variations like 'Bevel' and 'spriral cut'. Similar to that found in car differentials.

I'm happy to see a cordless power tool that takes a chonkier battery torn asunder, just what I wanted for Christmas

FERREX! I got a 20-volt battery operated drill driver made by Ferrex and sold by Hofer (which is kind of the same as ALDI, but here in Austria) about a year-and-a-half ago. Was quite useful for putting some furniture together. What I experienced was that the brush fire (and resulting back-EMF spikes) in the motor must have been so severe that the actual PWM-switching logic got damaged. That thing started running on *full torque* even on its lowest trigger setting. For "low torque", I would have to squeeze the trigger all the way in, then back out to low. Weird thing. First time I used the tool after the fault, I tried to open the chuck to remove the tool bit. Resulted in a quite unpleasant twisting of my wrist. I disassembled the drill driver, got rid of the switching trigger module, and replaced it with a DPDT polarity-reverse switch and a pot-controlled 20V ESC module from the company that smiles the whole alphabet. I'm not using it as a drill driver anymore. Got a new one from Amazon also.

Got lidi brushless grinder that packed up with magic smoke from trigger and a bloody circular saw and reciprocating saw from Aldi some of the tools am junk tbh but loved Aldi titanium brushless set still going like beasts

The MOSFET is there for a soft start. On mine the soft start functionality stopped working soon after I bought it. I kept using it for a year or so and then one day it stopped working completely. Took it apart and the MOSFET had died in a spectacular way. The PCB underneath was completely charred. I replaced it with something close enough and I also had to remove a nearby zener diode because it had failed short. The soft start functionality now works again.

I've picked up one of these. Must say, I'm quite impressed. I've also picked up one of their 20v Cordless, Rotary Hammer Drills, for £20. It even comes with a spare chuck, for SDS bits. 😎

the little pinion gear holds the armature in the gear box housing. typically will have a nut holding it together, once removed the armature slides out of the gear and housing.

You should do a video giving over the various tools in your kit.

Clive does a BOLTR, I love it!

I love going to Aldi for my everyday groceries fresh Bananas, Mangos, Angle Grinders, and their take and bake pizza is good too!

At least now you have the right tool to be on par with AVEs unboxing videos.

I 'have' the 20v lidl version, its been great but after 2 years and much car/van work i finally wore out the motor which is waiting for a rewind. also it has a speed control.

Seasonal tip: most rolls of wrapping paper come with a brown kraft paper support that is ideal to stop grease getting on your workbench. If you don't have any, you haven't given enough presents.

Closing in on 1Million subs 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

It seems serviceable, they use a standard micro switch which is replaceable. The mosfet can also be easily replaced, if and when it goes pop. In some of the brushless designs, of the more expensive units, everything is potted in. So on those units when it dies, it goes in the bin.

I've got two Lidl 20v ones and there brilliant. Not as rough sounding as the one your taking apart. Cheaper batteries to.

I believe if I remember my automotive training in the day. This type is called an intersecting gear type. As for what we call it for short, a ring and pinion type set up.

The big cogy geary thing is the Crown wheel!

...And not once did you have to engage your safety squints to take apart the Jesus clip, well done!!! AvE would be proud!

Connect a 240v incandescent light bulb where the motor should be and watch what happens when the button is pushed. It's an ok grinder, cheap but pretty decent for occasional home use.

"jesus clip" 😂 That made me laugh out loud

Great, thank you.

Awesome Video big clive

Clive almost gets over a grinder. For the price it doesn't look too bad. Aldi certainly sell some tools that score well on the value for money scale.

I’ve got one of these it’s a great grinder