Metal 5-Inch Dust Shroud for Grinders/Concrete Grinding Diamond Cup Wheels

I bought the 4" Diamond Turbo Cup Wheel with 5" Metal Dust Shroud. Purposes: 1) to grind away thinset from a concrete floor after having removed the ceramic tiles, and 2) to level the basement's concrete expansion joint. Floor had to be relatively level in order to apply glue-down luxury vinyl floor tiles.My observations about this product:1) The collar design for attaching to a grinder is ridiculous-- which is the major flaw in this product. I had a cheap Tool Shop 4 1/2"grinder (Menards), and the collar mechanism for attaching the dust shroud was WAY TOO LARGE A DIAMETER to fit onto the grinder. The shroud collar's Inside Diameter (after clamping it down and using the hard-to-access tightening screw on the clamp mechanism)was approx. 1.88". The OUTSIDE DIAMETER of my grinder's collar area is 1.56". So, the differential was greater than 1/4" of diameter! I tried bending/tightening the shroud collar with a pliars, and tightened the screw as much as possible. (The screw then stripped). I added a thick layer of stretchy rubber tape onto my grinder's collar, and was able to get the shroud to tighten onto the tape (after replacing the stripped screw). This worked for a while, but the shroud would slide on the tape, and it would tilt and come loose, etc. As the bathroom filled with white dust until visibility was @ 1/2", I decided this was no good. I thought maybe my cheap grinder had an oddball-size collar diameter. So, I went out to buy a "standard" grinder with a larger diameter collar. But, guess what... all the grinders had very, very similar-sized collars. I checked all the major brands. There was only one brand that had a larger diameter collar: Black and Decker. Still, I really wanted an even larger collar. Then, I thought maybe I had to use a larger 7" grinder. So, I checked those. Their collars were a bit larger in diameter, but not sufficiently so. Also, those 7" grinders are much more cumbersome, heavy, expensive, etc. I thought of renting one, but decided against it when it seemed like I'd still have the same issue of the non-fitting shroud. SO, I decided to go with the Black and Decker 4 1/2" grinder. For some reason, its collar was a bit larger than the other brands. I was able to get the shroud to fit it somewhat snugly. At least, it was acceptable. I have no idea why the dust shroud is designed the way it is. All the grinders have guards that attach/detach easily with screws and/or clamps that would be perfectly good for this dust shroud. Why the dust shroud has an insane attachment design, I have no idea.2) As many others have commented, the attachment of a vacuum to the shroud is also marred by a non-standard diameter attachment pipe diameter. Others have mentioned duct tape and PVC pipe and rubber gaskets and adapters. I was using a Ridgid 4-gallon portable vac (5.0 peak HP). This is a very powerful vac and small in size. It has a non-standard size hose (1 7/8" Diam), which allows for more flexibility compared with a 2" hose. I have all the adapters available for this vac, but none would work with the dust shroud. At first I found a plumber's rubber step- gasket with clamp (possibly for attaching a dishwasher drain hose to a drain) (had it laying around), and I cut the larger diameter end off, and forced one end into the dust shroud. The other bigger end happened to fit into my vacuum hose end adapter. All well and good, except that the weight of the hose kept pulling the rubber gasket out of the shroud (even though it was taped in place). I was trying to hold the hose in place by draping it over my shoulder and acting as a strain relief. Very difficult. I needed some sort of "splint" to hold up the vac. hose and relieve the stress on the rubber adapter. Then I had a great idea: I used a piece of 6" sqr aluminum sheet ( for roof flashing) and 3 hose clamps to tighten around my rubber adapter and the dust shroud exhaust pipe. This rigidity effectively relieved the strain on the rubber, so that the weight of the hose would not pull the adapter out of the shroud exhaust pipe.3) IF you get the attachment issues resolved (a big "IF"), the dust shroud works fairly well. Depending on the situation, it picks up 85% to 99% of the dust. If you tilt the grinder while grinding, dust will fly out of the tilted open area. For my expansion joint leveling, the two concrete slabs sometimes abutted so that the joint area was higher than the side areas. So, in this case, the edge of the shroud allowed dust to escape. But, as the higher area ground down, the shroud contained the dust. For minor imperfections in flat concrete, almost 100% of the dust can be contained. If the Velcro edge containment were allowed to "float" more to conform to the surfaces, the product would work better. You must self-adjust the Velcro edge to the best of your ability.4) Other thoughts: The dust collecting is highly dependent on your vacuum. I found that my Ridgid 5.0 HP vac worked great -- but, I needed to install a new Fine Dust filter and also install a high efficiency dust bag. I didn't even know they made a dust bag for my vac until I was looking for a new, better filter. Without the dust bag, the vac would work great for a while. Then, it would start spewing out dust from the exhaust(white-out conditions). Good thing I had a good dust mask on. The 4" wheel with 5" dust shroud does not permit working close to the edge. If I purchased again, I would get the 5" wheel with 5" dust shroud. The 4" wheel works great, but the 5" wheel seems to have much larger holes in it that would allow more dust to flow to the vac w/out getting clogged at all. I noticed that the small holes on the 4" grinder wheel seemed to be clogged with dust-- but, perhaps it doesn't matter during operation.Final thoughts: The grinding wheel (4") works great. I would get the 5" wheel if I would purchase this again. The dust shroud has significant design flaws in the way it attaches to grinders and to vacuums. The company could easily fix these design flaws. If you can figure a way to attach the shroud to your grinder, and then to your vac, this dust shroud works quite well and enables almost dustless grinding on relatively flat surfaces. For more convoluted surfaces, you will release dust into the air, though it will be significantly reduced. If the attachment issues were resolved, I would rate the shroud at 4 1/2 or even 5 star. The grinding wheel I would rate at 5 star.

I like the steel shroud for durability, but the Velcro naughahyde band that is meant to seal the dust in is cheap. Every other shroud system uses a dense bristle brush for a seal.I was leary about the strength / holding ablity of the Velcro band so I wraped it with wide electrician's tape, reinforcing the band and extra securing to the metal housing.The design of the clamping leaver, is poor due to a screw that hits the clamping-lever, so adjusting the clamp to my hitachi 4" grinder was not going to happen until I changed the holding screw out for a smaller length screw (the Damo was too big diameter for the Hitachi small diameter mounting ring). Tightening the larger diameter down to a smaller diameter, made the shroud offset from the center of the grinding wheel.... a 5" wheel may have hit the the metal housing or the Velcro band, but I was OK with a 4" diamond grinder-blade. By the way with the smaller screw, Damo locked tight and rigid for about 3 hours of use... then it was slip off time. So onto another MickeyMouse fix.... had to find a PVC Pipe that was thinwall that fit around the Hitachi mounting ring as a shim & change out backto the original screw... so far, about 1 hour of use, It's holding tight.As you can see online the Damo is $25 and a Brand name is usually $45 & Up.I will probably only use this for this one job, Grinding high spots in a concrete floor, But for the price it works.Just a note, for extended concrete grinding of hours, I burned out the bearing on my 4" grinder and had to stop often because the tool was getting extremely hot.... So next time it would be best using a heavyduty 7" grinder for the job. Because of the heat generated.. I decided to switch to Wet grinding with the Damo (still the Hitachi get extremely hot), which worked surprisingly well with & without a vacuum. I did notice that with water that the often farts of dusting were eliminated (these farts occur when the grinder is slightly tilted for a second, an inevitable & frequent occurance.Latter NOTE: I adapted this to my 7" variable speed polisher with little effert. The clamp down ring had to be expaned beyond it's largest size capacity, so I used a hacksaw to cut an extra 3/8" making the clamp rings weld fuse on only 1/4 of the radius.... I know hard to comprehend , but the stock clamping ring, is welded ontop of the shroud housing with a weld that attaches the ring to the shroud and is welded only 1/3 of the ring.NEW IDEA : This Shroud is more efficient for Wet Grinding IMHO, So I unhooked my Wet/Dry Vacuum and put a water hose down the Damo's vacuum spout. Voila !!! I now had a better more efficient Wet grinder than the factory built Makita & Metabos. After I'm done Grinding, I take my wet/dry vac and suck the mud&water off the floor with a flat vacuum attachment. The Damo now keeps the Water from splashing everywhere and confines it to the current grinding area. Of course I control the water flow with one of the cheap ball-valves that hook to the end of a water hose.Good for The Cheap Price

I purchased this to help control dust while I was removing paint from the basement concrete floor to repair cracks and resurfacing some of the concrete blocks. In addition I was using this with a DEWALT DW4774 4-1/2-Inch Double-Row Diamond-Cup Grinding-Wheel (that is great). Like most things this shroud has pro's and con's.Pro:-has an adjust velcro cowl so that you can set the height-the bottom of the fabric dust cowl is durable as long as it is not being used on rough surfaces. As with most things fabric it won't last if using it on very rough surfaces-the metal version is well constructed but light weight-controls the dust very well (Note this is contingent on the size of your shop vac. I tried this with my 5 gallon portable it worked but filled the bag very, very fast. So I used it with my 16 gallon shop vac.)-a great price comparing it to similar productsCons:-if this is used frequently, the velcro backing will separate from the housing. You will have to re-glue it. I used it over the course for two months of intermittent use before I had to repair it.-since the dust cowl at the bottom is fabric you have be aware of the texture of your grinding surface otherwise it will get ate up..Given the amount of dust being generated by grinding concrete using a double row diamond cup wheel which is a tremendous amount..This shroud works very well. Since I was using this on different surfaces being able to adjust the height of the cowl was very nice. My biggest issue was the strength of the glue used to hold the velcro to the metal, but then I had a lot of grinding to do and factoring in the price this shroud it still a good value..Just go ahead and have some good epoxy on hand in case repair is needed.