GA5020Y 5" SJS Angle Grinder, with AC/Dc Switch, Blue

Works very well just as expected. Not too heavy at all. The electric brake slows the disc down in about 3 seconds. It doesn't seem too loud either. I'm comparing it to dewalt grinders which is all that's used at my job. Dewalt makes great stuff but I'm happy that I went with this 1 instead. I would recommend this to anyone in the market for an angle grinder.

I always thought that I hated using angle grinders. Little did I know that I merely hate using the stubby fat bodied grinders, this rat tail design is 1000x better! I feel like I actually have control of the machine. True, it's less compact, but for my needs that's irrelevant. The build quality seems good, it's a Makita after all. I find the trigger lock to be a bit annoying, but once you get used to pressing the small button before pulling the trigger, it's not that bad. It's got good power, and the electric brake is nice, I'm not leaving grinder marks all over the place from having to slow it down myself. I fully expect to get my money's worth out of this machine many times over in the coming years.

So pros and cons first: Pros: - Nice easy start. I had no idea how much I wanted soft start until I had it on this grinder - Externally accessible brushes (lots of other grinders require access panels and such) - shape and handle is perfect for me even tho I am used to smaller grinders - shroud is easy to manipulate without tools - plenty of power Cons - trigger Lock-off. I hate this feature. The lock off is only accessible in the right hand when you hold it disc face down. It is not ambidextrous and spring is WAY too heavy making it awkward when I am trying to bolt it to my vice disc up. I am gonna end up removing it - no trigger lock (I am using a zip tie for now) - Arbor nut is poorly designed because the holes are too small and close together to use any wrench but the one that comes with it. I ended up switching to my dewalt nut because I fabricated a nice wrench that has pins on one end and real wrench on the other. This makes it where I can use the same wrench to lock/unlock the nut and the other end to remove wire wheels, cups etc - Arbor nut wrench has no open end so that it can remove standard wheels and cups that thread on without the nut - grinder gets a little hot. Doesn't seem to be outside operating limits but I was surprised that such an otherwise manageable tool would heat up with light use. Bottom line: This is a great grinder but I am gonna look for makita replacement parts to add a trigger lock . There are alternate models that that dont' have these trigger problems

Whatever this thing touches, it gets rid of. Don't daydream. I had only a couple of uses in mind for this before I bought it, but now that I see what it's capable of, I realize it's much more valuable than I originally thought. I had no idea it was going to be this powerful. Wow!

Normally a Makita is a great tool but this time it lasted 1 month before it broke, the trigger or something to do with the on/off has gone bad, I plug it on and it starts turning

I bought this by mistake. I thought the extra $ from the GA5020 added a lock ON switch. It doesn't -- it's a lock OFF switch that is difficult to operate while wearing gloves. Unless your commercial shop equipment is required to have such by some nanny-state regulation, you do not want this GA5020Y, you want the GA5020. Makita does not sell this particular style of angle grinder with a lock on switch.

I've had this grinder for 5 years and although I don't use it heavily or abuse it, it has been good to me. It's got old school features like brushes and a cord but it's well made for the price and of course the soft start and stop is very nice.

We have always used Makita. The older 5" grinders had a smaller gauge wire that after a long while they would burn up at the switch. THIS NEW DESIGN has a larger gauge cord, nicer hub locking pin, and the brake feature for less kickbacks. ITS EXCELLENT all the way around. Buying another one now too

The tool seems reasonably good but it has two features I don't like at all, and which my earlier Makita rat-tail angle grinders didn't have. The changes are not at all welcome. One is that there is no longer a button that locks the trigger on when using the grinder. The work I do sometimes requires hours of non-stop grinding, and it is extremely annoying that I have to hold the trigger on all the time, instead of letting a trigger lock keep it on. it also makes grinding in some unusual positions very difficult as my wrist and elbow just don't bend the way they would need to, in order to grind in those positions while holding the trigger in. The second is a 'safe start' button that will only allow one to pull the trigger switch after the safe start button is pushed in. My old Makita grinders didn't have this feature, which I find not only annoying but completely useless, and my guess is that it was added because some desk jockey who never actually used the tool decided it was a cute addition. My cure for that was to push the 'safe start' button in and keep it clamped in that position for a day until the construction adhesive I forced into the gap between the housing and the button had hardened - this essentially put the button in the permanently 'on' position and solves one of my complaints. I don't think I'll ever buy this tool again after it dies on me.