Customer Reviews

Ingersoll-Rand IRT308 Heavy Duty Air Die Grinder

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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Pros: Small and easily used in one hand.

Cons: Can get heavy during long periods of use. Trigger lock can aggravate.

The Bottom Line:
You can't go wrong with Ingersoll-Rand... certainly not with the IR308.

Author's Review of April 18, 2009

I purchased one of these almost two years ago to replace one that was misplaced. Northern Tool once offered it at $69.99. I've forgotten what I paid for mine, but I believe it was on sale there at the time for a bit less.

It's a "Hoss" at 1/3 horsepower and you can tell it by the feel in your hand right away, but don't let the 20 CFM rating @90 PSI loaded scare you. With 25,000 RPM, the IR308 is a professional duty tool that can hold its speed and power well using many smaller compressors of only 8 CFM output with intermittent use. The feel? Well, the weight of the tool is at 3 lbs. It comes well boxed with chuck wrenches, parts and service manual, and Ingersoll-Rand's one year warranty, but don't expect to need that warranty. I've used Ingersoll-Rand tools for many years and I've yet to have a bad one that didn't serve me well.

What's the upkeep? Well, no more than any other air tool. Just provide it with clean dry air and lubrication, as the manual suggests, and it will give a long service life.

How do I use mine? Normally, I don't use the tool often, but if I decide to port and polish a set of heads for an engine I have a number of 1/4" collet carbide burrs for roughing them in and flap wheels for polishing. Once in a while, I also may polish an intake, an alternator, or such - and here again the tool comes in handy. From polishing to grinding to minor machine work such as cutting rusty tail pipes with a small cutting wheel and guard, the IR308 never fails me. The bearings are exceptionally smooth in operation and the tool's strong torque can easily be felt. Fabricating small parts by hand or any small quick removal grinding, be it metal, plastic, etc, is quick and easy using the IR308.

I mentioned the trigger lock can be an aggravation. It's actually a safety feature to prevent the tool from turning on when laid down or dropped. With a little experience you quickly get used to working the lock off in one hand while depressing the trigger lever.

Should you buy one? No shop would be complete without an excellent die grinder like this one. It's for amateurs and pros alike, and a tool everyone with a good air compressor can appreciate.

I originally published this review at another site in 2006, and removed it from there, but the IR308 is still a great tool I keep in my Snap-On box and use fairly often. No experienced race enthusiast should be without one.

This die grinder has proven to be a workhorse, I expect to be able to use this tool for a long time. One concern, when the tool first arrived I had to unstick the air valve that was not operable. That detail tells me that this particular was never operated nor calibrated for max RPMs as stated in the literature. However, mistakes do happen, and I was able to resolve this issue myself as vs. taking time to run it to the local IR service center or return it to Amazon.com for service. Thank you for an excellent tool.

I bought this because of the good quality. I wanted it to last a lifetime. It's everything I want it to be! I will be getting more IR tools in the near future.