Just bought a Makita a few weeks ago as always been a fan of their products. New one was made in Romania and has an awful molded case which is not good for getting the unit back into - will probably just use the metal case from its predecessor. Time will tell as to how well it lasts compared to the previous one which was made in Japan. I had tried to buy a Metabo one instead of this but none of the usual suppliers who listed them could get one.
I’ve always bought bottom of the range stuff, Screwfix specials etc, and they basically do what I need, for hobby use. There was a time Screwfix had them for £8 with a three year warranty, but that’s long gone.
If its for DIY use then for me the main decision would be Cordless or corded first. Cordless is very handy for DIY, if you fancy it then the next factor would be do you have any batteries with other cordless tools? if so look at buying a "naked" model compatible with the batteries you have. If your wanting corded I like bosh and hitachi but if its not gonna get much hammer you will probably be ok with a cheap screwfix, aldi special.
Bosch & metabo do seem to last well as I used to use them alot in my last job. For home use though I once had the need to cut up an old oil tank so I bought a 750w Bosch on offer at homebase wich met it`s demise within half hour. So I went back to the store & returned it & decided to opt for dewalt this time with a 900w motor, unfortunately this also met the same fate. After returning that as well I was shown their cheap powerbase model at half the price with a 2000w motor & that had no problem & after all these years I have only ever changed the spare set of brushes that came with it.
ive got 6 in total 2 cordless just bought the 2nd yesterday nice to have a cutting disk and grinding disk in each mechine as changing over takes much time
the 4 corded are
mac band q special
kobo dont know where it come from but old
an unnamed one as its that old all stickers are off of it but very old
and the makita
the makita or cordless is my go to more prob as its slimmer and less vibration than the rest easy to handle with one hand but only if i cant grip what i need in a vice as using angle grinders one handed is a last resort unless you cant do it any other way
ive had a disk snap on me and done a lot of damage (ive posted on the fourms before so no doing it again)
My Makita 115mm is almost 27 years old and still going strong after a lot of use and abuse! Only thing that failed was the on/off switch and they were no longer available.
I now have it working again using a common or garden microswitch and a bit of faffing around
While on the subject of angle grinders, how often do you strip and grease the gearbox? I always find they start to get noisy and when I dismantle them, the grease is sticking to the casing and the gears are dry. Even if you redistribute the original grease, the same thing happens soon after. Or do you just leave them to 'grind' away?