My Review of the Graco GrindLazer.
Many times a year I get questions about the Graco Grindlazer and I just wanted to take a minute to give everyone my opinion.
I have used all 3 models of the GrindLazer and my personal favorite is the 480, but that can depend on the application. 3 years ago, I was on a job where the fogseal they had applied failed and all the striping was flaking off. In order to get their COO the General contractor was required to remove all the pavement markings, as well as the poor fogseal. This job happened to be for the Government and specs were very strict, the only solution was to grind and restripe all 30,000lf.
At this time I only owned 2 Edco scarifiers and I knew the inspector wouldn't be happy with the finish they left. So, we went out and bought 2 machines, one GrindLazer 390, and one GrindLazer 480. On the 390 the drum shipped with a full face cutter, while we special ordered a Diamond head for the 480. Then we went to work, First pass with the 390 to remove the loose flakes and bulk of the material and then we "polished" what was just scarified with the 480. This was a very good system. Note: We were using LineDrivers on both machines. The whole job took 3 days, or a total of 60 man hours.
After using both machines my hands down favorite was the 480, you simply cant beat the power that is built by the larger v-twin engine. The up-cut feature is also very nice for heavy removal. Now, I can t say that the 390 didn't have its place, removing Handicap stencils with the 480 was a waste of time. This was where the 390 came in, the fact that you dont have to be connected to a LineDriver made all the difference.
In my opinion, Graco has come up with a great solution for grinding with the whole product line. I would use one of these machines over an Edco any day!