I see angry people...

[fvkasm2x]

You guys are being way too hard on the OP.

OK, so cutting off the lock with a truck nearby wasn't well thought out. But that's about as far as I can go.

Otherwise I see a guy who wanted to play with his new toy and felt he'd found a way to play while also doing something to help safeway/others.

We've all got better things to worry about.

I don't. I'm outraged. Starting a rally/protest for next weekend. PM Rider59 for details

[spooker]

Keep talking, you're just confirming what a poster said above.

I was talking about a business license not an operating license. Duh!!!

Yes, I know about business licensing ... and no, I wasn't referring to that from your post but I can see how that might have seemed ... I was meaning more the "operational" usage with my flippant comment since I had obviously made a mistake by not taking enough care to the point of aggravating the driver in the truck ... (and there's probably something in my homeowners insurance that would cover my liability as a private citizen but that's an assumption and we all know what happens when you "assume" something)

My previous post was to lighten things up since I try not to take myself too seriously, anything taken too seriously usually leads to anger and frustration which was my original topic ... to my chagrin it was also the fact that I said I was taking my grinder out to play that also got on the wrong side of people and I can only hope to not make the mistake again of stating it that way in the future

If that driver had checked out his paintjob and found damage I would have documented it and taken responsibility for it if I felt he had a reasonable claim ... since I still have the lock that I removed with the grinder I could very easily setup some experiments that would prove or disprove the damage range of the combined materials (steel and cutting wheel) ...

[60-YEARS-in-Ktown]

You should be at least 15 feet away from paint or glass when grinding. We have ruined glasses from grinding ,burn marks on walls, rust spot/pile in the parking lot.. From grinding.
Two of some of the ways get a lock off silently, but it wrecks the lock.
Put an 18 inch crescent wrench on the lock body, and start twisting.
On a u lock, insert metal bar biggest that fits in the U and twist..something will give.

Back in the days before cordless tools, a guy came to my shop and wanted a lock cut off his bike at the Willow Inn. So we threw a cutting torch set in the car and headed down. We had the bottles on the street and started cutting, a cop come by and started watching us... Then he got out of his car.....