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Abrasive Wheels Training
Half a day on the disc that is spinning at the far end of the grinder. Selection, mounting, guarding and safe use, for anybody who changes a wheel as well as anybody who uses one.
About this course
An abrasive wheel is a consumable spinning at enormous speed a few inches from somebody’s face. When one bursts, the pieces leave at the speed the rim was travelling, and the guard is the only thing between them and the operator. Most of the serious injuries come down to three things: the wrong wheel, a wheel mounted badly, or a guard that was in the way so somebody removed it.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 require work equipment to be suitable, maintained, and used only by people who have received adequate training. For abrasive wheels that training has a specific shape, because mounting a wheel is a distinct skill from using one.
So the course covers both. Wheel types and what each is made to do. Reading the markings and the specification. Checking a wheel before it goes on, including the ring test on vitrified wheels. Speeds, and why the maximum operating speed on the wheel and the spindle speed of the machine have to be compared every time. Flanges, blotters and the correct mounting sequence.
Then use: guarding and adjustment, work rests, eye and face protection, respiratory protection where silica or metal dust is in play, hand arm vibration, and the cutting practices that cause kickback.
We run it at our centres in Stoke-on-Trent, Derby, Manchester and Liverpool and onsite nationwide, with practical work on the machines your people actually use.
- The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and what adequate training means here
- Hazards of abrasive wheels: bursting, contact, kickback, dust, noise and vibration
- Wheel types: straight, depressed centre, cutting, cup and mounted points
- Reading the wheel specification and markings, and what each element means
- Maximum operating speed, spindle speed, and checking one against the other
- Storing and handling wheels, and the damage that comes from neither being done
- Inspecting a wheel before mounting, including the ring test on vitrified wheels
- Correct mounting: flanges, blotters, torque and the order of assembly
- Guarding: what it does, how to adjust it, and why removing it kills people
- Safe use: work rests, PPE, dust and silica, hand arm vibration and kickback
How completing this course helps you
- An Acadame certificate in Abrasive Wheels training
- People who check the speed on the wheel against the speed of the machine, every time
- Correctly mounted wheels, which is where most burst failures start
- Evidence that your PUWER training duty for this equipment has been met
- Guards that stay on, because everybody understands what they are for
Who should attend?
Anybody who mounts, changes or uses abrasive wheels: fabricators and welders, construction and groundworks operatives, maintenance and plant fitters, engineering and workshop staff, stonemasons and monumental workers, and the supervisors responsible for them.
Entry requirements. None. It assumes no previous training and it is written for the people doing the work rather than the people writing the policy.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Who needs it
Mounting and using are two different competences
The person changing the wheel and the person using the grinder are not always the same, and the risks they control are different. A user who never mounts a wheel still needs to understand guarding, PPE, dust and kickback. A person who mounts wheels needs the speed check, the ring test and the flange sequence as well.
Plenty of workplaces train the users and let anybody change a disc, which is the wrong way round. The burst failures start at mounting.
This course covers both, so it suits a mixed group. Tell us who does what and we will weight the practical time accordingly.
Anybody who uses a grinder or cut off saw
This half day. Guarding, PPE, dust and safe cutting practice.
Anybody who changes a wheel
The same course, with the mounting practical. Do not let untrained people change discs.
Where silica dust is significant
Add COSHH awareness, and get face fit testing done for the RPE you are relying on.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
The wheel
- Hazards of abrasive wheels and how people get hurt
- Wheel types and what each is designed for
- The wheel specification and its markings
- Maximum operating speed
- Storage, handling and transport
- Inspection and the ring test
Mounting
- Comparing wheel speed with machine spindle speed
- Flanges, blotters and bushes
- The correct mounting sequence and torque
- Dressing and truing
- Balancing, where it applies
- Test running a newly mounted wheel
Using it
- Guarding and correct adjustment
- Work rests and the gap that matters
- Eye and face protection
- Dust, including respirable crystalline silica, and RPE
- Noise and hand arm vibration
- Kickback, and the cutting practices that cause it
- Fire risk from sparks and hot work controls
Method of assessment
How Abrasive Wheels is assessed
Assessment is built into the session rather than bolted on. Your trainer checks understanding as you go and there is a short written check at the end.
Practical mounting
Inspecting, ring testing and mounting a wheel correctly, with the speed check done out loud. Onsite we use your own machines and your own wheels.
Specification exercise
Reading wheel markings and deciding whether a given wheel is right for a given machine and job. This is where most people discover they had never read one properly.
Written check and certificate
A short paper on speeds, guarding and inspection, then an Acadame certificate. We recommend refreshing every three years.
Ways to learn
How you can take this course
Every route covers the same accredited syllabus and the same support. Pick the one that fits how your people work.
Dates and locations
Pick a date
Live availability from our booking system. Prices exclude VAT.
Have the dates emailed to you
Which centres do you want on the sheet?
A clean, printable PDF of exactly what you are looking at, however many pages that takes. We will only use your address to send it and to answer you.
Classroom and live online courses
1CourseLengthFromAvailabilityAbrasive WheelsGeneral AwarenessHalf a day£75 + VAT9 dates
- Tue 13 Oct 2026 · 13:00Stoke-on-Trent£75.00 + VATBook
- Tue 10 Nov 2026 · 13:00Stoke-on-Trent£75.00 + VATBook
- Tue 8 Dec 2026 · 13:00Stoke-on-Trent£75.00 + VATBook
- Tue 19 Jan 2027 · 12:30Stoke-on-Trent£85.00 + VATBook
- Mon 1 Feb 2027 · 12:30Stoke-on-Trent£85.00 + VATBook
- Mon 22 Mar 2027 · 12:30Stoke-on-Trent£85.00 + VATBook
- Mon 26 Apr 2027 · 12:30Stoke-on-Trent£85.00 + VATBook
- Fri 21 May 2027 · 12:30Stoke-on-Trent£85.00 + VATBook
- Mon 28 Jun 2027 · 12:30Stoke-on-Trent£85.00 + VATBook
Prices are per person and exclude VAT. Nothing here has to be booked online: call 0330 124 2165 or email hello@acadame.co.uk and we will book you on, or put a date on to suit you.
Nothing matches that. Clear the filters, or tell us what you are after and we will point you at it: 0330 124 2165 or hello@acadame.co.uk.
Everything we run is on this page, whether or not a date is showing. Where a course is scheduled, open the availability column to see the dates, the centre, the price and how many places are left. Where nothing is scheduled it only means nobody has asked yet: tell us the course and the numbers and we will put a date on, here or at your place.
Also available
In-company training
We run this one to order, at your place or ours.
Onsite / in-company
Run Abrasive Wheels at your site
We deliver anywhere in the UK, on your dates and around your shift patterns. For six or more people it is usually cheaper per head than sending everyone to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling.
Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will come back with options and a price, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
What onsite includes
- The same tutor, materials and certification as our centres
- Your venue or one we arrange near you
- Dates and start times built around your operation
- One invoice and one point of contact for the whole group
- Content examples drawn from your own workplace
Abrasive Wheels FAQs
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 require that work equipment is used only by people who have received adequate training, including training in the risks and the precautions. No specific course is named, but for abrasive wheels a recognised training course is the normal way employers meet and evidence that duty.
Every three years is the usual interval, and sooner where the equipment, the wheels or the work change, or where an incident or a near miss suggests it is needed.
Tapping a vitrified wheel gently with a non metallic implement and listening. A sound wheel rings clearly; a cracked one gives a dull note. It only works on vitrified wheels and only on a clean, dry wheel, and the course covers where it applies and where it does not.
Yes. The principles are the same across bench and pedestal grinders, angle grinders and petrol or battery cut off saws, and the course covers the differences, including the additional kickback and silica risks on cut off saws.
Yes, onsite nationwide, and it is worth doing. Mounting practice on your own equipment with your own wheels regularly turns up a machine with a missing flange or a box of wheels rated below the spindle speed.
Acadame. It is general awareness training rather than a regulated qualification, which is the right shape for this subject: it is built around what your people actually do and it can be adapted to your own equipment, substances and procedures. Where a regulated qualification is what you need instead, we will say so and point you at it.
Yes, anywhere in the UK, and it is usually the better option. Training on your own equipment, in your own building, with your own procedures in front of people, transfers to the job in a way a generic venue does not.
Up to twelve on a standard session. For practical subjects we will talk through numbers with you, because a room of twenty watching two people practise is not training.
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