He Uses An Angle Grinder To Remove A Stump: 'Thank You For Saving Me Time'

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Cutting down trees in your yard is often a task you can accomplish without any specialized tools. Whether it's rotting, invasive, or simply in the way, the job can generally be completed with the help of an axe or a chainsaw in a few hours. When it comes to the leftover stump, however, things get more complicated. Thanks to the deep, expansive root systems of trees, stumps can be a massive hassle to remove, with many resorting to hiding it or turning it into a work surface in an effort to avoid this problem altogether. Unfortunately, leftover stumps can become a hazard, attracting termites, creating obstacles for mowing, and slowly rotting over time.

So what's the solution? Specialized equipment like stump grinders can be rented to help with this annoying job, but if you're trying to save a bit of cash or looking for a quick fix, you might consider trying out alternative approaches. In a YouTube video, an inventive creator, who goes by the name the fiX files, tested a method for excavating a tree stump that required just one tool: an angle grinder.

Unfortunately, this experiment yielded less-than-ideal results. In the video, the creator heavily cautions that this process was incredibly slow-moving. "As for removing a decent-sized stump like this, I was probably biting off more than I could chew, but if you had a smaller stump, it would definitely be more manageable," he noted. While the project was a fail, viewers appreciated the honesty. "Sounds like something I'd try. Thank you for saving me time," one YouTube commenter shared.

While it's clear this angle-grinder method isn't the most efficient, it can still provide a potential alternative solution for those who don't want to front the cost of a professional stump removal for a small tree. If you do decide to try out this idea yourself, there are a few steps you can take to increase your chances of success.

To prepare your angle grinder for cutting wood, you'll need to install a proper saw blade first. In the video, the creator is working with a King Arthur's Tools Lancelot 22 Tooth Circular Carving Disk. You'll also want to make sure your stump is cut down as low to the ground as possible. For this, digging out the dirt around it and going over it with a chainsaw can help to minimize the amount of detail work you'll have to do with the angle grinder, significantly reducing the time you'll have to spend on this task.

YouTuber the fiX files tried several different approaches to remove chunks of the tree stump, but after some experimenting, he found that cutting several fin-like gouges into the surface of the wood to be the most efficient method. Once the surface was adequately marred, he then brought the angle grinder back over the area to knock out these chunks, reducing the height of the stump piece by piece.

After chipping away at the large stump for a while, he eventually decided to give up on the angle-grinder approach, removing the remaining wood with a chainsaw and a shovel instead. Using an angle grinder is clearly not for everyone, but, hey, we certainly admire that he took one for the team and and gave it a try. (Also, here are some other creative ways to repurpose an old tree stump in your yard while you wait to have it removed for good.)