Well, I'm still alive.
I did this a little differently though. I found a busted 8" grinding wheel in one of my boxes of tricks, and decided to use that instead of an angle grinder. I cranked up the lathe to about 2600rpm and worked slowly and carefuly. It's really not scary, and it's pretty close to what I used to experience grinding on a metal lathe. Pretty much a cakewalk.