Quality rotary wire brushes?

[T i m]

Hi All,

I was just wondering if there was a particular brand of wire brush you would use in a 240V electric drill (so fairly high speed) that would be worth paying a bit extra for?

I've bought brushes from the market, sheds, motor factors and general tool suppliers and so far they have only ranged from crap to ok.

By crap I mean they lose brush wires at a rate of knots and / or all the bristles bunch up and / or it goes out of round / balance very quickly.

By ok I mean they may last till they are worn down to the hub and were working ok till they got there.

But are there any that are ok but *also* might last a bit longer or work better etc, without spending disproportional sums of money on them please?

Cheers, T i m

[NT]

Steel wire is steel wire, what brand the thing is isnt going to change its basic properties. The way to solve the bunching issue is use a higher rotational speed, ie an angle grinder. I cant think of any reason to go back to using rotary brushes in drills, theyre so much less effective.

The only issue I've found with these things is choosing a brand the bristles dont fly out of, and I've yet to have any problem with silverline ones. Fancy brands really cant add anything useful.

NT

[T i m]

It is?

It isn't? So there wouldn't be a chance a Snap-On wire brush would outlast a market wire brush for example?

Or just stick with 'better' brushes. I have various angle grinders with various brushes in the (cup / flat etc) and whilst they are good they can be too aggressive for some jobs.

But more suited in some instances., like if you are using a softer de-carb brush for example. Do you not have wire brushes for your Dremel?

*ding* ;-)

Ok, well I guess 'Silverline' must vet what they sell so thanks for that. Using the same logic and apart from the main sheds I have Screwfix and Toolstation near me that might also be worth a go.

Can't or 'might not'?

If all these things were created equal I wouldn't have had some brushes that fly to bits pretty quickly and others that last till they wear away. The problem (and my question) was what brand (or supplier) have folk found to be good. I think nearly all my current brushes are unmarked and I have long since forgotten where I bought them from. If I was going to go out and buy some replacements (and I need to) I thought I'd go for some that had the approval of the panel. My caution is that you can easily pay good money for crap gear, especially when it's unbranded.

Cheers, T i m

[Andy Dingley]

Drills are slow speed - angle grinders are where the fun starts for throwing bristles (maybe 10x the rpm). I make a point of buying what I hope are decent quality, only use the twisted/knotted sort and not the simple crimps and I also wear a leather apron as well (I wear a faceshield anyway when grinding). I've used Silverline when I've had to buy them from Toolstation and not had trouble, but have sometimes used "market stall" brushes that shed in a hazardous manner.

Haven't used a wire brush in a drill for ages - angle grinders are faster, thus much quicker. I do happen to have an old 1950s Bridges

1/4" drill that's beautifully made but tiny and I use that with the abrasive plastic bristle brushes a fair bit (nice drill, but not much use otherwise). Sometimes I use that with "pinecone" steel wire brushes, but even those I mostly use on a Foredom flexi shaft.

[T i m]

FWIW on the job I was doing today using a reasonable speed_variable speed drill it was rarely used on full speed. This was partly because I was trying to be 'gentle' and partly because the job was all angles and edges and would catch (hard) if not taking it easy. At the same time I was trying to avoid affecting the temper by burnishing.

And skidding along the floor and taking too many of layers of skin off after going though a pair of jeans (we live and learn).

Ah, and to my question. ;-)

I've plucked many a strand of wire from my clothing.

I might give Toolstation a go tomorrow then.

Indeed.

It's not always down to speed though is it. I mean, there are times when a hand driven wire brush is the best thing for the job.

I may have something similar. Sort of a lime green colour and all metal? I have used that with those knuckle jointed sanding pads but for this job I needed more control.

I might get some of those. I have used the flap wheels but again not detailed enough for this job.

Hmm, once you have made the mistake of allowing a flexi shaft (on a mains drill) to knot up in use (around yer arm), you may prefer to use the Dremel (or something slightly bigger and more powerful) where possible instead. A Foredom would be nice though. ;-)

Cheers, T i m.

[NT]

If you find any wire brushes with fancy steel like HSS or cobalt, do let us know ;)

NT

[The Medway Handyman]

I used Screwfix Titan brand and Bosch on the same job, no difference in performance or longevity. Big difference in price.

[T i m]

I will. ;-)

My point was that of course there is the possibility they could use s**te or good quality steel in their 'wire', in the same way they can use different grades of steel on the rest of the brush.

I've had spindles that are tough and others that bend the first time the brush gets caught.

T i m

[T i m]

That was the sort of thing I was looking for, ta.

T i m

[gilli]

Hi, I had a mate who swore that someone had advised him he could sharpen or "dress" the brush bristles to rejuvenate them somewhat as one dresses a grinding wheel to restore its properties . Does anyone do that on their wire wheels? Thanks David Gilliland

[NT]

still a duff point though

not hardened

NT

[T i m]

Explain?

Yes, cheap_low_quality, a different brand would probably be a different quality.

Even worse with hand wire brushes. I've had cheap brushes that were perfectly useable and cheap brushes where the bristles were falling out in gobs on stroke one. I've had the same problem with what should have been better_quality (if you use price to predict such) as they were equally bad and probably out of the same container.

So you start with unbranded s**te, then useable quality (probably the white label range), then a 'd-i-y' quality then a couple of ranges of 'Pro'. The prices probably rise exponentially but as with many things there is a VFM 'sweet spot' somewhere between the two extremes.

T i m

[NT]

thought I did several posts ago. Unfortunately your responses seemed less than constructive.

but not in all cases.

NT

[T i m]

I asked about the potential differences between various brands of wire brush and you implied that none could exist:

"Steel wire is steel wire, what brand the thing is isnt going to change its basic properties."

If you were saying they would all be 'steel wire' then Duh. If you are saying the actual metal would be the same in all cases (ductility, hardness, composition, coating etc) then I don't know how you can assume that?

But not what in all cases? I've never suggested anything 'was in all cases', that was you remember (with yer wire)! ;-)

T i m

[NT]

plainly I didnt. Enjoy playing.

[Doki]

Clean n Strip disks (3M) are supposed to be very good at removing paint and cleaning up metalwork as prep for paint. That's what I'll be trying next time I have work like that to do, as I found a wire brush in an angle grinder less effective than I'd like.

[T i m]

Yeah, I spotted them whilst looking for brushes and I think I'll give em another go. I did try some ages ago and they wore out pretty fast (especially if there are sharp protrusions etc) but maybe they are now more robust.

An angle grinder driven brush has it's place but this particular job wasn't it. A small piece with lots of edges or protrusions is an accident waiting to happen. With the electric drill I can even tweak the speed as I work round different bits, either to minimise the risk of a 'catch' bending or breaking something or to stop the job overheating etc. I was even having to avoid other materials that were still attached to the piece and that I didn't want to abrade or damage.

If I had one I think a fine shot / sand blaster would have been a better choice but it wasn't a big enough job to bother taking to be done.

So, I used a sharp knife to slice off any remaining powder coat, the wire brush(es) / drill for the easy / accessible bits and a hand wire brush and various scrapers to get in the more fiddley bits.

I would have used my Roloc? pads and air mini grinder but I couldn't face the noise of the compressor (for that long) for a job I could do another way (and more energy efficiently).

Cheers, T i m