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
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
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
I will. ;-)
My point was that of course there is the possibility they could use
shite 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
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 shite, 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
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
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
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.
On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:44:15 -0700 (PDT), Andy Dingley
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.
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.
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
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