Open Wheel

No guard on mine. Make sure you're wearing glasses. Goggles would probably be even better.

I bought an 8 inch HF Buffer Grinder years ago when they still offered them. Plan was to replace the buffing wheel with wire. That gets the wheel away from the motor housing where you can make better use of it. It worked good but the buffer shaft was badly aligned/bent. One of these days I'll get around to straightening it or at least trying to :)

My 6" grinder has a coarse Al2O3 and fine SiC wheel, the smaller one a fine Al2O3 and a dish diamond. I use wire brushes on hand held angle grinders which keep my hand and face away from and on the guarded side of the brush where I can see its effect.

The only change I'm considering is an SiC wheel for the small grinder and reinstalling the fine Al2O3 wheel on the larger one.

-jsw

I always run them without guards. probably not safest but certainly more useful that way. And I ALWAYS wear eye protection. I've had little wires from wire wheels stick into my skin before. It makes me shudder to think of one sticking into an eye. Eric

What I do won't help you very much. I have a Harbor Freight 10 inch grind er with a coarse and fine wheel. The fine wheel came from Boeing Surplus ( which is not open anymore. Harbor Freight no longer sells a 10 inch gri nder.

And I also have two belt driven eight inch grinders that Grainger use to se ll . One has a fine grinding wheel on one side and a 6 inch rubber expansi on wheel on the other side. The fine wheel also came from Boeing Surplus a nd the expansion wheel came from Harbor Freight. Harbor Freight only had the expansion wheels for a short time. The other belt driven grinder has a 8 inch wire wheel ( something is wrong here. Harbor Freight still se lls 8 inch wire wheels. Mine was advertised as being brass , but is really steel. ) And on the other side is a cut off disk. Was a 14 inch cut off w heel but it is worn down so that it fits the 8 inch grinder.

The belt driven grinders has a cover over the wheel, but never had a side c over.

Dan

Absolutely. When I use a wire wheel or grinder, either a pair of goggles or a full face shield go over my glasses. I take no chances with the eyes since they don't have nanites to rebuild them yet.

(Right, Jordy?)

I've got a separate "grinder" for cleaning up stuff. A wire brush wheel on one side and a "flap" wheel on the other. No guards on either side. Quite useful for cleaning up a rusty pieces of whatever, or knocking off burrs, etc..

However... most wire wheels that you buy today (usually selected as being the cheapest) will shed wires which get flung out like tiny spears and for that reason I keep a face shield hung up next to the wire wheel machine.

For thirty years I have run a wire wheel on a 1/4HP motor with no guards other than a coffee can to prtect the motor from stray wires. Last Saturday I blew 2 bucks on a 6" bench grinder missing one wheel guard and tool rest but including new glazed wheels. I adapted a pressed belt guard and have it in place around a 6" wire wheel (open outboard end and front so far) since with this setup the wheel is at twice the speed of the old setup. Haven't used it yet but I think I'm gonna like it.

A leather apron is also helpful in saving much pain!

It's food for thought when you can feel the wires hitting the leather.

Well let me tell you, Carl fed a dead gopher into a wire wheel and it splattered all over, floor to ceiling.

Bob,

Very important points!!

As other have said keep the side covers and guards in place at all times even when not using the unit, except for when you are replacing the the wheels of course. This is very important during a surprise OSHA inspection.

Oh, and while on the thought also be sure to have your SPARE Oxygen and Acetylene bottles at least 20' apart chained to a wall.

I won't go into why I mention that but, you will have trust me that what I said above is very important. :-)

Have a good weekend.

Les

Also can not store acetylene and propane together despite them both being flammable.

Oh, MSHA is like OSHA on steroids. Minimum of four visits per year verses one every seven years on average if no serious accidents have occurred.

I question how much a guard increases safety. I have lot's of mounted wheel s and brushes in my shop. The ones with guards have them there for dust con tainment or collection purposes. When I am working a small part, if I let g o of it on a wheel without a guard, it just falls onto the table. If there is a guard, it flies around inside for awhile, gets chewed up, and then may be shoots back out at me.

A wheel guard can help protect you from touching the wheel with a body part just because there is less wheel exposed. And from exploding wheels too, which does happen, but rarely. But I use my wire brushes, scotchbrite type wheels and buffing wheels all without guards. Eric

Quite a bit. One of my people once broke a 16" X 3" wheel on a surface grinder and it sounded like a bomb went off. From the damage to the table it would have probably been pretty hazardous had the wheel not been enclosed in a heavy steel guard that contained the majority of the bits and pieces.

THE DEFINITIVE ANSWER FROM THE BRUSH EXPERT!

If your guards are for a 6" grinding wheel use a 5" brush. Never use a rest! You can use a 6" brush by grinding it down with an angle grinder. Get a good domestic brush, it will pay for itself many times over and a good brush won't scrape the sides. Get .012" to .014" crimped wire for GP work, .016" or knot-type for HD work.

I used to test brushes until they did explode. I had a concrete block pill box that contained the 40krpm spindle. At least the wire in a wire brush has little mass and does no damage when it lets go, it Will ruin your underwear!

You forgot the DAMHIKT, Tawm.