Update on wire brushing

Ive used the HF cup brushes and Toms cup brushes.

I wear out on average, 8 HF cup brushes for 1 of Toms.

I use em to derust nasty old steel prior to welding, and de-slagging after stick welding.

I dont bother buying HF brushes anymore. Toms are the best economy

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the s*it out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I don't have much access to markets that service end users so I don't have a vested interest in "selling brushes". I don't sell retail, my biggest markets are food service and industrial.

If you reverse the rotation before the wire starts to lay, that's OK. What usually happens is the operator starts pushing the work harder into the brush and starts a cascade failure. It's an unconscious act. Most people under-power, under-rev and push to hard, then reverse the brush. You're bang-on with the shape of the ends of the wires, it's the edges that do the work. A good oil tempered wire brush is self-sharpening to a good degree and the wire will microfracture exposing a fresh cutting edge do to highly localized heat cycles on a molecular level in the very tips of what is basically tool steel wire. If you reverse the rotation on an oil-tempered wire brush after it has started to lay, the wire will start to break at the hub due to hysteresis. An inexpensive hard-drawn wire brush will wear smooth ends on one side of the wire instead and is not as susceptible to the hysteresis that prematurely fractures the wire that is more the equivalent of hot-rolled steel, so reversing it won't do as much damage to the molecular structure of the wire. A brush can be sharpened using a stone.

You're toothbrush analogy is off base because as you shorten the trim of any brush, you change the stiffness in addition to squaring-up the ends. But, in a way you are right by reversing rotation if you only use hard-drawn wire. All imports are of this variety and they have good value for occasional or home-shop type use. If you have an oil-tempered domestic industrial type brush and the hp and speed, don't reverse it, you won't ever need to or want to. Any time you see a wire wheel that the wire is brass plated, it is made from rejected tire-cord wire. It's hard-drawn and not really brush quality, it's really, really cheap at 19 cents a pound. Good hard-drawn wire costs $1.75 a pound and good oil-tempered wire costs $3.50 a pound. Typically, a hard drawn 6" wheel sells for about $4.00 in a blister pack. An oil-tempered 6" sells for about $13.00 and a 6" knot-type for about $20. Finer wire costs more. Stainless, about double. I'd venture to guess that you use import hard-drawn wire wheels?

All this applies to crimped wire wheels, knot-type wheels are a different ball game. You'd better have the hp and speed or they won't work well at all. Too much speed and they don't work right, they burnish rather than cut. Imports are all hard-drawn wire and don't work well or last long. There's a plethora of knot-type cup brushes that are imports that are just dreadfully inadequate, but they sell like hot cakes!

ANOTHER testimonial check?

See the explination I posted to Ted.

Naw...just send brushes.

Wheres that UPS info?

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the s*it out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

See the explanation I wrote to Ted a bit further in the thread. I'll try to get a transcription of Weiler's application pages, they are superb.

I had a nice wire brush of Toms that I wore to the metal. I needed one and went to the welding supply - close buy and all that. That one lasted maybe a month if that. Toms lasted 2 1/2 years. The thing I noticed the 'us made' from the supply house was the wire was thinner. And that wire was not clamped in - as it came out and flung all around the work area. That isn't very nice when running it in a 4 1/2 " grinder on work.

Such is life.

Mart>> >>

On Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:45:07 GMT in rec.crafts.metalworking, "Tom Gardner" wrote,

hub due to hysteresis.

And also because it makes the wire bend backwards at the point it's already bent.

I don't usually bother with something so simple, but for one reason or another I read the instructions on the last wire wheel I bought, and they suggested flipping the wheel every so often to take advantage of the "self-sharpening" action. Seems sensible enough to me.

And another FWIW- rather than taking up a side on my grinder, I've found that sticking the wire wheel (and buffing wheels) on an arbor and mounting in a jacob's chuck on the (wood) lathe works pretty well. Gotta have a lathe to do that, but it leads to some very useful things, especially if you're cleaning or buffing large parts, and can use the tool rest for support.

Also, I use my drill press with wire or buffing wheels on an arbor. If I am careful to prevent the wheel from grabbing the near edge of an object, I can get a good look at what I'm doing (with suitable face protection of course).

--Winston