Wire brush in an oscillating tool

Could you zip-tie a wire brush to a jigsaw blade? Great use for a dull or broken blade :-). Shorter stroke than a sawzall but probably still too long for you.

Curious, did a bit of searching in likely places for something like this and found nothing...

IMO you'd need really short and stiff bristles. Otherwise they'd just wiggle back and forth but not on the surface involved. Also think there could be a weight problem. I've noticed that heavier attachments are usually short and somewhat centered at their tool attachment point. "Bits" that are longer are svelte and light weight. Think a brush would need quite a long stick-out to get enough movement for it to do much🤷️

I've been known to chuck up a gun cleaning brush in a cordless drill to clean running light sockets. I also have 1/8 shank brushes in other useful brush configurations for rotary hand pieces.

I try not to over think it, and just use whatever I have. I recently used a tiny stainless rotary brush to clean up the heating element studs in my water distiller.

I've been known to chuck up a gun cleaning brush in a cordless drill to clean running light sockets. I also have 1/8 shank brushes in other useful brush configurations for rotary hand pieces.

----------------------------- There's this, too expensive for the short life of a spun brush:

On a not-smooth surface I suspect "the wiggle does the work" 8-)

Imagine a rough surface with the brush moving continuously across it. The bristle tips will scrape over the high spots and leave the low spots untouched. Now imagine the brush reversing direction at the end of the stroke. The bristles straighten, then slope in reverse. While straightened, they're effectively longer and can probe into the low spots, rather like a needle scaler. On a rough surface, the reversal does the crevice cleaning while the stroke cleans the high spots. The area cleaned is probably no bigger than a bristle end, but with a fast oscillation that adds up.

I was trying to clean a very compact stain out of a shirt and tried using an electric toothbrush. It worked surprisingly well, which set me to thinking about how oscillating bristles move in contact with a surface. Doubtless my mental picture is wrong in some respects, but it may be "right enough" to be useful.

The motivation was my other question about painting rusty gutters. In that case a rotating wire brush will leave little or nothing to patch/paint. An oscillating brush that follows the surviving metal contours might leave enough behind to support a coating.

I have an oscillating tool and am trying to come up with an easy way to fasten a wire brush to it. A cup brush seems most appropriate, all that's needed is some sort of interface to the drive flange. The forces on the brush are likely to be relatively small, just enough to wiggle the bristles. The connection has to be quite stiff to transmit the motion, but likely not very strong. Plastic might work.

The fact that nothing is commercially available makes me wonder what I've got wrong.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

grab a little hand wire brush - one of those 1/2" by 2" or whatever brushes with a 4 to 6 inch handle - you know what I mean?? Cut off the handle and cut a slit lengthwise in the handle. Epoxy it to a a oscillator blade with the teeth ground off and give it a try.

brush like 4067500 Carlisle. Google it.

The fact that nothing is commercially available makes me wonder what I've got wrong.

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I've made brushes I couldn't find to buy. In addition to the old method of lashing the bristles to a stick they can be made by crimping them into flattened tubing, or twisting wires or rods together and then wedging them apart with a pointed tool to slide in bristles.

My non-scratching metal chimney brush is the last, a 1/8" x 36" rod bent double and twisted, leaving an open loop at the bend. The bristles are nylon string trimmer cord inserted concave-up where a pointed punch forced clearance. The rod ends were bent into another loop for the pull weight. The bristles were trimmed to length by starting the brush into a chimney section, which centers it, and cutting them just outside the rim, slightly longer than the chimney ID. Since the bristles curve upward they are easy for the weight to pull down, important in subzero cold, and drag when the cable pulls up. It's held up well for 40 years of weekly use.

The pull rope is 3/8" braided cotton which is easy on chapped hands.

Much later I found a plastic bristle brush meant for insulated metal chimneys. It's fine on the end of a stiff rod but the friction is high and the same both ways unlike mine.

The thread on my chimney cleaning rod is 1/2-20 but slightly oversized. The thread on the fiber brush is 5/8-18 and also oversized, 0.632" The lathe gave me an adapter. I think the flea market seller was disposing of the unused fiber brush cheaply because it didn't fit their cleaning rod.

There's one in my kitchen drawer 8-). I didn't consider slotting the plastic and using epoxy, but maybe it'll stick well enough for some initial experiments.

I was really hoping somebody would know of a fixture, like a collet or chuck, that would mount on the oscillating tool's "chuck" and hold a quarter inch shaft. There are lots of small cup brushes with like-sized shanks that give the orientation needed to reach into the gutter bottom.

The closest readily-available mounting jig is a sanding pad holder. The DeWalt pad holder on Amazon shows some promise:

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

I was really hoping somebody would know of a fixture, like a collet or chuck, that would mount on the oscillating tool's "chuck" and hold a quarter inch shaft. There are lots of small cup brushes with like-sized shanks that give the orientation needed to reach into the gutter bottom.

--------------------------------------- My HF right angle air grinder with a 2" fiber pad did a fine job removing paint and rust from the inside and outside of six 3" x 8' and four 4" x 8' steel channels, cleaned the leaky rims of the sawmill motorcycle wheel, and most recently scrubbed rust spots and scratches on the truck for refinishing. If the gutter has more than pinhole leaks it might tear off the thin weakened metal but that's useless anyway.

They show a newer model that I don't know about. My older one is supposed to be dual action though it can be locked for high speed rotation with a washer that clamps onto the ball bearing outer race, or the twist-on pad mount.

Their accessory kits didn't fit right so I cut a 1/4-20 x 3/4" spindle adapter that matched them. It's not hard to figure out.

I think the reversing action of an oscillating tool is critical to my purpose. Grinders are great, but they work by eroding the high spots to match the low. I need surface-conforming abrasion that cleans the low spots without excessive damage to whatever high spots survive. Sandblasting and needle scalers do something similar to what's needed. An oscillating wire brush is less violent than a needle scaler (which I don't have) and neater than abrasive blasting, which I also don't have and makes a huge mess in the bargain.

In this case the state of the gutter is quite fragile; I'm fairly sure that any planing action will destroy it completely. If you think I'm grasping at straws trying to save a bit of rusted-out gutter, you're correct 8-), but I'm trying to learn something in the process.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

I've eyed this stuff for sealing the gutters but the price always seems a bit much. I'd just brush the loose stuff out, maybe hit it with air hose or leaf blower and spray it on🤷️

Though if I had a larger section to do rather than a leak here and there I'd probably try it...

In this case the state of the gutter is quite fragile; I'm fairly sure that any planing action will destroy it completely. If you think I'm grasping at straws trying to save a bit of rusted-out gutter, you're correct 8-), but I'm trying to learn something in the process.

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Gorilla tape lasts several years on holes in the hanging tarp walls of my woodsheds.

Gorilla tape lasts several years on holes in the hanging tarp walls of my woodsheds.

--------------------- The white gorilla tape I put over holes from falling acorns in a weathered plastic roof overhang last fall still looks new and the edges aren't peeling. I used white instead of clear to make it easier to identify and inspect.

Getting anything to stick to the inside of the gutter will require cleaning, which is apt to end in destruction unless done very gently.

Do you think Gorilla Tape might stay put on the outside of the gutter? That might be worth a try in the short (this winter) term. There's a lot of sun exposure in the area, but that won't be much of an issue till spring.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

Getting anything to stick to the inside of the gutter will require cleaning, which is apt to end in destruction unless done very gently.

Do you think Gorilla Tape might stay put on the outside of the gutter? That might be worth a try in the short (this winter) term. There's a lot of sun exposure in the area, but that won't be much of an issue till spring.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

----------------------------------- I don't think it's wide enough if lengthwise, crosswise to grab the sides might work, if the back side is clean enough.

If you have sheet metal equipment and skills you could form a fitted patch from flashing. I'm bending a new Z shaped trim strip for the doorsill carpet edge in my truck, on a 30" shear/brake/roll.

At this point I'd be replacing that section, or the whole gutter. Any remaining solid areas might be useful later as patches.

My version with stiffer shop-made hangers that the gutter lies in without being attached has lasted for years in New England weather, hurricanes and ice storms. Each hanger requires ladder placement but the gutter sections can be heaved onto the roof, slid down, dropped in and connected from one end. The sections run straight through the downspout Ys, with the stops removed. Water drains through a cutout in the bottom that's narrower than the scoop on a pole that cleans the gutters, from the ground. The ends are open to push out sticks and leaves.

The downspouts are attached only at the bottom and held in place at the top by the spigot on the Y. They are easily removed from the ground to clear clogs of leaves, branches and acorns.

A ladder stabilizer can be positioned to rest on the shingles to make gutter work more accessible and convenient.

For extra security you can mount these under the ridge cap and tie down the top end of the ladder. I added them after shoveling an extra-heavy snowfall that was collapsing roofs. My snowapult that throws 30 feet could be another story.

In this case the state of the gutter is quite fragile; I'm fairly sure that any planing action will destroy it completely. If you think I'm grasping at straws trying to save a bit of rusted-out gutter, you're correct 8-), but I'm trying to learn something in the process.

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I learned long ago that trying to save thin rusted metal is futile and counterproductive, so I grind the hole edges back to metal thick and strong enough to hold fasteners or weld to with a Dremel. Then I know how big to make the patch and where I can attach it.

I'm doing this right now on my '91 truck. Rust spread around the rubber plug in a floor drain. So far I've ground the hole back to solid metal and traced the smoother-edged opening onto thin cardboard, to make a practice patch from cardboard or flashing that I can copy in thicker galvanized steel.

The floor was flat at the plug but rust ate back into the stiffening ribs that the patch will have to be tightly fitted against to seal. That's not as difficult as making a flush-welded patch disappear on a curved fender rim that is exposed to view.

Most of the floor and underside of the cab still hasn't rusted. For New England that's pretty good. LPS-3 helped underneath where the spray could reach.

This is what the holes drained:

I finally climbed up for a hands-on look and found I was very wrong about the state of the gutter and the likely leak.

The gutter is _not_ rusting through, and the leak appears to be at a seam a foot or two from where the drips were landing. The bumps I took to be rust blisters are just moss stuck to the gutter (convincingly near the point of drippage) and the seam, which looked crude but functional from the ground is clearly cracked in what looks like caulk.

The gutter is rusty enough that I'll have to do some cleaning but fear of breaking it completely has largey subsided. It'll have to be cleaned some, but a conventional wire brush will do the job well enough for the immediate term. The idea of using roofing cement, perhaps thinned a little with mineral spirits, looks promising. Rain is expected by tomorrow night and I'd like to be done beforehand.

Apologies for the wild goose chase to everyone who responded! I glanced at the problem, decided I understood the situation, and didn't check until much, much later.

bob prohaska

Reinforce your patch by embedding some fiberglass drywall tape in the roofing cement .