Good Wire Wheels for Angle Grinder?

I had a bunch of paint to strip off my doors, and used wire wheels on a 4.5 inch grinder for some of the work.

Every kind of wheel I tried (including the one from the welder's supply) shed wire like crazy. Is there a brand or style that doesn't shed much?

 

i found that the wire wheels aren't ideal for paint stripping. they aren't effective at removing the paint and can sometimes leave grooves in the metal if you stay in one place too long. i prefer the cup style abrasive discs. the link below is mostly what they look like - except the ones i tend to find at home depot etc are blue. maybe someone on here can come up with a specific brand. anyway, they work well if you move around a lot. the downside is you will look like tony montana when you work - wear breathing protection.

http://www.eastwood.com/rust-soluti...int-and-rustremoval-disc-4-5in-cup-style.html

 

use the twisted or woven wire discs - they won't toss the wires like the straight wire discs will & they last 3-4 times as long

 

Walter, Worth....the red cup ones....

 

Most wire wheels are rated at less than 3000 rpm. That means use them on a polisher/ sander not a grinder. Those shed wires will get in very deep.

 

I had a 4" wire cup brush that shed so bad and one of the damned things literally impaled itself in my leg... four hours later I'm wondering why there's a sharp little pain just above my knee so I run my hand over and WTF is that? There was just enough sticking out I could pull it out through my jeans, but by then I'd changed clothes and cleaned up without ever noticing it. Good thing it didn't hit me in the eye.

So I went back and got a 3" brush later and it shed much less. Seemed like the thing to do was aim it away from you, turn it on, and just let it run a few minutes until it shed the loosest wires, then go to work with it.

 

The cheap wire wheels use soft wire which breaks easy. The more expensive ones use hardened wire and will hold up better. Weiler is a good brand to use.

 

I have had good luck with the Dewalt brand wheels.

 

Even the good twisted ones will shead when ya wear em down enough, I'm still sweeping up.

 

I stear clear of the wire type wheels and use the "Strip it" disks. Like a really tough scotch brite pad for your grinder. Those ****ers tear that paint of leave the metal alone. My grinder is variable speed as well.

A

 

I had a good woven wire one made in Germany. It lasted lasted quite a while . I think it cost around $17 and was about 5" diam. Used it hard on a lot of ch***is stuff.

 

I used the Strip-It discs for most of the work and agree: they rock; but there were spots they didn't reach well so wire wheels were also necessary.

I'll look into Worth, Walter, and of course DeWalt should be easy to find locall.

Thanks

 

I am a professional restorer. Believe me when I tell you, use 3-M paint stripping wheels. They cost about $6.00 ea. Don't apply a lot of pressure. Let them do the work. I use them in a 20,000rpm die grinder, and have very few come apart. I have probably used 1,000 of them in my lifetime. WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES!!! No wire brush can compare.

 

Not true, I bought a Walter(red cup 3") today....12ooo rpm and very short wires.