Wire brush wheels and cups and other abrasives

Scooby074 · Mar 25, 2012

I agree with SA. Careful with cheap wheels. Remember the RPM these things turn at.... that means they have a lot of energy and turn to shrapnel when they explode.

Also in my experience china wheels have bad balance. I have about 5 or so hanging on the wall that I bought at PA for like $0.99 or something each. Pure garbage. Shake like a dog poopin razorblades.

yomax4 · Mar 25, 2012

Yep. Even a Quality brand wheel has a shelf life. The bonding that holds the wheels together will fail in time. Terrible to lose an eye. I know a guy who lost part of a nostril same way.

Shield Arc · Mar 25, 2012

Chain saws, and grinders are pretty unforgiving to one's flesh! I didn't actually see it happen, but I seen the results. We installed one million tons of these beams in a city bus tunnel project. Guy was running a 9-inch grinder, (with guard on it) overhead cleaning out a V-groove weld, grinder got away from him, and hit him right in the face

. Lost a few teeth, and quite a few stitches, (forgot how many).

jake98 · Mar 25, 2012

Shield Arc said:
Chain saws, and grinders are pretty unforgiving to one's flesh! I didn't actually see it happen, but I seen the results. We installed one million tons of these beams in a city bus tunnel project. Guy was running a 9-inch grinder, (with guard on it) overhead cleaning out a V-groove weld, grinder got away from him, and hit him right in the face. Lost a few teeth, and quite a few stitches, (forgot how many).

Is that you, setting your pant leg on fire there??

Sublifer · Mar 25, 2012

I agree with the caution on cheap stuff... There is a difference between getting a good price on something and buying a cheap piece of junk. The grinding discs I bought were all metabo and sait, and the cutoff discs were metabo. Flap wheels are made with Norton zirconia cloth. The wire wheels and cups are a bit of an unknown but I've gotten flying wires stuck in the skin from Dewalt wire cups and wheels so I consider all of them to be dangerous.

Wear your eye protection when grinding, cutting and wire wheel/cup cleaning! Also try to keep your body and at least vital parts outside of the cutting/grinding/brushing plane. (In case that isn't understood by anyone, imagine the cutting/grinding,brush wheel as a disc that extends all the way till it hits a solid object in any direction. Keep your vitals from being in that path)

Shield Arc · Mar 25, 2012

jake98 said:
Is that you, setting your pant leg on fire there??

No, that is a kid named Harvey. He died a couple years after that photo was taken of cancer. Don't remember what type. He was a joy to work around.
He was probably warming his feet. That was one miserable project. When it stopped raining, it took another hour or so for the water to stop running off the street above us. Water is one thing, but we had mud, and sand off the street falling on us.