I've bought two different small wire wheels, I think they are less then 3" diameter and cone shaped for my 4" angle grinder and both began to fall apart with in a few minutes of using them. The curly wires separate and impale me. I literally had 20-30 wires sticking out of my tee shirt last night. Any advise on a quality product?

Make sure you are not exceeding the recommended RPM.

Some are cheap crap, I like the JET brand. Get the ones with the twisted (braided) sections of wire.

I guess you know why it's very important to wear eye protection with any wire wheel wheels.

My wire wheels last awhile... even the cheapos

Harbor freight sells twisted wire wheels for like $5 a piece, always held up for me. Or you can go to lowes/home depot and buy the $15 a piece wheel, they are better quality and may last longer than HF ones, but not sure. to me $5 sounds better than $15

I saw those twisted ones. I'm going to try that. Thanks.

I thought about that. They didn't even list the max RPM's. They only cost $10 at the local hardware store but considering they start to fall apart within a few minutes, those Hamilton's start to add up. I think I will try the twisted wire wheels next. The fun has only just begun with the rust repair.

Be careful with the Lowes 8" wire wheel, I put one on and it exploded on me. The good news I had on a face shield and a pair of goggles. The best wire wheel I have found are from Northern Tool. The are TWICE the thickness of all of the other ones and are not brass covered( brass transfers to what you are cleaning).

Eh, they come apart. Just be careful to clean up well. I had one stuck in my arm for a day while it work its way out. It was laying on my garage floor when I laid on it. Hurt like hell but oh well, better my arm than my eye.

I second getting the twisted wire wheel cones. I HATE using wire wheels.

Once, while I was cleaning a trunk floor for installation with a wheel, one of my neighbors came over to see what I was up to. I had a 20 minute convo with him. When he left, I realized that I had a 1 inch piece of wire from the damn wheel embedded in my forehead, sticking out like a big errant wire hair.

Zach

I worked as a maintenance guy in a alcoa fastener plant in Waco for awhile and they would not let us use wirewheels because of the safety factor. I do use them at home though. The twisted wheels are really used to remove flux from weld beads. Called bead brushes. Go to the welding supply store and see what brand they sell and then see if you can find it online cheaper. The cone shaped ones are called a cup brush. You cannot get enough protection from the strands though. My main use is on my 8 inch bench grinder. I use a ss one that is not twisted to clean up bolt threads and such. It does put them in my shirt though. Bearing down too hard is also hard on them.

Keep in mind like Mark said that if you use one to remove rust from mild steel it will transfer to other metals that you use it on.

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..Defective? ...tend to do that when they get old?/

I quit buying cheap wire wheels a long time ago. The last 4" cup brush that I spent $25 or so on is still kickin ass today and I haven't bought one since. Takes floorboard tar and underbody undercoat off better than anything else too.