I do most of my wire wheeling on a pedestal grinder, five horsepower, with large wheels.  The radial velocity of bristles on a wire wheel is very high, especially on large diameter wire wheels.   While deburring grinding on tools that I forge, these wires break off, at high speeds, causing missiles which have actually stuck into my forehead.  Wearing safety glasses is a GIVEN, but to prevent these Quills from sticking to other body parts including my scalp forces me to wear a hat while wire wheeling, and donning a face shield.  Pulling these needles from my forehead, drawing blood, is not too pleasant!

Let the tips of the brush do the job like they are designed to, excessive preasure causes beakage.

Greetings Snake Creek,

 

5 horsepower ....I know complete large shops that the whole shop runs on less than that.  I'm sure you already know this but I will throw it out there..

 

Make a couple iron saw horses with a flat 8 in face for clamping... Get you a large angle gtinder  put a 6 in cup brush on it and clamp your work down..   Odd shapes a vise grip chain grip works well.   Have at it...(  all the fuzzies will now fly sideways  )   Best wear a leather apron.  

 

Good Luck    Jim

While for certain jobs I will use a fixed motor mounted wire wheel for most jobs I prefer to use Metabo variable speed grinders that I slow down to both reduce the wire pieces that want to fly off and stick in my face  and the slower speed  also allows the bristles  to flex into detail areas.I very rarely crank the speed up, for me slower   actually yields faster results and a lot safer. My variable speed metabos are maybe 10 years old and still going strong though I don't even know if they still make the VS models and I have been advise that the quality of metabo in general has gone downhill. I need to check out other brands for variable speed models.

I do most of my wire wheeling on a pedestal grinder, five horsepower, with large wheels.  The radial velocity of bristles on a wire wheel is very high, especially on large diameter wire wheels.   While deburring grinding on tools that I forge, these wires break off, at high speeds, causing missiles which have actually stuck into my forehead.  Wearing safety glasses is a GIVEN, but to prevent these Quills from sticking to other body parts including my scalp forces me to wear a hat while wire wheeling, and donning a face shield.  Pulling these needles from my forehead, drawing blood, is not too pleasant!

 

I believe a full face shield is required by OSHA (in shops that fall under their rules) while using a wire wheel or grinder. Many folks think OSHA are bad guys, but they do mean well :)

I took a wire out of the inside of my nose once, about 1/8th of the whole half inch wire was showing in the mirror as I yanked... Full faced masks fogged up on me too bad, so I used an old paintball mask... it's airy enough, and deflects most all of the tossed wires, if it does make it through the meshed plastic, chances are it's hit something and lost a lot of speed...

I find a better quality cup brush ( fitted to 4" grinder ) as opposed to a cheap one throws out less spikes, but still wear full face shield protection and a leather apron. Got fed up pulling out spikes from all over especially my face !

OSHA regulations for PPE are like many of the OSHA rules, performance based rather than specification based. This means that rather than a long specification list like "a face shield shall be worn when... and then specifing tasks. The OSHA requirement requires honest thought, and to do a Job Hazard Assesment.

A JHA would be, what threats to the eyes exist in this task? Flying debris? Yes, then safety spec's

flying debris a threat to the face? then a face shield.

Falling items or roll over threat? then safety shoes.

And so on.

 

Many will wear a face shield to protect the eyes but truely for protection safety spec's for the eyes and a face shield over for the tender face are needed if the threat is there.

 

Wire wheels on large Hp setups are really bad about grabbing parts, almsot as bad as large muslin buffs.

 

Stuart, could a simple tumbler, or rumbler be substituted? while you would have to invest in some equipment, the savings in labor time should be a good return

 

And folks, the ultimate goal under the OSHA spec's, and my personal drive, is to enineer out the threat. PPE is the LAST choice. Wearing armour to protect against the threat is never as good a protection as eleminating the threat.

 

PTREE the industrial Safety guy.

If you run the wire brush at RPM exceeding the manufacturer's listed maximum, then bad things happen.

 

Do you know your brush's rating? Do you know your grinder's RPM? (Horsepower tells us nothing about RPM unless we also know torque.)

:D Was'nt it said that what does'nt kill you makes you stronger?       Fixed wire wheel= not for the un/wise/weary/prepared. none the less-efective!

After working in a shop with a very powerful wirewheel/pedestal grinder, I decided when I moved into my own shop that I would get one of those little piddly not very powerful ones...Now I don't get the "quills" sticking out of the front of my leather apron like I did with the powerful one!!  It doesn't snatch so much, only if I'm silly and put things in at the wrong angle, and if it does it stops or slows right down.  I like that feature, probably burn out the motor quicker, but it's one tool where I feel that the cheaper and flimsier the better!! :)

I have to agree with previous posts, a full face shield is a must. We wore them for all operations when I worked at a foundry, and i feel unprotected without one now. I also became tired of pulling wire barbs out of my chest and arms so I put on leather sleeves over my apron when I have long wire brushing sessions.