My wife is a welder by trade and she gets to use various tools and she tells me about the ones she thinks I'd be interested in. The latest is the 3M bristle disc. Now they're not new per say but I'd never heard of nor used them.
She found a used one in a garbage can and brought it home for me to try. It was no where near ready for the garbage can, I guess people can be really wasteful when they're not paying for something.
Now I usually use wire wheels that mount on my 4" grinder like a lot of you do to strip the old paint and rust off of my projects. But this this is hands down better. Basically it's ceramic impregnated hard rubber or some sort of plastic compound. Google 3M bristle disc videos and watch.
I've been playing with the disc for a bit now and this thing is a beast. I did a quick test on the hood for my 816 rider, first up was the disc. I stripped half the hood and rough timed it. Then I switched to the wire wheel and ran it for about the same time. The wire wheel didn't even do half as much in the same amount of time. And the disc is holding up pretty darn good too as far as wearing away.
Not only that but with the ceramic it acts like a sanding disc leaving fine scratches for the new paint to adhere to. The wire wheel doesn't.
It comes in several different grits from I think 24 to 120 and in a few different sizes. The one I used is a 4 1/2" 120 grit and screws right onto my grinder.
I switched back to the disc and completely cleaned the rest of the outside of the hood, decals and all in about 20 minutes.
They run about the same price a good wire wheel and the big plus is it doesn't fling wires all over and into the operator.
Here are some pictures I took of my results.
This was the timed test. The right side was the disc, the left a wire wheel. There is an optical illusion here, the left side isn't half way, it fell short an inch or so.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I tried to capture the swirl marks left by the disc. You may have to click the picture to get the high res version to see it.
Wire wheel.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
3M disc.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
So far I've been finding them for $21 to $35 but I'm still looking for a better price and when I find it I'll post it up here.
I went back a little later, put the 3M disc back on my grinder and finished stripping the outside of the hood, decals and all and it took about 20 minutes.
Short of sand blasting I've never seen anything chew through decals the way this thing does.
Check them out.
She found a used one in a garbage can and brought it home for me to try. It was no where near ready for the garbage can, I guess people can be really wasteful when they're not paying for something.
Now I usually use wire wheels that mount on my 4" grinder like a lot of you do to strip the old paint and rust off of my projects. But this this is hands down better. Basically it's ceramic impregnated hard rubber or some sort of plastic compound. Google 3M bristle disc videos and watch.
I've been playing with the disc for a bit now and this thing is a beast. I did a quick test on the hood for my 816 rider, first up was the disc. I stripped half the hood and rough timed it. Then I switched to the wire wheel and ran it for about the same time. The wire wheel didn't even do half as much in the same amount of time. And the disc is holding up pretty darn good too as far as wearing away.
Not only that but with the ceramic it acts like a sanding disc leaving fine scratches for the new paint to adhere to. The wire wheel doesn't.
It comes in several different grits from I think 24 to 120 and in a few different sizes. The one I used is a 4 1/2" 120 grit and screws right onto my grinder.
I switched back to the disc and completely cleaned the rest of the outside of the hood, decals and all in about 20 minutes.
They run about the same price a good wire wheel and the big plus is it doesn't fling wires all over and into the operator.
Here are some pictures I took of my results.
This was the timed test. The right side was the disc, the left a wire wheel. There is an optical illusion here, the left side isn't half way, it fell short an inch or so.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I tried to capture the swirl marks left by the disc. You may have to click the picture to get the high res version to see it.
Wire wheel.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
3M disc.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
So far I've been finding them for $21 to $35 but I'm still looking for a better price and when I find it I'll post it up here.
I went back a little later, put the 3M disc back on my grinder and finished stripping the outside of the hood, decals and all and it took about 20 minutes.
Short of sand blasting I've never seen anything chew through decals the way this thing does.
Check them out.
