How to Correctly Install Brushes on an Angle Grinder

The brushes for metal for the angle grinder are amazing in their variety. Their main purpose is the cleaning of metal from old paint, from corrosion. True, there are hand brushes with wire bristles for small amounts of work.

What kind of tool is an angle grinder?

Angle grinder or angle grinder. A universal and necessary tool in the household. This tool is used by painters, locksmiths, is in the arsenal of carpenters. Its importance varies depending on the nozzles used. Put on a typewriter circular disk. And you can cut wood. Often, an angle grinder is used in metalwork for cutting metal: pipes, fittings.

But its main purpose remains grinding work. With the increase in secondary sales of cars, the demand for their repair and painting is growing. The most difficult stage in this work is the preparatory, that is, cleaning the surfaces of the machines from old paint and primer. The cleaner the body appears before the new primer, the better the new paint will hold. In this work, the leading role is played by an angle grinder with a set of grinding brushes.

What are the brushes?

Metal, cup-shaped wrinkles appeared relatively recently. And before that, grinders worked mainly with emery papers of various types or emery stone disks. The paper, no matter how high their stiffness, was quickly clogged with paint particles or erased. It often had to be changed, which led to reduced productivity. Working with a metal brush for an angle grinder is much more efficient in this regard.

Almost every leading tool manufacturer considered it necessary to market their brushes. And each manufacturer has its own approach, its own exclusive in the development and manufacture of metal nozzles for angle grinders. Some brushes are made from a single thin wire, others from a twisted cable, and others from a corrugated corrugated wire. Wire cord brushes are distinguished by diameter, stiffness, and bristle quality. Brushes as nozzles for angle grinders are:

Metal brushes are made of:

• Steel;
• Brass coated steel;
• Brass;
• Copper.

There are polishing brushes for treating metal surfaces and woodwork. They are made from nylon and other polymers, dried seaweed, cotton fibers.

The rigidity of the treatment depends on the structure of the wire, its hardness and thickness. The thinner the wire used in the manufacture of the brush, the softer it acts on the metal. To clean the surface of old paint at the initial stage, it is better to use a nozzle with a hard bristle, and for the final cleaning of the remains of the primer and other materials, a nozzle with less rigidity will be suitable, which will not “eat” the bare metal.

For the manufacture of brushes used wire:

• Corrugated. This brush due to its springy properties softens, on the one hand, the impact on the metal, and on the other, the vibration of the machine is reduced.
• Twisted. The bristles twisted together provide rigidity to the surface, break less and fly out as they wear. Twisted fragments unwind, freeing the bristles for work.
• Smooth.

Brushes differ in the diameter of the cup, which determines the parameters of the simultaneously processed surface. Corners for angle grinders are consumables, but manufacturers are anxious to make them as efficient as possible and extend their life.

How to call them correctly?

On the network and on the labels there is a discrepancy in the name of the nozzles. Some people call them angle brushes with brush, others. Cord brushes. How do you actually name them? Cord is translated from English as a string, cord, rope. And if you look closely, these nozzles are made of many steel (or nylon) cut into short bristles, strings or twisted cords. So the essence of this name becomes quite understandable. A cord brush. Those who write the brush, obviously, took the name of the nozzle by ear, and since the letter “d” is most often swallowed during pronunciation, they started to write. I don’t know how to use spelling dictionaries, but the Word program in which this article is written recognized the spelling of the cord brush with a hyphen as correct.

Brushing as a process of working with a brush

The process of treating metal surfaces with metal brushes with the aim of removing loosened sludge or scale formed during the etching process is called staining. This work can be done manually or with power tools. The brushes themselves for angle grinders are called kratsovki. With this treatment, the porosity of the galvanic deposit decreases, it becomes denser. The treated surface is more homogeneous.

Steel surfaces are brushed with steel brushes with a wire diameter of 0.2–0.4 mm. Non-ferrous metals are processed with wire brushes made of copper or brass. Electroplating is also capped to increase the density of the coating and give it shine.

Capping is performed by:

• Dry surface;
• Surface wetted with water, soap or soda solution.

When brushing with metal brushes, abrasive pastes are not used, since the ends of the wire bristles serve as an abrasive.

How to choose a quality brush?

When choosing a siding for angle grinders, pay attention to the bristles. It should be distributed evenly throughout the disk, the bristles everywhere should be the same length and distributed evenly over the entire circumference of the cup. It is unacceptable when the bristles are thickened on one edge and thin on the other. Such a brush will beat in your hand (vibrate), cleaning will be uneven, and the brush itself will very soon fail.

Among the parameters for the wire nozzle, manufacturers indicate the recommended speed for the machine. This indicator should not be ignored. If you put the brush for low speed on a machine with a high speed of rotation, it will not give the desired result and will quickly fail. And vice versa, the metal brush, which the manufacturer has developed for operation at high speeds, at low speeds will not work with the proper performance.

The smaller the cup diameter, the less load on the machine engine, less vibration, and, accordingly, less tired hand. But the larger the diameter of the cup, the fewer passages. Which brush to choose? There is no single answer. Sometimes masters manage to try several brushes of different diameters and different stiffnesses of the bristles before they find the best option. The choice of a brush often depends on the quality of the paintwork. After all, as you know, different enamels and primers have different coating densities.

Goal for invention is cunning. User tip

The creative thinking of our people knows no bounds. This recommendation, aimed at increasing the productivity of the brush, was found on the forums of the masters.

Everyone knows that the bristles of the grinding nozzle wear out over time, and this attrition rate depends on the stiffness of the bristles and the aggressiveness of the surface being treated. In some brushes, the outer cup is larger than the inner, which allows you to extend a little, by 15 percent, the life of the brush. This can be achieved by cutting off the upper edge of the outer brush cup by 5–7 mm.

Safety precautions

In the process of surface treatment, whether metal surfaces or wood, you must follow safety precautions. The fact is that the higher the speed of rotation of the disk on the angle grinder, the faster the brush wears out. Metal bristles fly off from it, grains of scale and metal burrs fly off from the treated surface. It happens that the cup does not withstand the load, and the brush itself scatters.

And all this literally shoots at a working person. Therefore, when working with such a brush, you need to have glasses, a respirator, mittens and preferably a tight overall. Even if the sun is shining on the street and there is unbearable heat.

The loud sound of an angle grinder is tiring, makes the worker irritable, so it is recommended that you also have headphones. Some employees combine business with pleasure and muffle the sound of their grinder with their favorite music, inserting headphones from the player or phone into their ears.