Welding Tips and Tricks

Somewhere a while ago I saw a post from someone wondering the best way to clean mill scale from hot rolled steel without marring the surface underneath. I just started using a 3M product called a Large area paint and rust stripper. Its a 4in dia.x 1in wheel that looks a bit like heavy duty black candy floss with embedded abrasives. I use it in a high speed drill ( 3400 rpm ). I found it in the auto body shop supply section at Canadian Tire. As it wears it keeps exposing fresh abrasives and doesn't develop a set like a wire wheel. Don't know maby a lot of people use these thing but I just ran into it. It works really fast and easy on mill scale-paint and rust and seems to wear very well.

I've used them too. I like them a lot. I use it in a drill and in my end grinder.

I purchased one of these recently for my angle grinder to remove paint off some sheet metal. It worked really fast without gouging the steel.
I also learnt you should avoid the edges and corners with these as they get torn apart in no time but on flat surfaces they are great.

I use a stiff 3"cup wire brush on my 4 1/2" grinder for removing rust, paint and weld BBs.

Norton Blaze Rapid strip

Sometimes wire wheel doesn't remove the rust it merely polishes it but it's still there. 3M Strip disc is the bomb.


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I use wire wheels (not cups) for most of my clean ups -welds etc. The trick is to use a high speed reversible drill. With a cup yes works great for a few moments -develops a set and does basically polish. With a drill just run one direction until the bristles start to set and reverse it and like new. I just toggle back and forth as needed. My most used tool in the shop is a 20V -1/4in impact driver with a chuck attachment and an assortment of wire wheel attachments. Over time I can run circles around a cup in a grinder and far more versatile. If someone would invent a reversible grinder for this you would have a real screamer!! I also use a 6in bench grinder wheel with arbour in a 3400rpm 1/2in Makita drill and it really flies and surprisingly runs very smooth.

I've seen wire wheels that have thread on connectors on both sides of the wheel. This allows you to flip the wheel and expose the sharp edge of the wires. I can't seem to find them at the moment.