Welding Tips and Tricks

Norton makes a disc that's kind of like a 'Scotch Bright' pad. Supposed to be great for cleaning hot rolled steel. I saw it in one of Jody's videos but can't find it. Can anyone help?

Often referred to as roloc disks. Light millscale is fine, heavy stuff needs a flap disk.

Yea a roloc/scotchbrite will knock off light to medium rust with little effort, but millscale on hot rolled steel will make it fold it's hand. Stick to a coarse grit flapdisc or hard abrasive wheel to clean millscale off of hot rolled steel.

Home Depot and Lowes has these. Also one that has a 1/4" drill shank

LtBadd wrote:Home Depot and Lowes has these. Also one that has a 1/4" drill shank

Have you tried those on heavy mill scale? I'm curious how well they work for removing that obnoxious stuff!

clavius wrote:

LtBadd wrote:Home Depot and Lowes has these. Also one that has a 1/4" drill shank

Have you tried those on heavy mill scale? I'm curious how well they work for removing that obnoxious stuff!

I haven't

I’ve used them they will work. Butt there more expensive than flap discs. Compared to how long they last.

Have you tried those on heavy mill scale? I'm curious how well they work for removing that obnoxious stuff!

I have tried them, I find them to be nearly useless on heavy mill scale. Some of the steel I buy as drops and seconds has a really thick coat of scale, and the only thing that seems to get it is 36 grit flap disks. The clean strip discs are different than rolocs. They are OK for removing paint, rust and light scale only. They wear out pretty quickly as well.

All of the above applies to the discs that fit an angle grinder. The clean strip discs that come with a drill shank are next to useless in my experience. Drills just don't have enough oomph.

I used 5" 3M purple strip discs on my angle grinder recently on a heavily scaled plate about 5ft x 1.5ft. It worked very well but took 3 discs to do both sides to shiny. About $4 each that's pricey but I needed it done and had plenty of discs on the shelf for a while now. You need to keep them off raw edges.

I tried a purple disc supposedly meant to take paint off. It went alright but also took a bit of metal off so it didn't give the look I wanted. For scale and rust, I prefer a new flap disc or sanding disc. With a deft touch you can remove the minimum if base metal.

Are you maybe referring to Norton's beartex lineup?

Pretty sure it's beartex at least.

I got a blue wheel at a trade show years back. The thing lasted me nearly 3-4montha of fair use in the shop for doing anything from paint removal on aluminum without gouging all the way to some pretty heavy shaping in Ally or brass/lead solder.

Have used them on steel as wheel and they take millscale off pretty quick and hold up for a while with proper technique ( like any tool I find in the wrong hands they get eaten up quick)


Will take a pic when I'm back at the shop on Monday if anyone is interested

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Toggatug wrote: Will take a pic when I'm back at the shop on Monday if anyone is interested

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Sure let's see it

LtBadd wrote:Home Depot and Lowes has these. Also one that has a 1/4" drill shank

clean-strip.jpg

Very true, those are good too. For rust/millscale cleaning, say for just cleaning ahead the path for a weld bead, I also use the 3M purple silicon carbide on the 1/4" shank on a Grizzly 2800 RPM air drill, and it works really well for me.



As you can see, it can get past the millscale and into the bare steel itself. I like it a lot.

Good to know. Thanks.

They are good, but my experience is they wear out quick for the cost (>$12)...Oscar what is your experience? Or anyone else

I use them sparingly, but I don’t hesitate to use it if there’s lots of paint.

LtBadd wrote:They are good, but my experience is they wear out quick for the cost (>$12)...Oscar what is your experience? Or anyone else

Agreed. I wouldn't suggest them for production level type work, unless someone else is paying for them. For large surface rust removal I grab the 7" air grinder with the 5-6" coarse cup wheel. I keep it on the material at all times with pressure so as to keep the RPM's down, and the "cutting action" more effective at the same time. I don't bother with large surface millscale removal as I don't have any need for it.

LtBadd wrote:

Toggatug wrote: Will take a pic when I'm back at the shop on Monday if anyone is interested

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Sure let's see it

As promised here's my blue wonder wheels

The small 1" is the very first one I got a tradeshow. It's a little more open of a webbig and feels softer (Norton makes about a million different types of this wheel it seems)

The larger wheel is the ones I'm running now. I tried asking the tradeshow rep what wheel he gave me and he just shrugged cause he couldn't remember so had to take a guess from Norton's catalog and order a box of 40.



Still a phenomenal wheel in my opinion. With many different uses. Oh and they make them for angle grinders etc. I just use he 3" rolocs out of preference for what I do with them.

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Those are good for light blending and finishing work

That's what they say in the catalog, but I've used it then to gouge and groove, heavy deburring and even some pretty heavy shaping.

Only thing I don't like about them is the price!

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ratmotor56 wrote:Norton makes a disc that's kind of like a 'Scotch Bright' pad. Supposed to be great for cleaning hot rolled steel. I saw it in one of Jody's videos but can't find it. Can anyone help?

I recently purchased a bunch of the 3M Scotchbrite Clean & Strip XT Disc at Fastenal because they were on clearance. These are for a 4-1/2" Grinder. I got them for like 3 bucks each, which I thought was still pricey for what they are. The Sales Guy told me they were normally 15 bucks each. I bought everyone they had (about 2 dozen)
I got them because I had a bunch of pieces to modify and Weld, that the Powdercoat was flaking off and a lot of Rust.
These worked great for this, however they disappear right in front of your eyes. I burned thru 3 of them in less than an hour.
I mean these thing will flat eat off some Powdercoat and Rust, but that is ridiculous. Let me state that I am very experienced in the Operation of a Grinder, so I was letting the Tool do the work, and not putting any excessive pressure on them.
Can you imagine if I had been some poor fool who paid full price of 15 bucks each for these?
I complained to my Fastenal Guy about them, and he said that the reason they were on close out, was 3M is changing the formula of the Bonding Agent in them, maybe that's why they basically evaporate as you're using them.
I have not tried them on Mill Scale, but I think the way they went thru thick Powdercoat, that they would good for Millscale as well.
I will try one today at the Shop and see how it does, but I prefer Pferd or Walter Flap Discs.
The 3M ones I have look pretty much just like the Nortons, except maybe a little more aggressive.