Welding Tips and Tricks

I ordered some of these, and while they have been delivered already, I haven't gotten to use them. I'm hoping for them to be awesome for millscale removal. I'll test them out tomorrow and report back.





I sometimes use my 3/8" air drill with a 3M scotch-brite clean strip silicon carbide wheel, but it's not always applicable in all situations

I just watched this yesterday.
I'm curious to see how your discs work out.
https://youtu.be/3ggghDldZf8?t=469

Yup, very similar, except this is supposed to not load-up since it is segmented somewhat. I bought a 24- and a 60-grit because the 36-grit was OOS.

YES! I found those once and very nearly ordered a few hoping they'd be exactly the ticket for quickly removing millscale without going through a 10 dollar disk every 5-20 minutes.

sbaker56 wrote:YES! I found those once and very nearly ordered a few hoping they'd be exactly the ticket for quickly removing millscale without going through a 10 dollar disk every 5-20 minutes.

What happened, didn't order them after all?

So I just tried them out. First 24 grit and then the 60 grit. I thought perhaps these discs were going to be "spongy" material like the quick strip disc, embedded with silicon carbide but nope. It is straight up silicon carbide grit, bonded onto the disc. They are very agressive, the 60 grit had no issue clearing millscale out of it's path even with just the lightest pressure. The 24 grit was starting to hog out material.



They are meant to be used with the plastic, flexible backer pads like the ones that used with the fibre/sanding discs, but depending how much the backer pad sticks out, the disc might hit the rim of the guard or just flat-out extend past it. Luckily the disc backer material is stiff enough that you could use them, within scope, without the plastic backer pad. These are not meant for someone to bear down on them, so since I'm cognizant of that, I will use 'em up like that.

So yes, the clear millscale quickly, but I'm not sure sure on the longevity. I think an even higher grit in the aluminum oxide version might be better, but Empire Abrasives only has aluminum oxide versions 36 grit or coarser. I'm going to order the finest grit in silicon carbide (120) to see how those do.

That's really impressive, I'm lazy, also impatient and more importantly I've found thick millscale will ruin a regular flap disc pretty damned fast anyway, they never cut the same afterwards even on bright shiny metal.

Run them on some fresh off the floor hot rolled angle iron. That tends to be the thickest mill scale I encounter. I use Walter Flex Cut discs. Their waffle pattern works best in my shop.

Those do look like a good design, but they resemble more hard grinding discs than flexible discs that use backer pads. Are they actually flexible? I guess it really matter for me since I can't find them in singles/small packs. All massive carton-quantities geared/aimed towards real shops and not hobbyists.

I like anything around a 40 grit. Seams for me to be a good in between push a little to move metal and go light to buff it up. But even a 40 at light pressure will leave grind marks. So I go 60 or 80 for rough work if it needs to be polished.

Still working well?

Yea, but the 24 Grit is wearing down fast. Which is why I'm using it first. I'm thinking 60 & 80 will be much better in terms of longevity

24 grit disk did indeed wear down fast, as was expected.





I think the 60 grit will last a bit more. I'm gonna try the 80 grit later as well.

10% off site-wide at empire abrasives using code: chris2020 for columbus holiday, ends Monday midnight 10/12. Time to order some more of these disks.

Figures there would be a sale the day before I can pick up my paycheck