Harbor Freight Wire cup brush


 
Bruce

Bruce

TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
I have bought all my wire cup brushes for doing my grills from Harbor Freight. Mostly because I knew they would be least expensive there. Well, today, I get to doing my next grill and find I need a new brush and can't find one in my mess of a garage. Since I live 50 miles from the nearest HF, I went to HD. They only had Milwaukee brand and they are $19 and the biggest they had was 3". So, I went to Menards, same price, but an off brand. So, I go to Blains Farm and Fleet. Again, just 3" and off brand but for about $12. So, I grab it and go. I get home and it won't fit on the arbor of my angle grinder. Damn. So, I hunt around and find an old used, but not used up one and finish my work with that.

Why doesn't anyone sell a 4" wire cup brush and why do they have to cost more than 5 times what HF charges. Yah, it would be nice to buy American if they made what I needed. I guess next time I get to HF, I will have to invest in 4 or 5 of their 4" wire cup brushes.

OK, that is my rant for the day.
 
Nice rant Bruce ;) I bought one of HF $10 angle grinders and a four inch brush, bad combination the cheap grinder didn't like the load that four inch brush put on it. It got so hot you couldn't hold on to it in about three minuets.
Three minuets of grinding 30 minuets of cool down took all day to clean that fire box. When I was done so was the angle grinder.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Nice rant Bruce ;) I bought one of HF $10 angle grinders and a four inch brush, bad combination the cheap grinder didn't like the load that four inch brush put on it. It got so hot you couldn't hold on to it in about three minuets.
Three minuets of grinding 30 minuets of cool down took all day to clean that fire box. When I was done so was the angle grinder.
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Pffft, wear a glove :) I use a $10 grinder and a $16 grinder, same thing happens. Glove works and I also found that if I use a lighter touch, I can grind for longer and get more done.
 
Rich, I bought three of those $10 angle grinders as well as a bit higher quality 6amp vs 4.3amp blue one. I burned one of the $10 grinders up but still have two. I probably did 5 or 6 grills with the one that died before it croaked. Like you said, they get hot, but Wear leather gloves and then I would switch off every ten minitures or so between two of them. The heavier duty one does good for an entire grill. I think I paid $30 for it but I found the $10 ones adequate, especially if you just plan to do one or two restores.

I put a cutting wheel on one of the $10 grinders and just use the blue one mostly now. That way, when I have to cut bolt off or something like that, I don't have to swap out the wire brush.

Heck, for $10, you can't expect too much really. Better than investing $150 in a Dewalt or Milwaukee IMO.

If I ever need another one, I may go with a Ridgid cordless one with the Lifetime LSA, then I can work it as hard as I want.
 
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I am not a big fan of HF power tools either. I have used a HF drill with a wire brush to clean a firebox over the weekend. It was getting hot and it have become a lot louder. I assume it will die soon. But I also had a Makita Grinder going up in flames on me.
 
DaveW said:
Pffft, wear a glove :) I use a $10 grinder and a $16 grinder, same thing happens. Glove works and I also found that if I use a lighter touch, I can grind for longer and get more done.
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Yep, I also found that grinding lighter in a lot of instances will remove the junk just as fast or even faster. And will help to keep from over taxing the grinder motor.
 
DaveW said:
Pffft, wear a glove :) I use a $10 grinder and a $16 grinder, same thing happens. Glove works and I also found that if I use a lighter touch, I can grind for longer and get more done.
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Oh I did use a light touch and had to wear gloves, but at the end of the day the grinder was toast, with no load it would barley spin the brush. My Makita angle grinder which I gave to my son never got hot just a little warm and I used it when I restored my gen 1000 took about an hour or less and I never shut it off. Big difference but for $10 I got the job done.
I did buy another $10 HF one for a just in case I need one.
 
Bruce said:
Rich, I bought three of those $10 angle grinders as well as a bit higher quality 6amp vs 4.3amp blue one. I burned one of the $10 grinders up but still have two. I probably did 5 or 6 grills with the one that died before it croaked. Like you said, they get hot, but Wear leather gloves and then I would switch off every ten minitures or so between two of them. The heavier duty one does good for an entire grill. I think I paid $30 for it but I found the $10 ones adequate, especially if you just plan to do one or two restores.

I put a cutting wheel on one of the $10 grinders and just use the blue one mostly now. That way, when I have to cut bolt off or something like that, I don't have to swap out the wire brush.

Heck, for $10, you can't expect too much really. Better than investing $150 in a Dewalt or Milwaukee IMO.
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I've switched to an identical setup. The cheap one for cutting and the better one for firebox cleaning. I did a frame repair job on a Silver B using the cheapie grinder that has done 4-5 fireboxes already. It still works well as a cutter.
 
I normally stay away from HF tools. But in this case, it's $10 for an angle grinder. If I use it to clean up 2 grills, that's $5 each. I'd spend much more than that on chemicals to try and get the inside clean. An angle grinder is much better than a drill on this application due to the higher RPMs.
 
Dave, my thoughts exactly and no, a drill is no substitute for the angle grinder in cleaning up grills.
 
Bruce said:
Dave, my thoughts exactly and no, a drill is no substitute for the angle grinder in cleaning up grills.
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Yep yep! I learned the hard way. Being cheap, I didn't want to "waste" the $10 when I had a perfectly functional Ridgid 18v drill and 2 batteries. Figured they would handle the task just fine. After draining each battery twice and seeing that I hadn't made much headway, I bought my first grinder. The difference was night and day.
 
I doubt that I will do any more rehabs I'm only doing the silver B because it was in pretty good shape to begin with and it was local and free. But if I should somehow latch on to another one I've the new ten dollar cheapie to get the job done. I'm not going to spend over $100 to have a just in case angle grinder.
 
Rich Dahl said:
I doubt that I will do any more rehabs I'm only doing the silver B because it was in pretty good shape to begin with and it was local and free. But if I should somehow latch on to another one I've the new ten dollar cheapie to get the job done. I'm not going to spend over $100 to have a just in case angle grinder.
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Rich, go get this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/zip/d/free-36blackstone-griddle/6582569285.html



Just saw it while searching your area for Weber's.
 
DaveW said:
Rich, go get this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/zip/d/free-36blackstone-griddle/6582569285.html



Just saw it while searching your area for Weber's.
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Looks like someone already did:mad:.

Rich, I hope you decide to do another when the right opportunity comes by. I sometimes feel we are all part of saving a piece of American grilling history for another generation! Maybe that’s a little grand description for rehabbing beat up old grills, but I think there is some truth to it.

Regarding power tools, I admit I am an accountant and not well versed in the field, although i do have a lot of interest. I don’t think I ever went to Harbor Freight before I joined this forum. I took the advice here to pick up a cheap grinder and then splurged for a multipack of DeWalt 4” wire brushes on Amazon based on good reviews of their resistance to throwing metal splinters. I have actually been amazed at how well this combination has worked for me. It does get hot sometimes, but it has helped me through several rehabs and I hope is ready for more. I believe I did buy their slightly better grinder and not the very cheapest one.

I think Harbor Freight stuff has to be taken on a case by case basis. For a rank amateur like me, some of their power and hand tools make sense given my light duty and irregular use. For a professional who relies on their tools everyday, I can see DeWalt or Milwaukee or other name brand of choice.
 
I agree with Jon's assessment of power tools, and other tools for that matter. For example, today I just went to harbor freight to obtain a 2 Jaw Puller set. The reason is because I'm going to replace my car's wheel bearings tomorrow, and HF had the tools I need at a very low price. I have used jaw pullers once before (incidentally a week ago replacing a control arm bushing on the very same car) but I borrowed them from the local Auto Zone. For the cheap price, I will probably use these pullers eight to ten times in my life, but having them lets me have the option when a particular task presents itself. If I were doing things frequently where this tool was required, of course I would spend the right money to get the right tool. In this case, it's really for one job, and the 35 bucks I spent still keeps me well below what a garage would charge me to change out the wheel bearings. Same for grills, when we fix up the old ones, especially for personal use, there is some cost up front for new parts, and lots of time spent doing it. But in the end, it's always about the right tool for the job, at the quality level needed for the frequency of use. Their angle grinders, for example, are fine for a one off job where you can save what I consider to be a lot of money compared to hiring someone to use their pro tool for ten minutes. I guess I justify tool and equipment expenditures by comparing their cost to the cost of having a professional do the same thing. That said, professionals definitely have trade knowledge and experience that I don't and generally do a better job than I do. But what professional would be scraping out the inside of a 25 year old grill anyway?
 
Exactly guys. For some people and some uses, HF stuff makes a lot of sense. Also, keep in mind that some HF stuff is extremely good quality and could easily sell with a different label on par with some of the name brand stuff. I may just go ahead and get myself a high end angle grinder at some point if I decide to keep doing these rehabs. But for now, the two $9 ones and the $30 one are plenty.

By the way, I found that brand new wire cup brush in my garage, but not until after I got the grill done. Oh well.
 
I agree with you Bruce that HF for some uses makes good stuff I used the 4" cup brush to clean my 1000. I buy a lot of specialty stuff from them meaning things like their step bit drill titanium bits which are fantastic its a must set for not a lot of money to have a nice clean drill hole probably had mine for 6 years. All my other heavy duty tools like my 12" chop saw which is the most used tool I have for moldings and things like the wood I did for the 1000 are Dewalt. My chop saw is 12 years old and running like a champ good blade that is the key.

Believe it or not my angle grinder was a Ryobi had it 10 years probably cut 100' feet of flagstone with a diamond blade used it for the cup brush to do the 1000 and yes it runs hot but as others have said be more patient let the cup brush do the work or the blade do the work slow and steady.
 
Jon Tofte said:
I took the advice here to pick up a cheap grinder and then splurged for a multipack of DeWalt 4” wire brushes on Amazon based on good reviews of their resistance to throwing metal splinters. I have actually been amazed at how well this combination has worked for me.
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Jon, how much were those Dewalt wire cup brushes and how much did they cost you?
 
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