Wire Wheel vs. Sanding Discs?


 

AlexPicchietti

New member
so I've been reading a ton of threads on the site...

seems like the most common way to get the exterior of the cookbox prior to a fresh paint job is wire wheel/wire cup brush/angle grinder. (outside of finding a sandblaster locally, which I haven't found yet)

If I don't have an angle grinder, would something like this work well? Attach it to my power drill and just sand away?

(Any suggestions on getting the surface smooth to the touch? Just finer sand paper?)

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Thx much!
 
I don't see any reason that wouldn't work just fine, there's more than one way to skin a cat so to speak. I've also recently been using my 1/4 sheet palm sander on grills. It works very well on flat surfaces and you can use multiple grits of sandpaper depending on what you are trying to accomplish. So yes, by all means give that a try and let us see the results.
 
The lower grit Sandpaper will actually remove metal fairly quickly and will leave marks in the aluminum that will show thru in the paint. I wouldn’t advise using it on the outside.

You can get cup brushes for impacts and drills if you don’t have an angle grinder.
 
The lower grit Sandpaper will actually remove metal fairly quickly and will leave marks in the aluminum that will show thru in the paint. I wouldn’t advise using it on the outside.

You can get cup brushes for impacts and drills if you don’t have an angle grinder.
You have to use the right grit for the job. 150 will get down to bare metal pretty quickly even by hand sanding and won't gouge the metal. On the other hand, I have screwed up end caps before by wire wheeling them too aggressively. The least useful tool I have for this stuff is actually my angle grinder. I think some of that has to do with it being battery powered although I just used it to cut down a pretty thick metal pipe in my yard that used to hold a large satellite dish.
 
Power drills doing this type of work are a royal PIA. Go to Harbor Freight. Getting the right tool(s) to do the job correctly and easily will not break the bank
 
You have to use the right grit for the job. 150 will get down to bare metal pretty quickly even by hand sanding and won't gouge the metal. On the other hand, I have screwed up end caps before by wire wheeling them too aggressively. The least useful tool I have for this stuff is actually my angle grinder. I think some of that has to do with it being battery powered although I just used it to cut down a pretty thick metal pipe in my yard that used to hold a large satellite dish.

Yes. I would stay away from anything more coarse than 120 on the outside. 80 may not gouge it but I wouldn’t risk it. I used a paint stripping disc on one and it left a few deep marks.
 

 

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