Flapper wheels

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Jul 13, 2009
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Removing scale


I know belt grinders are probably the most common way, but has anyone got experience with these flapper wheels ?

It would help me get into a corner on a fabrication project if I had one of these on an angle grinder.

FRFIOMMF9AZJK09.MEDIUM.jpg


I've seen internet prices for $1.50 bulk to $4, but my local store has blue (which hope is a zirc medium) for $20

before I plunk that $20, I'm hoping for some wisdom.

There are only 3 grits available, 50 to 80.

How would they act on scale removal without gouging the base metal ?
 
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I used one to clean up the edges on the GIB. The laser cut really left the edge looking like a rat chewed on it. That flap disc cleaned it up and smoothed it out like butter.

They work great
 
I have used these "flap discs" a lot for clean up before welding. They are more mild than a grinder stone, but can still remove some metal. I have also used them to touch up the face of my 4140 post anvil. They removed paint nice on my propane cylinder when I was building a forge....

I bought a ton a while ago from a company called Bullet. They got bought out and this is the new company. Their quality is very good:
http://www.heleta.com/Flap Discs/

Oh, the difference between 'type 27' and 'type 29' is flat vs angled. Type 27 is flat and type 29 has a 10-20 degree surface.
 
They can work well, but fresh crappy ones that have stiff flaps will cut and gouge hard at first, then become useless.


I've heard good things about the cheapo Lehigh Valley discs, but I'm using Pferd (top end) discs atm and the difference is night and day.

Still, pickling is my prefered scale removal choice for blades, since you're less likely to do damage, and I use an aggressive flared cup wheel for grinding scale off of billets.
 
We use them a lot to clean/bevel steel prior to welding and for grinding welds flat. You can get decent quality zirconia disks from discount machine shop suppliers in packs of 10 or 12 for less than $5 per disk. We mostly use 40 grit. They remove steel very quickly, and keeping a surface flat takes a gentle touch, or a finer grit. The sharp corner of the disk will wear away pretty fast, so if you really are grinding into a corner, you might want to use a regular depressed center grinding wheel
 
They worked great when I was doing the same thing as AVigil.

Harbor Freight has them and I think they are like $1 a piece. They seem to last as long as the more expensive 3m ones we used to buy at the machine shop. I could not tell much of a difference between the two except I could use 4 HF ones for the price of 1 3m.
 
We go through probably 15 a day at work, the Walter Enduro-Flex Spin-On Wheels are really great. They're definitely great for corners. When the flaps no longer curve with the corner just grind the top of the wheel away on something square.
 
I use this style disc all the time... more for fab work than knife making though.

I really like them, but there's no way I'd pay $20 for one. I've seen Blaze orange ones for about that price, but I doubt even those are worth the heavy price tag.
 
I am a retired welder and I wish I had a dollar for everyone of these things I have used cleaning the bevels and lands on pipe for welding. They are great for a lot of things. One thing that I like them for around the house is sharpening lawnmower blades.
 
As a boilermaker / heavey fabricator , I use them for cleaning back paint around spots that need rewelding. The 80 grit ones give an almost satin polish on stainless and aluminium and strips back any weld spatter real cleanly.

On the knife makeing side of it , I've used them to rough shape handles in red gum and micarta and found they work well

We use flex-o-vit and find them on par with preferred but a little cheaper down here.
 
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