Wire Wheels

Benchmark Abrasives Wire Wheel Cup Brushes for Metalworking and Welding

Wire wheel cup brushes, also known as power brushes, are essential tools in metalworking and welding applications. These sturdy and versatile brushes are designed to efficiently remove rust, corrosion, paint, and other surface coatings from various metal surfaces. They are particularly effective in preparing metal surfaces for welding, painting, or finishing.

Common Uses of Wire Wheel Cup Brushes:

• Surface Preparation: Wire cup brushes are ideal for surface preparation before welding, painting, or coating metal surfaces. They help remove rust, scale, and other contaminants, ensuring a clean and smooth surface.
• Bead Weld Cleaning: These brushes are commonly used to clean weld joints, remove spatter, and smooth out rough edges after welding. They help improve the appearance and quality of welded joints.  Turn your ugly welds clean with ease!
• Deburring: Wire wheel cup brushes are effective in removing burrs and sharp edges from metal components, enhancing safety and aesthetics.
• Slag Removal and Cleaning: Plasma cutting and flame cutting steel plates can leave slag on the edges.  Cup brushes are great at cleaning the slag off and returning those clean sharp edges to your workpiece.

Choosing the Right Wire Wheel Cup Brush to meet Your Needs:

When selecting a wire wheel cup brush for your metalworking or welding needs, consider the following factors:

• Wire Filament Material: Choose the appropriate wire material based on the type of metal you are working with. For example, stainless steel wire brushes are suitable for stainless steel surfaces to avoid contamination. More info on wire materials below.
• Wire Gauge: The thickness of the wire bristles, known as wire gauge, determines the aggressiveness of the brush. Select the right wire gauge based on the intensity of the cleaning or surface preparation required. See our Wire Size Guide for more info on this.
• Crimped or Knotted: Picking the right wire style is very important.  Crimped wire brushes are great for light/medium applications and are used in a broad range of applications. Knotted wire brushes are better for heavy duty applications like burr removal and removing multiple layers of scale, rust etc.  
• Brush Size: Consider the diameter and width of the brush to ensure it fits your power tool and can reach the desired areas effectively. See our cup brush selection guide for suggested angle grinder to brush cross over.

Wire Size Guide:

Benchmark Abrasives provides all our wire thicknesses in inch sizing on our website.  If you are familiar with wire products listed in mm or wire gauge thicknesses, check out our crossover chart.

• Larger diameter wires are more aggressive but fatigue and break quicker than smaller diameter wires.
• Small diameter wires are more flexible, are better at resisting fatigue and breakage but are far less aggressive than larger diameter wires.

Cup Brush Selection Guide:

Wire Materials

• Carbon Steel Wire: Carbon steel wire is the most commonly used wire filament.  It is durable and great for heavy-duty cleaning applications.  Benchmark uses heat treated, high-tensile steel wires to provide one of the highest quality power brushes on the market.
• Stainless steel Wire: We only recommend using the stainless products when brushing corrosion resistant (stainless steel) or non-ferrous metals (aluminum).
• Nylon Wire: Nylon is the most durable synthetic wire material used in power brushes.  Its flexibility, high fatigue strength and resistance to abrasion, heat and acids allow them to be used in a variety of applications.

Crimped vs Knotted

Crimped

• Light/medium applications
• Fairly flexible
• Used on a broad range of applications
• Individual wires are crimped to provide rigidity and strength of the wire
• Parts that are more prone to damage by the impact of a knotted brush should use crimped wire

Knotted

• Heavy Duty applications
• Wires are twisted like a rope or cable, providing unmatched rigidity and strength of the wire compared to crimped
• Far less flexible compared to crimped brushes
• Best for high impact action and heavy corrosion/surface coating removal

Useful Tips for Brushing with Cup Brushes:

• Pressure: More pressure doesn’t always mean faster brushing action.  Excessive pressure can lead to excess heat build-up, which can cause wire filaments to break early, faster dulling and overall reduced life of tool.
• Angle of Use: cup brushes should always be used at a +/- 15 degree angle to the work piece or part being brushed.  Orienting your brush correctly to the workpiece will result in the best finish and tool life.

Maintenance Tips:

• Clean the brush regularly to remove debris and prevent clogging.
• Inspect the bristles for wear and replace the brush when the bristles are worn out.
• Store the brush in a dry and clean environment to prevent corrosion.

Cup Brushes Available at Benchmark Abrasives

Wire cup brushes are cup-shaped tools made from steel or stainless steel filaments. Machine part manufacturers use them for surface preparation, deburring, and surface finishing.  Their primary applications include removing rust, paint and welding scale, metal cleaning, and edge blending.

• Filaments Available: Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel
• Outer Diameters: 2-3/4”, 3”, 4” and 6”
• Wire Style: Crimped and Twist Knot
• Wire Gauges: 0.012” and 0.020”
• Available Arbors: 5/8”-11

Tool Compatibility: Angle Grinder and CNC/Milling Machines

Machine Brands that are compatible with Benchmark PSA Discs

• Black & Decker®
• Bosch®
• Ridgid®
• Ryobi®
• Porter Cable®
• Mirka®
• Cobalt®
• Dewalt®
• Milwaukee®
• Makita®
• Craftsman®
• Norton®

Troubleshooting Your Wire Cup Brush

Unhappy with shortened brush life?

Possible Solutions:

• Try reducing the pressure applied to the work piece.
• Pick a brush with a small diameter wire gauge than you’re currently using.
• Brushes with a higher fill density will have longer life.

Breaking wire filaments?

Possible Solutions:

• Try reducing the pressure applied to the work piece.
• Pick a brush with a small diameter wire gauge than you’re currently using.
• Brushes with a higher fill density will have longer life.

Brushing action is too slow?

Possible Solutions:

• Increase the operating speed (RPM) of your machine.
• Pick a brush with a larger diameter wire gauge than you’re currently using.
• Brushes with a higher fill density will have longer life.
• Choose a larger diameter brush for your application.
• Try a brush with a wider thickness or a higher fill density.

Brushing action is too fast?

Possible Solutions:

• Decrease the operating speed (RPM) of your machine.
• Pick a brush with a small diameter wire gauge than you’re currently using.
• Brushes with a higher fill density will have longer life.
• Choose a smaller diameter brush for your application.
• Try a brush with a thinner thickness or a lower fill density.

If you desire a finer finish.

Possible Solutions:

• Increase the operating speed (RPM) of your machine.
• Pick a brush with a small diameter wire gauge than you’re currently using.
• Brushes with a longer trim length are less aggressive and leave more fine finishes.
• Swap out the metal wire for a less aggressive nylon product.

If you desire a more coarse finish.

Possible Solutions:

• Decrease the operating speed (RPM) of your machine.
• Pick a brush with a larger diameter wire gauge than you’re currently using.
• Brushes with a shorter trim length are more aggressive and leave more coarse finishes.

When your deburring action isn’t deburring       

Possible Solutions:

• Increase the operating speed (RPM) of your machine.
• Swap out the crimped product for a more aggressive knotted brush.
• Pick a brush with a larger diameter wire gauge than you’re currently using.
• Brushes with a shorter trim length are more aggressive and leave more coarse finishes.

Explore our wide range of wire wheel cup brushes tailored to meet your metalworking and welding requirements.