"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message Ignoramus2298
wrote:
On 2009-12-01, Buerste wrote:

A lot of wire that ends up in import brushes comes from
the tire industry. When they make steel belts they use 20
to 50 spools of wire at a time. When the first spool
runs out they scrap all the rest. Otherwise, the
stoppages to change each spool as it runs out would kill
production. This scrap goes into the cheap brush
industry. Often it is brass plated. It's a hard-drawn
steel rather than oil tempered alloy. I use some
hard-drawn but it's made to different specs just for
brush wire. Some foreign manufacturers make good stuff
but like American made good stuff, it's just not
available to consumers and is sold for professional use
at a much higher cost. Not too many people understand
the difference between a $5 brush and a $25 brush...they
look the same.


Thanks Tom. I did not understand the difference until I
bought the
expensive one from McMaster-Carr. That one is made by
Weiler.

I bought five Osborn knotted cup brushes, thinking that
cup brushes didn't last long. At that point I'd gone
through several cheap cup brushes on a single job. The
first Osborn brush lasted me three years. I'm now onto the
second.

Chris


Maybe that's why it's so hard to find good stuff. Buy a good
one and
it lasts but the guy making them can't sell you any more
because
the one you have is still on the job so the maker goes tits
up, nobody is
buying more. The guy making the junk is busy making more to
keep you,
and him, going. But then you don't get anything done and the
brushes
end up costing you an arm and a leg and you go broke. We
_all_ need
to buy the right tool even if it costs more and if we _all_
did that we'd
all be happy campers, eih?
phil