Trying to switch from wire brushes to drill attachments for heavy creosote

I used to always scrape heavy creosote buildup with just my hand wire brushes and a lot of elbow grease. But about 6 months ago after a job where I spent 45 minutes just on one stubborn flue, I picked up a 4-inch drill attachment from the local hardware store in Des Moines. That thing shredded through the gunk in maybe 10 minutes flat. I still use the hand brushes for the final polish and the smoke shelf though, because the drill attachment can leave some weird grooves if you get too aggressive. Now I'm wondering if I'm going to wear out my drill bearings faster by using it for this kind of work. Has anyone else had their drill die on them from spinning those wire cups too hard?

3 comments

3 Comments

josephbailey5d ago

Man that 45 minute struggle sounds familiar. I had a similar moment last winter when a rental house flue had buildup like concrete. The drill attachment changed everything for me too. My old 18v Craftsman drill actually did start sounding rough after about a year of heavy use with a wire cup. The bearings started whining on me. I switched to a corded model specifically for the heavy stuff now, saves my battery drills for lighter work.

robert_ross955d ago

Yeah @josephbailey the bearings going bad is exactly what happened to mine. I got about 18 months out of my 20v DeWalt before it started sounding like it was grinding rocks. What really turned me around was grabbing an old corded Milwaukee from a pawn shop for like 20 bucks. That thing just keeps going no matter how hard I push it. I still use battery drills for quick stuff but anything that's gonna take more than a few minutes I grab the corded one now. It's just not worth burning up another brushless motor on stuff that really needs constant torque.

smith.elliot5d ago

Drills hate this kind of work. Corded ones shrug it off way better than battery models. I'd rather kill a $20 pawn shop special than a nice brushless DeWalt.