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brush for inside HSS

DanielG

Stainless
Joined
Oct 22, 2014
Location
Maine
I need to clean the inside of a square HSS tube. I'm trying to get rid of chips, large amounts of coolant, etc. If it were round tube, I could just buy a brush the appropriate diameter and pull it through. I can't find anything off the shelf. Last time we rigged up something with plywood and shop rags, but I figure there has to be something better out there.
 
Had this on a special fixture. Ended up tacking together some Osborn nylon flat/square brushes that would clean the ID corners. Weiler nor Osborn didn't seem to have an off the shelf option.

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Had this on a special fixture. Ended up tacking together some Osborn nylon flat/square brushes that would clean the ID corners. Weiler nor Osborn didn't seem to have an off the shelf option.

I never thought of using flat brushes. That should be pretty easy to knock together out of wood and put a screw eye on end so we can pull it through.
 
I never thought of using flat brushes. That should be pretty easy to knock together out of wood and put a screw eye on end so we can pull it through.
Your size range is a bit bigger than I had dealt with, but cutting a radially twisted wire brush into a square was a PITA. What I did was take flat square power brushes and tacked washers in between to space them, then bent the wire to create a tapered "square" brush for the tubing.

The competing idea at the shop was taking square steel power brushes and swaging them spaced along a wire rope through the center to create a pull-through sweep, but in our application it was more work intensive.

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I need to clean the inside of a square HSS tube. I'm trying to get rid of chips, large amounts of coolant, etc. If it were round tube, I could just buy a brush the appropriate diameter and pull it through. I can't find anything off the shelf. Last time we rigged up something with plywood and shop rags, but I figure there has to be something better out there.

Maybe a different technique that's not so much size dependent....They make small air nozzles
for air duct cleaning, that whip around, and bang on the sides of the ducts.

Some have a head with several small pex (or similar) tubes leading out that "flail around",
maybe roll your own with braided steel hose would take burrs off.

air duct cleaning nozzles at DuckDuckGo
 
I was helping a friend in Deltaville work on some masts and booms that had to be cut and drilled. After the machining it was necessary to get all the chips and crap out. We made a wiper from two pieces of plywood with a leather wiper sandwiched between them. A screw eye and length of cord finished it up. We would blow the line down the mast with compressed air and pull the wiper through. Worked quite well.
 
Tap tube on the floor/ blast with air to get chips and big rocks out. If it is going to galvenizer no need to worry about coolant. They phosphate then pickle the assembly before galvanizing.
 
OK I'm dying to know what a High Speed steel galvanized High Speed steel tube is used for.

"Hollow Structural Section" most likely

I wash out tube with degreaser after it comes off the bandsaw when it matters. Any chips come out with the wash, and left with an oil free inside for welding. The brush sounds like more effort for not much better results than just knocking the end on the floor like memphisjed said...which I also do regularly.
 
"Hollow Structural Section" most likely

I wash out tube with degreaser after it comes off the bandsaw when it matters. Any chips come out with the wash, and left with an oil free inside for welding. The brush sounds like more effort for not much better results than just knocking the end on the floor like memphisjed said...which I also do regularly.

I see the OP mentioned "large amounts of coolant & chips"
I could foresee a problem with the solvent tank/pan getting fouled rather quickly.
But yes, a solvent wash would leave the tube the cleanest.
 








 
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