Empire Abrasives Mounted Flap Wheels for Drills & Die Grinders
What are Flap Wheels?
These are some of the only abrasive tools that can be used for hard to reach places like inside piping/tubing or other tight spaces. They provide incredible flexibility to work on flat and curved surfaces.
Traditional flap wheels are made by connecting multiple abrasive sheets, or flaps, around the center piece of the attachment. The flaps look like individual pieces of sandpaper. Flaps are arranged in a fan-like pattern that allows you to use it on your desired surface at different angles than you would a flap disc or grinding wheel.
As the tool is used, the flaps will wear down uniformly. As the outer surface of the wheels wears down, fresh layers of the flap wheel’s abrasive will be exposed to continue working with consistent grinding using the sharp abrasive that has moved to the surface.
What are Sanding Flap Wheels Used For?
Like many other abrasive tools, flap wheels are used for industrial, commercial, and personal tasks such as grinding and polishing metal. They are also great for:
- Light Grinding
- Stock Removal
- Flash or scale removal
- Deburring
- Sharpening Tools
- Rust Removal
- Finishing and Polishing
- Cleaning Weld Lines and Weld Spatter
- Aerospace applications
Flap wheels can be used on various materials such as ferrous and non-ferrous metals, stainless steel, iron, brass, aluminum, plastics, wood, and fiberglass.
Mounted Flap Wheels
Mounted flap wheels are designed to work with tools like power drills and straight die grinders. These flap wheels for drills and grinders have the abrasive flaps attached to a straight spindle in the center that easily attaches to your power tool.
The alternative would be an unmounted flap wheel which is usually larger and has an arbor hole in the center.
Mounted Interleaf Flap Wheels
Basic flap wheels have the appearance of loose sandpaper flaps. Interleaved flap wheels are constructed a little differently.
On these interleaf flap wheels, you will notice that the gaps between the abrasive sheets have nylon-like non-woven abrasive pads separating the flaps. This design provides a firmer wheel that allows you to exert more pressure against the surface. These 2-in-1 abrasives allow you to remove material by way of the abrasive flaps and also polish the surface with the non-woven abrasive sections.