Looking to see what everyone is using for dross cleanup. I have been using a tool from Fireball tool. This works great and in my opinion is worth the money. They have a bunch of other great tools as well. https://fireballtool.com/products/fireball-scraper
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Most of my artsy stuff I do a vinegar soak to remove mill scale it also helps dross to release what doesn’t flake off. Then sand blasting gets the rest.
My production parts I do a vinegar soak then a few minutes in a concrete mixer. Most of these are at least .250 thick so the can handle being beat around. it’s a lot to scrape by hand. Oh yeah I have no close neighbors so they don’t mind the noise.
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My goto of choice is a wire cup on aa angle grinder. A quick pass and its all gone.
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Sometimes a sharp rap of a hammer blow about 45 degree to the face of the cut will release some types of dross. Flapper discs work pretty well but it really needs to be 80 to 120 grit or you get scratches in your piece that are quite noticeable.
For mill scale, the vinegar is great but it takes time and large pieces may not fit in you container. If I am in a hurry, I like these for removing the mill scale quickly: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08W42S2BQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
They are S SATC Strip Disc Blue 5” x 7/8” Stripping Wheel Premium Silicone Carbide Strip Disc for Angle Grinder. (I got some knock-off brand and they were all out of balance.)
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ahahaha…is that by choice or did you drive them away with the noise…???
most of the time I just drop it on the floor a few times…then a wire wheel…then vinegar…
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Maybe a little of both. I am very lucky to live where I do 3 miles in the sticks!!! I am what they call a holler baby 
. The only down side is it is a 45 minute drive to get to any store except a single gas station.
Sounds perfect to me!!
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When this topic started, I was suspicious that this is an advertisement for the fire-ball scraper.
Anyone else getting that vibe?
Nope, I just wanted to see if anyone else was using one. I personally think it works awesome along with the whole vinegar bath thing for removing mill scale. I do however use the precision squares they sell and they are manufactured right here in Spokane WA. USA. So yes I am promoting this stuff but only because it works. I paid full price for everything I use and am in no way being compensated. My apologies for trying to help. I guess everything these days is up for conspiracy theories. Sad state of affairs…
Not meaning to be adversarial. It seems that your offer for a topic is still not being used as a give and take. I am glad you like the product. The video for the device does not really show it justice.
He is promoting it as a slag scraper, dross is actually easier to remove that most welding slag therefore the tool works very well for removing dross. I’ve been using mine for about a year now and it works great for slag, dross and the occasional welding spatter on the fab table.
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I did take another look at the videos. I have slow internet so the videos load slow. I had not seen the one with welding splatter and the burr removal. It definitely has a place in a tool box.
Currently I have 6 grinders with different set ups and I switch between them. But the welding splatter and burr removal did intrigue me. Always willing to help a local USA company. Thank you for sharing this product. That might make a good category: Tools that I like…or something. We have all bought something that someone recommended only to find that it did not work as well as demonstrated for our particular purpose.
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for heavy dross i use a mini needle scaler…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0895THTPZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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That is one of the fast ways but only one of them!
I used a scraper for probably a year. works well but I will never go back after using a wire cup on a grinder. Scraper is ok for a few parts but if you are cleaning up a lot of parts it gets annoyingly tedious. The wire cup leaves the mill scale intact which I quite like. Or takes it off where you need to weld if you rotate the grinder.
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I guess it all depends on hard your dross is remove.
I normally just give it a quick tap with a chisel and big pieces pop right off.
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My parts usually have very minimal dross so after a vinegar soak I drop it on the floor and then wire cup.
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I had never soaked in vinegar before removing dross. It works great!!
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and for everyone using Vinegar, you can get a gallon of 45% concentrate on amazon for $20. I mix that 8 to 1 or stronger
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