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Why does nobody talk about how much faster a rotary whip beats hand brushing soot off a fireback
For my first two years on my own I scraped firebacks by hand with a wire brush and a scraper, and it would eat 40 minutes on a heavy coal job, plus my shoulder would be shot by the third house. Last April a guy named Dale at the supply counter in Dayton asked why I wasn't running a rotary whip on a drill, and I kind of brushed him off because I figured it would just fling soot everywhere and tear up soft brick. I finally tried it on a rental in Springfield with a nasty glaze layer, and the whole fireback came clean in about 12 minutes with a shop vac hose taped right at the edge of the opening. The trick for me was dropping the drill to low speed and letting the whip do the work instead of pushing into the brick, because when I leaned on it I knocked a corner off a soft firebrick and had to mortar it back. Now I keep two whip sizes in the van and only pull out the hand brush for tight corners around the damper. Curious if any of you run a dust shroud or just tape the vac hose like I do, and what speed you keep the drill at on old brick.
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