Whats better street sweeper bristles or wiper inserts

[thededer]

Name pretty much sums it up which is the superior pick making material street sweeper bristles or wiper blade inserts thanks. so far I have only used the bristles but i have recently come into some wiper blade inserts so just wondering if they are going to be better then my bristle picks. Now the one thing that I know is better about wiper blade inserts is that you ca find them in wider sizes allowing for easier pick making, more designs, rakes etc. but other than that which is better

[nostromo]

Haven't tried street sweeper bristles. My son is a mechanic at a car dealership and brings me a lot of the wiper blades. I've made a lot of picks and tension wrenches with them for the classes I teach.

Windsheild wiper blade inserts vary in metal composition. Some bend very easily, seem to have less chromium in them, and can be easily snapped. Most are harder metal.

Perhaps Street Sweeper bristles vary in their qualities as well? I'd work with them anyway just to see what they were like. And not just in bending and shaping them, but in how they work as tools.

[Schuyler]

Wiper inserts

[thededer]

Wiper inserts

explain. how are they better?

[Schuyler]

inserts are protected, sweeper bristles are used in awful conditions.

[thededer]

yes but after sanding and such arent they just as good?

[Schuyler]

yes but after sanding and such arent they just as good?

No.

[thededer]

ok well im gunna as my uncle who just so happens to work for the ttc (Toronto transit commission) to try and get me some old bus wiper blades

[Schuyler]

ok well im gunna as my uncle who just so happens to work for the ttc (Toronto transit commission) to try and get me some old bus wiper blades

That's awesome. Should be a ton of material to work with! Sorry I was so short before, browsing LP101 at the office

Street Sweeper bristles can be great, but wiper inserts are much more consistent. Sweeper bristles that have come off of unused brushes (a few members here or there have managed to get their hands on these) are perfect. Just not too common to find that.

Also - if you manage to get a bristle right after it's broken off (and not a week later when you happen to be scanning the gutters on a walk) they can be cleaned up and work nicely.

Again, it's just about consistency. Wiper inserts are going to be easier and better to work with most of the time.

[thededer]

thats actually what i did i was in Toronto on march break and they just so happened to sweep the streets

[Schuyler]

thats actually what i did i was in Toronto on march break and they just so happened to sweep the streets

Nice. They were sweeping a busy street 3 times a day during a big construction project that happened to be along my route to work. I would find 10 bristles a day just going to and from work. Was awesome.

[thededer]

I WISH

[Evan]

thats actually what i did i was in Toronto on march break and they just so happened to sweep the streets

Nice. They were sweeping a busy street 3 times a day during a big construction project that happened to be along my route to work. I would find 10 bristles a day just going to and from work. Was awesome.

The company I used to work for had its own sweeper truck on a Chevrolet K3500 pick-up truck platform... I didn't like driving it because of the terrible smell a diesel engine emits when it never "really drives" anywhere and just idles around a parking lot with the pony motor on powering the suction fan... It was pretty cool to operate the dumping cycle to empty the catch bin into an open top dumpster though...

When we changed the brush wheels we used to just toss them away, the gutter brush wheel had spring steel bristle brushes and the pick up brush was some sort of red plastic fiber bristle... There would be about 4" of length left on the spring steel wheel when we would change it...

I definitely agree that wiper inserts are better, not only are they longer compared to street sweeper bristles you would find, they are cleaner since they have not been scrubbing around in road grime while being used that gets them hot and changes the metal... If you can get used transit bus wiper inserts you could probably make quite a few picks out of a pair of them as they are longer than normal car wipers...

~~ Evan

[thededer]

actualy you are wrong in the length problem the bristles i picked up (i got about 6) were all nearly a foot long the shortest one was half of that

[Schuyler]

But the inserts will be longer, especially bus inserts. And the length will very much depend on the amount of use & where they snapped along the bristle. I mean, sitting on my desk at work I have one that is a solid 11 inches, would be great, another that is less than 6th, which, while usable, is less desirable.

Again, we're just saying that windshield wiper inserts are simply more consistent! Not that you'll never find usable street sweeper bristles