Diamond Wheel dressing attachment

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

When at work we had a dressing attachment which consisted of a smaller grinding wheel on a base with a spindle which had a friction brake which when moved up to the diamond grinding wheel would true up the wheel for grinding. when done the wheel would stay true for quite a long time only needing slight dressing with a white abrasive stick occasionally to assist grinding. I would like to get hold of one of these, borrow would be acceptable, as I have a need to dress a wheel on a cutter grinder to sharpen some Carbide milling cutters. Any help in this area would be gratefully received.

David

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Search for ‘brake dresser’. Commercial ones seem to be priced at a point that would encourage those of us that could use them to make our own (already on the projects list!)

[JohnFParticipant @johnf59703]

David, not quite the same thing/scenario but I needed to dress a chipped diamond wheel – they don’t juggle well !!!

After making some enquiries I used an old carborundum stone to dress the cup wheel on my TC grinder and its works perfectly.

Must say I have never seen the tool you mentioned.

John

[Pete RimmerParticipant @peterimmer30576]

You could do what I do with my 8″ diamond wheel on my surface grinder. I made the hole a few thou large, snug up the clamp nut and use an old DTI on the OD to measure runout. I tap the wheel into truth with a plastic hammer and then tighten the nut.

A rotary dresser would not be difficult to make. Turn a shaft to run on 2 bearings with a wheel mount one end. Fix an aluminium disc the other end and mount magnets either side on brackets so you can adjust the distance from magnets to disc. This will turn the ally disc into an eddy current brake, the closer the magnets and the faster the wheel turn, the greater the braking force.

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

The problem with my diamond wheel is its a cup wheel and it is the face that needs dressing. The diamiters are very good and run true and flat within a thou on the aluminium diamiters and bores. The face has been used to sharpen carbide turning tools and carbide tips also my wife used it to grind glass for stained glass work occasionally as well. I would like to get the face flat for sharpening the bottom of carbide cutters on my new tool and cutter grinder that I am making. I have fitted a white aloxite grit standard grinding wheel and sharpened a few bits with no problems so far.

David

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Chicken and egg!

Once the cutter grinder is complete, it can be used to hold some sort of diamond device (Ideally a proper dresser) to dress the wheel.

Howard

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

I have used a diamond to dress the standard wheel but you cant dress a diamond wheel with a diamond unless somone knows better.

David

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

If you have suitable adjustment on the grinder slides, pivots, whatever, a brake wheel dresser will work just as well on the face of a cup wheel as on the periphery of a disc wheel.

if there is only a thou or two to remove, it’s a resin bonded diamond wheel and you are reasonably patient, then you can use a bar of molybdenum as a dressing stick. This works because molybdenum is a right bugger to grind and tears the diamonds and resin from the wheel rather than getting ground down like any reasonable material. I’ve got a bit of moly rod that I’ve used on one of my diamond wheels and it does do the job, but it isn’t quite as aggressive as you might expect from dressing an AlOx wheel. Bars of molybdenum are quite cheap on fleabay!

 

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Here’s a little video I saw a while ago.
One trick to prevent wearing the DTI lever’s ball is to use a sheet of paper, and another might be a single wrap of thin Sellotape around the wheel

Bill

[Mark Rand]

On Mark Rand Said:

If you have suitable adjustment on the grinder slides, pivots, whatever, a brake wheel dresser will work just as well on the face of a cup wheel as on the periphery of a disc wheel.

if there is only a thou or two to remove, it’s a resin bonded diamond wheel and you are reasonably patient, then you can use a bar of molybdenum as a dressing stick. This works because molybdenum is a right bugger to grind and tears the diamonds and resin from the wheel rather than getting ground down like any reasonable material. I’ve got a bit of moly rod that I’ve used on one of my diamond wheels and it does do the job, but it isn’t quite as aggressive as you might expect from dressing an AlOx wheel. Bars of molybdenum are quite cheap on fleabay!

I didn’t know that, not having had experience of diamond grinding wheel tech- ordinary alox and carborundum wheels etc yes but not diamond.

Thanks – every day is a school day on here !!

 

 

[peak4]

On peak4 Said:

Here’s a little video I saw a while ago.
One trick to prevent wearing the DTI lever’s ball is to use a sheet of paper, and another might be a single wrap of thin Sellotape around the wheel

Bill

Excellent video, Bill … thanks for sharing it

One thought from me: Kapton tape is almost certainly more suitable than regular Sellotape … I have used it a lot in abrasive situations.

MichaelG.

[ryan.carter848Participant @ryan-carter848]

[ryan.carter848Participant @ryan-carter848]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I just posted some screenshots from a PDF by Graff Diamond products which includes multiple ways to dress a diamond wheel, including using a mild steel block (not seen it done, successfully even by Solid Rock on YouTube).</p>
Link is also here.

The other option they show which I’ve never seen demonstrated is using a tool post grinder on a mag chuck.

All of this is theoretical to me, until I actually get a surface grinder I don’t have practical experience… disclaimer over. On the other hand I do have a braked wheel dresser sitting in my cupboard I got from an auction for £40 doing nothing. Not cheap things, they start new from £500-600+ on the low end.

Braked dressers can definitely be used to face up a cup wheel, with the dresser wheel oriented perpendicular to the face of the cup wheel (same edge of braked dresser wheel used for surface grinder is what trues the face of the cup wheel).

If you are really stuck and no option is working for you, I could possibly be persuaded to lend mine. I think the moly stick idea is a good bet.

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

I have just put in a bid for a scond hand one for £150.00. I will have to see if it is accepted. I have used these when at work as a toolmaker making inspection jigs for turbines blades. the contact pieces for the castings were made from carbide which needed grinding on surface and cylindrical grinders.

David

[ryan.carter848Participant @ryan-carter848]

No doubt you will have forgotten more than I will know. If your bid doesn’t get accepted give me a message.

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

Youtube video by Norton Abrasives showing how to true and dress an abrasive wheel. https://youtu.be/V53EdcG35TA

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

The bid I put in for dressing attachment has been accepted and should arrive Wednesday or Thursday this week. I will make a video of how it works after it has arrived and checked out all is ok.

David

[ryan.carter848Participant @ryan-carter848]

Nice, that’s great and a good price too. I have read that the braked dresser wheel itself needs to be trued and dressed. Interested to see what you suggest for that? 🙂 cheers

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

The dressing tool has arrived and it looks ok. the only probem is that the center height is one inch below center of diamond wheel center so i have to make some spacers to bolt it down to.

When I have drilled and taped some holes for the base screws and T slot nuts I should be able to try it out.

David

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Job done! the dressing wheel was OK and with a bit of setting up the Diamond whell is now flat and you can see the diamonds sparkling in the matrix. It took a few passes to get the wheel to clean up and all I need to do id finnish the Cutter grinder jig and sharpen some cutters and drills.

 

You can see the face is partialy trued up.

 

Nicely cleaned up

After dressing with dressing stone you can see the diamonds sparkling.

David

 

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Job’s a good-un [to use the vernacular]

MichaelG.

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Edit:__ for those of us unfamiliar with such devices, there are some useful photos of the centrifugal brake in this thread: https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/how-to-build-a-brake-wheel-diamond-wheel-dresser.68786/

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Video of truing in progress.

David

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