Dressing a diamond wheel

[Brian Baker 2Participant @brianbaker2]

[Brian Baker 2Participant @brianbaker2]

I have been given a diamond wheel, which I wish to mount on my quorn Cutter grinder. Having never used a wheel of this type before, how do I true the wheel and dress it?

Regards

Brian

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Hi Brian,

My dish type diamond wheel did run true when mounted. Discussed earlier in this thread. You could look also here or here.

Thor

 

Edited By Thor on 15/10/2020 14:07:08

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Hi Brian you don't really dress a diamond wheel it should run true when mounted on arbour although you can get a dressing attachment which is a sort of rotary dressing stone but only cleans up the face . I used to have a dial test indicator with a bearing on the end to stop the diamonds wearing the stylus of a standard indicator when we checked the wheel.

David

[Tim HammondParticipant @timhammond72264]

Posted by David George 1 on 15/10/2020 14:16:21:

Hi Brian you don't really dress a diamond wheel it should run true when mounted on arbour although you can get a dressing attachment which is a sort of rotary dressing stone but only cleans up the face . I used to have a dial test indicator with a bearing on the end to stop the diamonds wearing the stylus of a standard indicator when we checked the wheel.

David

Sigh…I omitted the bearing on my dial gauge when I set up my diamond wheel and now have a ball end on the gauge with a perfectly machined polished flat.

[Oily RagParticipant @oilyrag]

For cleaning the diamond wheel – try a school rubber (for our North American cousins I should quickly point out, before you get the wrong ideas about the state of the 'edukshun' system in the UK, that this is an 'eraser' in your terminology )

[Brian Baker 2Participant @brianbaker2]

Right, thank you for the information, I will stick it on and see what happens.

Regards

BB

[Rod RenshawParticipant @rodrenshaw28584]

I think I read somewhere that diamond wheels should only be used to cut carbide and that using them to cut HSS will result in the steel in the HSS "eating" the carbon out of the diamonds, some sort of chemical reaction. I think this only happens at high temperature so that using a diamond slip or "oilstone" on HSS is okay. If true this is clearly important to bear in mind if changing from stone to diamond.

Anyone else have information about this?

Rod

[colin vercoeParticipant @colinvercoe57719]

To dress a diamond wheel you use a dressing stick which has the appearance of a long half inch square slip stone this usually came with the diamond wheel this was a Norton wheel, switch on the grinder then switch off, then stop the wheel with the dressing stick, repeat until the wheel has been cleaned, this process clears out the ground carbide from the wheel face leaving the diamond exposed ready to use. This process only clears out the carbide and does not reduce the wheel size.

To true the wheel you use a truing tool about 8mm diameter sintered metal containing diamond particals, this is held in a vice or chuck etc and touched onto the wheel then passed across the face of the wheel this then trues the wheel by removing the diamond high spots, after doing this its best to keep wheel mounted on its arbour and remove it by removing the wheel and arbour complete, this requires arbours for each wheel if you can do this.

look at the Norton website if they are still going that is

Cheers Colin

[colin vercoeParticipant @colinvercoe57719]

PS

I ment to mention that diamond wheels are for carbide and Borazon are for HSS, the same rules above apply to both.

Colin

[D.A.GodleyParticipant @d-a-godley]

Posted by Oily Rag on 15/10/2020 15:37:32:

For cleaning the diamond wheel – try a school rubber (for our North American cousins I should quickly point out, before you get the wrong ideas about the state of the 'edukshun' system in the UK, that this is an 'eraser' in your terminology )

Oily Rag ,

Many thanks for your tip as above , I had been asking about cleaning the wheel for a while now , but had not heard of this solution , which worked perfectly,

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Posted by D.A.Godley on 23/10/2020 17:06:06:

Posted by Oily Rag on 15/10/2020 15:37:32:

For cleaning the diamond wheel – try a school rubber (for our North American cousins I should quickly point out, before you get the wrong ideas about the state of the 'edukshun' system in the UK, that this is an 'eraser' in your terminology )

Oily Rag ,

Many thanks for your tip as above , I had been asking about cleaning the wheel for a while now , but had not heard of this solution , which worked perfectly,

 

 

I use one of these from Axminster, though other suppliers are of course available.
https://www.axminstertools.com/cleaning-stone-for-cbn-wheels-diamond-stone-400g-104143

Sadly they are now a lot smaller than when I first bought one, a but like Wagon Wheels.

Bill

 

Edited By peak4 on 23/10/2020 17:23:09

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

I use a soft, white stone (Norton brand), I just push it in to the wheel and it cleans all the rubbish out, restoring the surface.

Same thing as the above from Axminster.

 

Jim

Edited By jimmy b on 23/10/2020 19:25:27

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

A diamond wheel will have a shorter life if used with steel, but for hobby use, it hardly matters. HSS is the only type of steel I would grind, not anything softer.

Try to get the wheel running true without resorting to dressing if possible. I have fitted an electroplated diamond wheel to a grinder and it took a lot of care and patience to get it running true. That type cannot be dressed, but they cannot explode like an ordinary grinding wheel as they are all metal.

Edited By old mart on 23/10/2020 20:10:59

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Posted by Rod Renshaw on 15/10/2020 16:44:09:

I think I read somewhere that diamond wheels should only be used to cut carbide and that using them to cut HSS will result in the steel in the HSS "eating" the carbon out of the diamonds, some sort of chemical reaction. I think this only happens at high temperature so that using a diamond slip or "oilstone" on HSS is okay. If true this is clearly important to bear in mind if changing from stone to diamond.

Anyone else have information about this?

Rod

I think this is theoretically correct but unlikely to trouble us in the home workshop, John Stevenson was unconcerned by this and was likely to work his equipment harder than most of us. Worth baring in mind should anything odd happen but I think it’s unlikely.

Mike

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Hot iron absorbs carbon readily, and diamond is carbon.

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

The ones I have, on a Glendo machine from the USA, run at quite a low speed and are kept wet with water with a little wetting agent. Used like this (as advised by the maker) there are no qualms about lifetime, these ones have been in the family about forty years now and are still going strong. There is a little stick provided for when they get a bit tired, apparently it somehow takes back a little of the nickel matrix so that the diamonds are better exposed. This doesn't need doing very often, which is just as well since there is not a great thickness to take back. The slow speed is plenty, the wheels cut very well. They are in 300, 600, and 1800 grit. The latter leaves a mirror like polish on HSS or carbide.

If the wheel is going fast like a normal grinding wheel, then the steel might well erode the diamonds, although I would think shattering the little diamonds with the forces is a more likely problem.

John

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