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Is it cost-effective to significantly reduce diameter of grinding wheels.

Cannonmn

Stainless
Joined
Jun 25, 2016
Have an older Abrasive Co. surf grinder that takes 10 x 3 x 3/4” wheels that cost minimum about $50. Ea. Also have many 12 x 3 x 1” wheels and of course it’d be nice to shrink them to fit the grinder. Seems like dressing down on the grinder would cost more in diamonds and running time than buying new wheels of correct size. But maybe with all the modern techniques, waterjet, plasmatorch, etc. there’s an economical way to do it? Anybody know?
 
***CAUTION*** No way in hell would I ever think about modifying an abrasive wheel! No way NEVER! The problem is stress cracks and balance issues. Bad idea, open your wallet and enjoy your face in it's attached state.
 
" ***CAUTION*** No way in hell would I ever think about modifying an abrasive wheel! No way NEVER! "

Huh, what are you talking about... I have a Toyota Cylindrical grinder that takes a 20" wheel. Currently that wheel is about 15" in diameter. Ive been using it for about 10 months. Every day getting dressed .0002-.0003 Inches at a time. Balance is just fine. Wheel is just fine. Contact Mach-B grinding wheel shaping and resizing company. They did some work for me in the past. Happy customer, no affiliation. Mach-B Grinding Wheel Shaping & Resizing
 
***CAUTION*** No way in hell would I ever think about modifying an abrasive wheel! No way NEVER! The problem is stress cracks and balance issues. Bad idea, open your wallet and enjoy your face in it's attached state.

I certainly agree. In years past, I worked with a boss who had lost half of his face including an eye to a broken grinding wheel when he was working in an aircraft factory in Australia. He was a fine artist, even with only one eye, but it was a terrible injury.

We should never modify a grinding wheel.
 
He is asking if he can dress it down. Absolutely he can!! Is it worth it? who knows. Dressing the sides to make it thinner or putting an angle on the entire face, or dreesing the diameter down is common, expected, and normal.
 
I'm with you frank. As long as the wheel is handled correctly, you can dress it till your hearts content. Sounds like some of these guys are from the safety police.
 
To do it safely you will have to make a stand with good bearings, guards, dust collection and a tool stand/holder. By then you might as well call it a 12" grinder and use the wheels for whatever you need to do. Once they reach 10" diameter switch them over to your other grinder.
In other words just buy a 12" grinder.
Bill D.
 
I used to take industrial grinding wheels from the big shop to Mach-B grinding wheel service on Groesbeck in Warrem Mi..now they are out west someplace.

They used a disk that would roll and cush the wheel to the needed size..the soft steel disk looked like a 3" cup wheel.(might have been 2")
Yes they had to be ring and speed tested, and marked so because workers would be involved using them..Never did a wheel test bad or crack doing this.

I asked about diamond dressing and ..(I forgot his name) said this method was lower cost..

*Good to diamond wet dress a few and see if the time and diamond use made it profitable, with turning the diamond after about a half hour use.
Might consider selling the big wheels or trading them for correct size.
50 bucks that is a good price for a big wheel.

There is a story about how that shop got started but none of my bees wax to tell.

Found their site good still in business. likely cost to much to ship but if you do tell them Buck said Hi.
Mach-B Grinding Wheel Shaping & Resizing

We had a box of wheels that would blow at markes speed from a big name wheel maker..called them up and they replaced to box of wheels , then recalled that run number..nobody got hurt, so it was not a big deal. lucky we were one of the first to recieve that run number. likely cost the manufacturer big bucks to recall and scrap a run number. No I wont tell the name.
*That is another good reason for safety glasses and wheel guards...and not to be in the blow zone when starting a wheel..like when Od and TC greinding.. good to stand off side.

(Some think we should out law cars because people still get run over.}Many shops want to out law manual grinders because they dont understand OSHA rules..much because the ones in charge are not grinder hands..likely not even machine hands. Go figure>

oops I have a job to do..
 
***CAUTION*** No way in hell would I ever think about modifying an abrasive wheel! No way NEVER! The problem is stress cracks and balance issues. Bad idea, open your wallet and enjoy your face in it's attached state.

What?
Say you have a 15" wheel that you've used for years and dressed it many many times. That wheel is now 12" diameter as a result.
THAT is also modifying it.

So you're saying you never dress a wheel?:nutter:
 
Plus putting on radiuses, steps, angles, widths crushing and dressing forms..

Had one fussy job I had to dress two angles then come in with looking through a loop to center each facet and take a close amount from each side and it was on a diameter so had to move the part with each take..what a bugger..likey now a CNC with a CNC indexing could do that job..but I did not have the print

*OH! I have a templet wheel dresser to sell..good in its wood box (forgot the name but it is real handy for surface grinder. likely could be used on an oD grinder..I will have to thimk about that..

You grind a templet once theN can go back and dress the wheel to that same form

Got to go...do thAT JOB ..DARN..
 
My guess and close call was near to lose a finger.. good It was almost..

Oh the time when I was the apprentice and rag wiped a chuck..could have lost 4 fingers...

Or the time I unloaded a big chick full of Ingerosol (brazed blanks just the steel not yey with carbid)..Out the shop window and between two cars (licky between)the y were set on wires to hold&* center grinsing the wedge pocket.

Bye.
 
I'm with you frank. As long as the wheel is handled correctly, you can dress it till your hearts content. Sounds like some of these guys are from the safety police.

Let's not call them the safety police, because we're all safety police. What we're not is fearphobia police.
 
I would have minimal concern dressing 1" off the od but it would take a while with a cluster diamond, probably best to crush dress it in a lathe. I would be concerned about running up a wheel cut back by either water jet or - especially a plasma cutter.

I would also add it may be worth having a measure of the actual wheel guard, you may well find you can get more than 10" in there, hence may well not have to remove the full 2" off the od.

One thing i would want to be very certain of before going to this kinda effort is that its a wheel thats going to work well for what im grinding. Spending $50 on a more suitable wheel could well be a far better idea.
 
Now, to really blow the minds of the ultra rule following, sky is falling, afraid of everything, crowd. WHEN THE WHEEL HAS BEEN WORN/DRESSED TO A SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER DIAMETER THAN IT'S ORIGINAL SIZE, you can disregard the stated MAX. RPM and run the wheel faster to achieve the correct surface speed.:stirthepot:
 
Now, to really blow the minds of the ultra rule following, sky is falling, afraid of everything,crowd. WHEN THE WHEEL HAS BEEN WORN/DRESSED TO A SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER DIAMETER THAN IT'S ORIGINAL SIZE, you can disregard the stated MAX. RPM and run the wheel faster to achieve the correct surface speed.:stirthepot:

well of corse, why would that even be contentious??? if you are going to really get them going, you are goinna have to come up with something MUCH much better that that!!


:D
 
Don't mention that in your health and safety abrasive wheel course over here, things like peripheral rim speed and such makes the instructor turn bright red and start recanting stories of instant mutilating death etc - threaten to fail you.

That said i believe if you read the regs over here your allowed to follow a max rim speed as the wheel wears down if the wheel is marked that way, if the wheel is marked with a max RPM, then that's spose to be treated as sacrosanct. That said, i have never had any qualms about using up worn 9" grinder wheels on a 4 1/2" grinder or worn 8" surface grinder wheels on my 6" bench grinder. But hay thats me, if you lose your head or bits of doing so that's on you.
 








 
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