Dressing grinding stone

Hi guys
I have been trying out my way grinder as I had a job to do resurface a gear box face. So I have a cast iron plate to practice on and an old cup wheel 7x5 32 grit so I have just used a 2x2 dressing bock to true up the wheel. So this is where I am not sure how it should be done. It grinds fine as I can tell looks ok. I did dress with a Diamond but it did not grind as good as with the dressing block stick .Any tips or gadgets to dress with the diamond to make a better job.

While diamond dresser can leave a very accurate wheel surface, it does remove the natural, sharp points of the abrasive. In that aspect the best dressing material is another grinding stone of similar hardness and this is what I use in most cases.

To begin with, make sure your diamond isn't rounded at the tip due to age/use. An old(er) diamond that more resembles a ball bearing at the tip will not properly dress a wheel and you'll have unsatisfactory results. A new(er) diamond that has a fairly sharp tip and is solidly mounted at an angle in a good sized block that won't move on you is better. Not sure whether you're dressing from above or below the wheel but solidly fixed dressing below the wheel has always been my preference. Over the wheel mounts can sometimes have play in the slide and produce oddities on the wheel that translate into the workpiece. Where possible I like dressing with the coolant on to reduce the amount of airborne particles.

Nice grinder.

Agree an angle held diamond has to be turned to a fresh facet to dress well. But if dressing flat and then grinding with the flat end of the cup wheel you may have too much of the wheel in the cut. With the stick you likely get a little dish and so have less wheel in the cut consequently you get a better finish. Still the block is course so a better dish wheel can be made with a Norbide stick or a roller wheel dresser like the Mini Crackerjack. Desmond - Grinding Wheel Dressers - Crackerjack Dressers. With the mini you hold the dresser wheel at an angle to the wheel so it only gets up to about 500 rpm (You can also hold your thumb on the wheel to break speed.
Looks like your wheel arbor is very long so with a shorter arbor you will get a better grind.
The cup wheel grinds better if the OD is dresses just a little to get a better balance.

You might diamond dress the end of the cup wheel flat and then grind the end recess to just leave 1/16 wide in the cut and the rest of the wheel face relieved to to have less wheel in the cut.

The best grinding will be achieved with a straight wheel and then turning the wheel head at flat or at angle so you can use the OD of the wheel. Yes it will then act like a surface grinder and grinding wet would be best. Yes for the grinding shown you may have to turn the wheel-head at 45* and then dress the wheel at flat so the straight wheel would end up with a 45* to grind flat.

Good to make a box slide dresser. 3 x 4” rectangle.. Grind a ½ x1” slot to the 4”. Make a 3x4 x ½ cover plate and drill and tap 4 10/32 cap screws to join. Now make a diamond slide bar 7” long and make fit to the slot with .001 all around for slide, Having a hole for the diamond shank and a set screw to hold… and a hole at other end for a small handle. Yes you just C clamp it to an angle plate or to anything at the set angle and dress.

With that you can quickly mount the slide dresser to and angle or flat and dress the wheel.

Good to make up some angles for better wheel angle set.. perhaps 1/4 x 6" triangle at the standard angles so you can set (check)the wheel to be correct angle.

Loose the alox wheel and buy a cbn wheel.

Hi guys
Thanks for the input here is a picture of some things that I have the slide dinond dresser and the other two not sure what they are sure you guys know.
And can tell me how to use them.I do have a variety of CBN and Dimond wheels
What would be used on cast iron or harden bed ways ?

Thanks COLLECTOR

Nice
we would flick the wheel on the brake dresses with a pencil so it was rolling a bit when it took off. it is free spinning at the start and then puts on breaks to dress a diamond wheel.
The cracker jack turn it on an angle or break with your thumb so it only gets to 500 or so rpm .. running full out it can get to 3,000 or so and blow up. I like the mini for such a grinder but with care the at one will work fine. That care to be plenty in the clear to not snag anything when dessing.
The slide dresser mount to an angle plate or any thing with a c-clamp and dress an angle or flat. be sure the slide dresser is not just a rounded ball or it won't dress well. give the diamond a turn to bring up a new facet.

You never want to use diamond on iron or iron based alloys like steel; at cutting temperature the carbon migrates out of the diamond (IIRC) into the iron destroying the surface of the wheel.

I found this on you Tube.Look abound min 10. The rest is worthless tothis question. It shows Cashes shop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQLhJ3WeCE4

I agree with buck about tipping the head and using a regular wheel dressed with a sharp diamond to dress he flat and get more surface feed. Before watching 2 on You Tube. I was thinking you need to dress your cup heel concave so it hits on the tip of the wheel and not the flat. Have to put the dresser on a small sign cross-slide. Are you using coolant? Use a spray mister (like a Trico) if you don't have flood coolant. My old friend Ed Hadley (retired machine rebuilder) who is down in Arizona used to do a lot of way grinding using a cup wheel. I will try find his phone number and give him a call and ask if he would give you some advice on the phone. Rich

This a good thread to bad it did not have a good title like "lathe bed grinder" so others could find the information in a search.

Putting the slide dresser to a sine a great idea Richard suggested and also having the sine drilled to accept the brake dresser (with two bolts not one). Sine may sometimes be standing off an angle plate at times so not a bad idea to have a couple screw heads so you may draw tight to the stack. Couple rubber O rings can do this one at each side. Finding a place off part where you can set and leave the dresser in place during the grind is a help for re dress (if can be done safely).
I think if the slide bar is soft enough I would drill a diamond hold going off the flat side of the box (yes at about 15* angle) perhaps to use the same set screw.

A good idea to make up some test squares and angle squares. Perhaps 4” (or 6")square and triangle 1/4 or 3/8 thick. With them you can test an angle dressed to a wheel or the existing angle on a part off any known (good) surface in the machine or part and day light test an angle or side..
You can blue up the part and then hand rub the wheel to the part (or to your test square)to know the dress is right (close)… coming into the part wheel running first can put unwanted test errors.

Think with doing ways a wall chart could be made for standard angles for in feed-in and vertical drop. That way you are not taking a chance on miss-figure when you do a job. Each time you get a new angle you can add it to the chart. Just a few angles on a wall display would keep the difference in mind.
I have seen people error with confusing feed at angle, down feed and in feed at tangent. So a chart might show an angle with three numbers and how they function with stock removal from one or more places. Over kill .. perhaps but I like things simple.
With not having a book of sine one can carefully draw the part at 10X scale and then measure for close to .001 tolerance. Yes you need very a fine point to draw that close.

Guess a good plan to map the part so original size and target size would not be forgotten in order to save errors or just extra work to mating parts like the ways to the carriage with least work.

*Do watch for burning the surface.. the stresses almost never come out of the part even with cleaning up the burn with a fresh dress they (stresses) are still deep and can bend the part over time..
Dressing the cup wheel to an edge only sharp or an edge of perhaps 1/16 flat is good. *Also a recess one side or recess two side straight wheel is good for that machine. Perhaps a 1 1/2 wide with an angle or straight dressed to OD and then turn the head to get angle to the part.. good to find a source of used wheels with less than full diameter IMHO.. A 1 1/2 wheel dressed at 45* can give close to 2" of grinding surface.

I put a line up mark at spindle end... then mount all wheel mounts to that mark to make wheels run better at re mounting. I also skim a few tenths off mout face if mount does not run near zero (but that is over kill)

I wonder if a test straight edge would be good for way grinding..A bar with slotted holes so you would have an adjustable template with set bars to Day light set to the in-coming part to be sure to match the existing geometry (shape). yes for if you are shooting for that.

I would love to have your machine and do such grinding..Am now looking at a Thompson with 60" chuck, that I don't need.. no it would not have the needed height (think about 22" with a half used wheel) for bed grinding and with not a tilt head dressing expensive wheels would make it not the right machine.. Still those old Thompson SGs with only one scraped long movement and the wheel head (for cross) an easy re-scrape.. a great design.
Actually I Could put my 3/4 hp tool post grinder at the head and then...

*What do you have for long travel, width (cross travel) and vertical height to wheel?