Grinding wheel maintainence

A sharp wheel is necessary to obtain a sharp tool - I dress my wheels pretty frequently, I think, compared to other folks.

Wonder how that works with the Tormek, where you knock the sharp off the particles for a finer grind?

Ditto. So much so that I go thru a pair of wheels every 6 months. But then again I change 8" wheels when they get down to 7 1/4".

Peter Teubel Milford, MA

You can also buy a gray stone (carborundum?) that can be hand held and lasts just about 1/2 of forever and also a star wheel thingie that does what is called a 'crush dressing'. Both are less than $25.00 at any industrial supply store (J&L Industrial / Production Tool come readily to mind). All of the dressing tools are only as good as they are steady. The crush dresser is designed to be hooked over the tool rest where it can develop some pretty serious pressures against the wheel. Do not hesitate to use either a single point diamond or the dressing stone to cut custom shapes in the wheel itself. If, for instance, you only use a particular wheel for grinding scrapers, cut a radius in the wheel to match the largest scraper you are likely to be sharpening. It will make guiding the scraper across a 'true' radius a lot easier.

Bill

I'm not that familiar with the Tormek concept, but I'd think that regrading the wheel serves to sharpen the grit by clearing any embedded metal particles from between the grains of abrasive. In other words, it may knock off the tips but sharpens the edges of the particles in the process.

It all depends on how friable the wheel is.

Dressing the wheel normally breaks (cuts) off the rounded over particles on the face of the stone, taking the embedded particles along with it and leaving a clean wheel with new, sharp, edges exposed.

It is just as possible to round those sharp edges over and make the stone cut like a stone of a higher grit count.

Why not just mount two wheels of the desired grits and be done with it?

Bill

Talk about decadence... TWO Tormeks!

Sounds like another follower of the Frank Pain method.

No sparks on my wet wheel, but the eye tells me when the bevel's flat all the way across, and there's a tad of wire edge visible - different color, to keep me from grinding it all away.

I was referring to the stone used to dull the edges of the grit, producing a finer "grade" of grind. That would be the opposite of dressing, which is designed to give a fresh, rather than worn, surface, resulting in a coarser grind.