[How-To] Dressing typical D-bit diamond based grinding wheels

[petertha]

What is the proper way to dress or recondition the typical diamond 'brown' wheels used on D-bit tool & cutter grinders? I can't imagine the single point diamond tool on the swing arm is to be used is it? Presumably that tool use is confined to AO wheels? I've seen some videos where a white colored stick is pressed onto the diamond wheel, but it wasn't identified. (It also seemed to go through the stick like it was a piece of chalk). I tried checking Shars the places that sell wheels & TCG's. Unless I missed it, can't seem to find a dressing stick that specifically says 'for diamond'. There seem to be some internet hits but not exactly as abundant as the wheels themselves, which is odd. And most say 'aluminum oxide' as the main ingredient?

Dressing Sticks for Diamond Wheels, CBN & PCD | Falcon Tool - FALCON Tool Company

Dressing sticks for PCD, CBN, Resin and Metal Bonded Diamond Wheels. Made of premium aluminum oxide and silicon carbide for consistent quality output.

www.falcontool.com

https://irontite.com/p/8289-cbn-dressing-stick-fg/v/8289

Dressing Sticks for Diamond Wheels, CBN & PCD | Falcon Tool - FALCON Tool Company

Dressing sticks for PCD, CBN, Resin and Metal Bonded Diamond Wheels. Made of premium aluminum oxide and silicon carbide for consistent quality output.

www.falcontool.com

 

[dbb-the-bruce]

Surprised no one commented on this. I saw it Monday and didn't have time to comment.

I'm not an expert - but I'm pretty sure that the dressing sticks you are referring to are intended to remove small amounts of build up and also the matrix that holds the diamond in place. Basically the intent is to reveal more diamond edges and freshen up the "cut".

I've got one of the white ones, and yes the CBN wheel will eat through it rather fast. It is most certainly not for truing the wheel.

I have an adjacent question regarding how true a good CBN wheel should run, how to check it and how to "fix" it.

I have an older Deckel D bit grinder and noticed that the run out (radial) was a bit much for trying to hit a find inside corner. Measured run out (with a throw away tip!) on my dial indicator was more than .001 and less than .010. The wheel has about .0015 slop between the mounting shaft and it's center hole. I attempted to try to shim it a little truer without much luck.

I suspect that the flat face axial runout should be very good on a good wheel and maybe that radial is not considered as important.

I decided to move on and live with it until I found out more.....

 

[pontiac428]

The wheels I got from Shars were egg-centric and messy at the resin bond to carrier shell interface that I put them on the lathe for clearancing. I don't think they care much about the eccentricity spec, as long as the face is true "enough". The price difference between chinesium CBN and anything commercial is 5- to 10-fold, so I live with it.

To my knowledge, you run resin bonded wheels as they come. The corners of the abrasive strip can be an issue, yes.

All in all, I think the Sheckel is a great tool, but I think after 5 years of using it I'm ready for a KO Lee!

 

[petertha]

You might find this video interesting. I found myself wondering if he had an abrasive trueness issue or a hub trueness issue, or wheel collar issue, or some combination. With all the variants of wheel suppliers, who knows what we are getting on any given day. He did take steps to true the 'mechanicals' cup & bore based on the abrasive face as an initial datum. But he still had an abrasive wobble & eventually he landed on his technique to true the abrasive. I'm talking the typical brown wheel diamond where (I believe) you are not to be using the diamond point dressing tool intended for AO wheels insitu on TCG.

 

[petertha]

I'm not an expert - but I'm pretty sure that the dressing sticks you are referring to are intended to remove small amounts of build up and also the matrix that holds the diamond in place. Basically the intent is to reveal more diamond edges and freshen up the "cut". I've got one of the white ones, and yes the CBN wheel will eat through it rather fast. It is most certainly not for truing the wheel.

Thanks, that's what I kind of thought.

 

[pontiac428]

Great video. I've done about half of what he's done. I mount the stone on it's arbor and chuck the arbor on the lathe, so that's a small difference. Now I've got a project for today, so thanks for sharing.

Edit- No reason I can't use the lathe where he uses the mill for stoning.

 

[dbb-the-bruce]

I got my wheels from artco - not cheap and as is they are running pretty true. Didn't really have an issue until I tried doing some really small precise stuff. Had my mag visor on and could see the wheel surface "bouncing" around.

I'll check the video out.

 

[Dabbler]

Aluminum oxide sticks are for truing also. On high quality wheels, there is very little to remove. On the cheaper wheels, an AO stick can reshape the wheel satisfactorily.

You also use the AO stick to dress the wheel if it becomes loaded with material.

 

[petertha]

Yes, that's wouldn't surprise me & if I recall the video kind of hints at that. The one stone may have been from Grandpa's axe grinding arsenal. My friend went through a parallel issue making matched stones on a surface grinder. Its not just about the hardness of materials or grit#, its also about dislodging material to expose them in a new flat plane. He had to play with different stones (ultimately he just used whatever Renzetti used & life was good).