Toolpost Grinder Wheel Dressing Assembly

petertha

H-M Supporter - Gold Member
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Jan 15, 2016
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Nothing special, but hopefully something useful to fill a need. I wanted something rigid & adaptable which I could quickly set up on the lathe for tool post grinder dressing in whatever orientation or wheel diameter it presented. Then knock it down quickly without fuss but preserve the height setting if required again. The parts are just from scrap box metal on hand.

The pillar bottom surface center relieved & tapped so it sits firmly to bottom plate with a bolt. All fasteners & set screws are 10-24. Not pretty but I'm a '1-allen key builds the whole Ikea cabinet' type guy :) The base plate has a few spaced holes so I can position the post in or out as required. Holes are c/sunk so plate lays flat on way. The head holds my standard 3/8 shank diamond dresser in 0-90-180 deg orientation. I have a few other do-dads for the head but will save for action pics.

Hopefully this will do the trick. I just found those clamp-on dressing tools brackets to be more of a fiddly PITA as to what to clamp them to. They always seemed iffy rigidity if wise it ever moved slightly. I also tried a quick & dirty band saw slitting operation instead of setting up the slitting saw in the mill. It turned out well for what it was intended to do.

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Nice, Peter! I must confess to using the band saw slitting method much more often than slitting saws. I have a heavy duty Mitutoyo magnetic indicator stand that I have considered using for light tool post grinder wheel dressing. Haven't tried it yet. The setup would be really quick.
 
I had the same mag stand idea Bob, albeit the sacrificial candidate was a cheapy Chinese base probably with less mag strength than your Mitutoyo. I'm pretty sure it would work. My particular application is ID grinding with small diameter stone. So just because of how grinder assembly sits on the compound, Y-travel limits, the grinding wheel is positioned quite close lathe center & the best place to dress it +/- an inch. That means the dressing tool has to reach in quite a distance cantilever style when starting from mag base positioned on lathe bed. Maybe 4-5"? I don't think there is very much force actually dressing the wheel to vibrate or loosen the gadget, but just for overkill rigidity that's why I made the base firmly clamped to bed lip & it extends inward to the bed so the vertical pillar can be brought is closer to the work. Well, that's was my 'looks about right' theory :) I'll post some pics when the time comes.
 
If you approach grinding wheels carefully with a diamond, it is easy to never take no more than .0005" dressing cuts, and the load of dressing is not really a factor on light cuts like that. I think vibration really IS a factor, if it is more than a tiny movement. That said, for roughing on the surface grinder, it is a standard practice to feed the diamond quickly on the last pass to leave a threaded surface on the wheel, which is less likely to load up.
 
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