DIY surface grinding fixtures/dressers? And other questions.

[justin1]

Hello,

I'm new to surface grinding and would like to slowly make or acquire tooling for my surface grinder.

What are things you guys have made to make your life easier with surface grinding? Tips tricks are welcome too.

Would it be better to make radius dresser or buy a cheap damaged or knock off one and repair it?

I have some sine bar fixtures I bought that were homemade but are +/- .002 would it be worth regrinding them or just use them as is for milling machine.

I would like to make my own permanent magnet sine fixture for surface grinder in future but gonna try mag-thru Vee blocks first and see how that goes lol. As not sure what I can achieve without a vacuum brazing furnace for brazing the laminations.

I got lots of silvalloy solder for carbide so gonna experiment with fixing laminations together. So any advice on brazing your own laminations would also be nice.

 

[woodchucker]

Radius dresser is not all that important in my opinion.
The most important thing is a plain dresser. I find mine annoying because I have to lower the wheel to redress. One that would raise up to the wheel would be more valuable but it needs to be very stable.
An angle dresser would be more necessary. And lastly a radius dresser.
Transfer blocks are very important for securing work

 

[MrWhoopee]

I recently acquired a Harig 612. I made a simple block with nib wheel dresser. Agree with @woodchucker, it's irritating to have to raise/lower the wheel to dress. My grinder came with a spindle mounted dresser, but the wheel guard doesn't accomodate it. I have just purchased magnetic parallels and v-block, both of which I have already used. I ordered a simple angle dresser to allow relieving the wheel for side wheel grinding. Not even considering a radius dresser until the need arises. I just needed to be able to cool some thin sections and set up an old mist system I have. Going to have to come up with something better, this one requires too much air, but it got me through

 

[justin1]

Radius dresser is not all that important. Transfer blocks are very important for securing work

Ye fair it wasn't high on my list of grinding stuff. I would like to make angle dresser as the Chinese ones look a bit under whelming.

I did find this dresser kinda neat as a guy could do both angles and less accurate radiuses it looks like.

Low Boy Angle Dresser - ABM Tools

Low Boy Angle Dresser ABM Tools

www.abmtools.com

I would like to make OD grinder for my surface grinder so I can make some cylinder squares and be able to touch up tapered tool holders or even make my own.

That and a punch grinder for resizing metric cutters to the holders I already own for the milling machine so I don't have to double up on everything.

up

Ye the first thing I made was 90° and 105° degree diamond holder of out random bar stock I had laying around.

I wonder if mounting a diamond on a adjustable parallel would work or even making a adjustable barrel with wider base and built in diamond holder.?

A video I watched recommended mounting the diamond at known distant around the parts finished height so you could redress wheel before doing finish passes and not loose track of wheel height in relation to work piece.

Ye magnetic blocks/parallels I've noticed will come in very handy so I would like to find good method of producing them that isn't as annoying looking as drilling hundreds of holes and driving nails into stock. I know they can be found on eBay for ok prices sometimes but I enjoy making stuff lol. Also annoying to have to wait for stuff to show up in my neck of the woods.

Which is why I would like learn more around maybe making half vacuum/inerting oven so I don't have to pull high vacuum which seems like expensive step up from cheap and easy vacuum pumps for HVAC

Bought these vessels from auction for 5$ for both so may try and convert the into DIY vacuum brazing oven down the road. For now lawn art

 

[projectnut]

I was going to say it would be cheaper and easier to purchase the tooling you needed from places like eBay, Craigslist, or Facebook Market place. Then I got a shock when I started looking at the asking prices.

Before the pandemic they were all but giving away wheel dressers, profilers, diamond, cutters, and just about every other surface grinder related tool or supply. When I bought my Sanford surface grinder the seller threw in half a dozen different style wheel dressers. I purchased a Yusa profiler for $50.00. Today the prices are what I would call outrageous. Used and beat up profilers have an asking price of $300.00 or more. Standard single point dressers have asking prices in the $50.00 range. These were going for $10.00 or less a couple years ago.

I'm out of town right now, but when I get home, I'll take a few pictures of some of the dressers, magnetic V blocks, and other tools I have for the surface grinder. Most of the dressers could easily be made in less than an afternoon. The single point diamonds can still be purchased from Shars for between $10.00 and $20.00

 

[mmcmdl]

Loaded question here . Angle dressers are simple to make as are single diamond holders . You can purchase mag parallels and vee blocks cheap these days off the bay . Radius dresser ? Do you need one ? You can dress a radius with a Norbide stick easily . Sine plates I wouldn't even waste my time making them . Buy them when and if you need them . I can't help with any pics , my stuff left years ago .

 

[justin1]

Loaded question here.

All good, eBay kinda crappy ATM for any deals on anything and if it is priced ok the shipping to Canada is more then the item half the time.

Angle dresser is probly one of my next surface grinder projects after I finish with building my shop and move all my **** out of garage.

Hand dressing a radius isn't too bad of idea if I just need a radius for something we're accuracy isn't needed and I see myself not needing radiuses very often but if I can make one then why not.

I just do machining as hobby mostly so I enjoy making stuff as I need it. Im lucky to have large surplus of steel from doing demolition so material cost on some stuff isn't a factor. It's mostly just something to do in my free time as professionally I have no use for a surface grinder. Mostly just mill and lathe but I could probly of just farmed those jobs out vs cost of machines and tooling.

I was going to say it would be cheaper

Sweet that would be wicked. I enjoy seeing what others come up with as some people have good ideas and some people make a good what not to do example lol.

 

[projectnut]

Here are a few of the tools I use on my Sanford Surface grinder.

First are the straight and V block magnetic pass though blocks. They're used for small pieces on wide pole magnetic chucks. Rather than having 2 or 3 lines of magnetism every inch flowing through a part they allow 4 to 6.

Second is a shop made wheel dresser the diamond can be placed at any angle by loosening the socket head screw, turning the diamond and retightening the screw. The tool is then placed at 90* to the wheel and the diamond is passed across the wheel by grasping the knob and pushing it forward and pulling it in reverse.

Third are 2 more shop made dressing tools. With a machine that has a clockwise wheel rotation one is placed on the magnetic chuck at the 7:00 o clock position. The wheel is lowered so it just touches the point then the wheel dresser is moved on the Z axis across the cutting face of the wheel

Fourth is a homemade tool for removing the nut that holds the wheel to the adaptor.

Fifth are a pair of B&S magnetic V blocks.

Last is a profile dresser. It's used to profile the wheel to a selected radius, slot size, or square edge.