Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:
"Greg Dermer" wrote in message


Harold,

I've seen you extolling the virtues of the silicon carbide dressing
sticks, so I bought a couple sticks described (in the current MSC
catalog on page 797) as "Abrasive Dresser Sticks, Silicon Carbide, For
truing and dressing grinding wheels." I've tried to use one on both
coarse and fine aluminum oxide grinding wheels, and they 1) virtually
don't cut anything and thus take forever to square up the wheel, and 2)
leave the most amazingly glazed wheel surface that I've ever managed to
produce. I actually use a single point diamond to *open up* the wheel
after using one of these.

What gives?

-- Greg



I'm at a loss to explain it, Greg. Are you using the stick flat, the entire
face? The whole idea is to use a sharp corner, which will remove the wheel
at a fairly generous rate. Use the stick flat only to give the wheel a
final "leveling", so to speak, and even then, don't use a flat face if you
can avoid doing so. Use a corner, with a minimum of stick touching the
wheel. .

If you use a flat surface and allow the wheel to scuff it endlessly, you'll
polish the stick until it's not much different from a Norbide, the only
difference being that the stick is sintered, and not as hard as a Norbide.
In either case, the wheel is glazed instead of dressed, so you'd get what
you're describing. It's all in the application. I should have suggested
that you never allow the wheel to rub on the dressing stick, regardless of
make. I've used them so long I forget others may not understand a proper
application. Sorry!

I think I mentioned that dressing sticks work not only by cutting the
abrasive grains, but by dislodging them, exposing unused grain. When you
allow the stick to rub, it doesn't do that.

Hope that helps. How about a report after you've experimented a little?

Harold


I'll try and find them (haven't used 'em for quite awhile, don't
remember how I applied them), experiment further and follow up. The
shops I've worked in were all of the star dresser and diamond catagory,
so maybe I just wasn't using them right.

-- Greg