I own a small lightweight (1500 pounds) 6x12" manual surface grinder. I'm not
real good at getting terrific finishes either. My grinder manual says to ease
the corners of the wheel with a dressing stone, and this helped quite a bit
for me. I've always gone with the .0005" downfeed, wide crossfeed, and I'm
going to try Harold's .005" downfeed, .020" crossfeed.

I hooked up flood coolant when I ground in my mag chuck. It somehow got under
my table and turned the way oil to jelly. I haven't tried coolant since. Most
of the things I grind are pretty little, though.

I'm also planning to try precision balancing my wheels. Eric Snow told me
recently that little grinders really work better with perfectly balanced wheels.

Grant