"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
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

Use good judgment in the depth of grind. My comments were (originally)
directed towards a much more robust machine, a B&S.

When you use my proposed method, do *not* modify the edge of the wheel.
That's no different from a wheel that has already done considerable work.
It's the corner of the wheel that does the work by this method. You want it
as close to a right angle as possible. It's when it becomes tapered that it
becomes necessary to dress the wheel.

One other thing. Again, my (original) comments were directed towards a
machine that is built for coolant. I fully understand your reluctance to
use coolant if you've had a negative experience----like running coolant on a
cutter grinder that is intended to be run dry. I obviously wouldn't
recommend coolant on dry machines---but I also wouldn't own a dry machine
when coolant was a *requirement* for good success. I practice what I
preach.

Harold