Thread: Best dresser for bench grinders

As a Saw doctor i shape wheels every day using all three of these types of dressers. for a bench grinder you can use all of them fine but, each is for a different purpose.
Wheel dressers, are for removing a lot of stock at once but can be dangerous when not used correctly. As they can jam on the tool rest and explode either of the 2 wheels.
There are also stick wheel dressers that are designed for bench grinders these rest on the tool rest and clean the wheels surface whilst "truing" the wheel.(making it round again). This is the best option for bench grinders but they are dear to buy as the star cutters in them are replaceable.

if you want to just clean the wheel either the stick or diamond will do the job more than adiquately (get a t-bar diamond dresser not a point I use this across the biggest spectrum of wheel types). The only problem I have found with diamond if you just use one spot without moving the diamond wares away very fast lasts less than a week using 2-3hrs per day. You can get Australian made ones but from memory they are over $100 and come from Melbourne's Specialized diamond products.

in my job I use a combination of all three depending on what I am doing shaping the wheels or just grinding saws without burning them.

But answering the Question at hand, with the Norton dresser should be fine just take it easy with it and don't push it to hard into the wheel and it should be OK.

I hope this long winded answer can help you in some way Ken.

Sawdoc

Sawdoc
Nice to see another member from the South East lurking on here. Pretty sure I've gotten some band saw blades from you in the past!

Ken
I've had a bit of experience with each and as Sawdoc says, each has it's own place. The wheel type dressers I never took to. Noisy and dusty. I swap between a Norton stick to help clear out any gunk in the wheels and a half carat single diamond to true the wheel when it gets out of round. The diamond tool I use is of the cheap foreign variety and works just fine. A steady hand and an eye for a straight and square line is needed to use the single diamond type but practice does the trick. Any time the grinding wheel doesn't give that creamy feeling when you're grinding is time to dress again

Good luck.
Tom