Today, I got a free moment away from the heat treat oven, so I decided it must be time to dress the wheel on my toolpost grinder. According to what I have read, the depth of cut should not exceed 0.001", and you should begin cuts in the center of the grinding wheel and work towards the outside. The grinding wheel was brand new, so I didn't really know how out of round it might be. I put a sheet of printer paper between the grinding wheel and the diamond (with power to the grinder off) and advanced the cross slide until it pinched the paper. A sheet of paper is roughly 0.004" thick, so this gave me a starting point reference. I kept advancing in 0.001" increments with the grinder turned on, and kept moving the grinder mounted on the lathe cross slide from right to left and back, advancing the cross slide 0.001" each time. You can't really see dust coming off the wheel, but every 0.005" I would stop and check the wheel. Sure enough, the outside diameter of the wheel was not concentric with the grinder shaft. The wheel changed color wherever the diamond contacted it, and ultimately I advanced the cross slide about 0.015" before the wheel cleaned up all the way around. So, dressing a grinding wheel with a diamond in a dedicated holder isn't really a big deal. It's just one more thing I haven't done before, and really, there is nothing to it.---Brian
