Dressing your stones...

[Rockoteer]

It seems to me I have to dress my SC stones both six and eight inch, way to often, maybe three times for one scale.  Is that maybe excessive?  I know most of you probably use the diamond wheels but can remember back when you used SC stones.

tks

TOG

[asianfire]

Sorry for my ignorance; I understand SC, but dressing stone; whats that?

[gregorgr8]

It depends on how you are carving your scales on the sc wheels. You are supposed to run the stone across the face of the wheel, using the whole face of the wheel.  This can be done when cabbing a relatively small cab - but maybe not when you are grinding a larger piece, like a scale.  Are you able to do that the way you are cutting them?  If not then 2 or 3 times for one scale, may not be too many.

Good luck.

[Allen]

Kurt silicon carbide wheels can wear quickly leaving the grinding face uneven.

A tool is used to remove the high spots and flatten the grinding surface.

[asianfire]

Thanks guys, after Gregor's post it became clear as to where I heard that word before.

In what seems another lifetime (21 years ago), I was acting on behalf of a Swiss manufacturer of vertical Flatlaps for facetting, and introduced the machine to some local buyers, before he set up shop by himself. I remember now, that that word was used in the manual then.

[legendarygranite]

In the granite fabrication it was easy to tell. The wheel which was on a 4" angle grinder would bounce. I haven't started to do lapidary work yet but I'm sure like in the granite world its all about feel, also watching the pores close and seeing the scratchs disappear.

[Rockoteer]

In the granite fabrication it was easy to tell. The wheel which was on a 4" angle grinder would bounce. I haven't started to do lapidary work yet but I'm sure like in the granite world its all about feel, also watching the pores close and seeing the scratchs disappear.

It depends on how you are carving your scales on the sc wheels. You are supposed to run the stone across the face of the wheel, using the whole face of the wheel.  This can be done when cabbing a relatively small cab - but maybe not when you are grinding a larger piece, like a scale.  Are you able to do that the way you are cutting them?  If not then 2 or 3 times for one scale, may not be too many.

Good luck.

The stone starts to bounce very slightly and if you are grinding flat across the wheel (using the whole face of the wheel) with an 'edge' of the stone then you get chipout on the backside.  So I dress it when the 'bounce' starts.  I think more water may ease the onset of 'bounce'. 

TOG