Dressing Your Wheels

The regular and proper dressing of the grinding wheels is important to maintain the performance of your grinder.

Due to wear and glazing with metal particles, wheels need to be dressed to correct unevenness, restore their cutting action and make the wheel’s corners square.

Here are some steps for keeping the wheels in good condition:

1. Set the tool rest perpendicular and about 1/16" to 1/8" from the wheel (Photo 1).


2. Turn on the grinder and allow it to come to speed.


3. Place the dresser on the tool rest and move the dresser slowly forward to make contact with the spinning wheel (Photo 2).

Photo 1 – The proper position for the tool rest when dressing the grinding wheel.

Photo 2 – Move the dresser side to side across the tool rest to dress the full width of the wheel and ensure the dresser wears evenly.

In the next section, we’ll walk you though the basic steps of grinding a square-edge tool (a chisel, in this case), and offer some guidance on how to use your grinder safely.