Fast way to wear down black cut-off wheel?

Hi everyone,

I need to wear down one of those black cut-off wheels that I sometimes use in my Foredom flexshaft machine. I need it smaller so it can fit into an enclose space. What is the fastest or easiest way to wear it down? It doesn’t seem to wear away even on old hard files or even a piece of quart rock. Is there a trick to wearing it down really fast so we can resize reshaped this and use a tool?

thank you

I just know how to break them…Rob

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Norton Dressing Stick
or something like this: Diamond Wheel Dresser
There are other types but for a cutoff wheel I’d try one of these.

Actually, I just tried both. The Norton style stick worked OK but the Diamond dresser seemed to work faster.

– alonzo

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I just tried an old diamond disc and it didn’t make a dent. I did wear and break several recently cutting apart a hollow sterling knife handle along the solder joint. It was filled with a cement that seemed to be very abrasive.

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Thank you everyone, the diamond idea is good and I should have thought of that. I think I might have some old diamond encrusted saw blades I can try or something like that. thank you.

There’s different kinds of cut off wheels. I’m guessing that these are the kind that you’re asking about:

This style is common and has been around forever. Because they’re made out of silicon carbide they’re very hard. (They’re also very brittle and break easily)

As others have pointed out, there are dressing stones out there. Dressing stones for jewelry are commonly made of silicone carbide too, so a diamond dressing stone or something similar to trim your silicon carbide wheels down will probably be your best bet. Most dressing stones for jewelry are made for reshaping rubberized abrasive wheels. (A different task from what you’re asking about.)

I’ve got a couple of boxes of red (aluminum oxide) 3/4" cut off wheels that are smaller, but I have no idea where I got them?

One advantage of aluminum oxide cut off wheels in your situation is that they’re not so complicated to grind down and make smaller.

I’m sure you know this, but you’re going to be creating a bunch of nasty abrasive dust. Do whatever you need to do to not breath that dust. You don’t want that in your lungs.

Another idea is to buy a package of diamond burs. This set from Rio Grande is my favorite. They’re a nice quality and have a good selection of shapes. A few of them are very similar to small cut off discs.

Hope that helps!!

Jeff

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I have a set of diamond burs different shapes for carving stones that I use all the time… just press the diamond bit against it while running the flexshaft and you can shape it in no time . Great for making sharp knife edge wheels.

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I had one of those spongy diamond grit things you use to polish enamel and it worked like a charm. I just sacrificed the end piece of it and spinning the cut off wheel on it made the black dust pile up fast.

Diamond is the key! Thanks everyone, my tool shaping worked and I got the job done.

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I use a grey stone shaper meant for shaping rubber wheels, that works well whenever i need to make a cut-off disc smaller.
I also will stack cut-off discs to make an aggressive griding wheel, some times in a specific width to cut a groove, or with a specific shape for fitting parts together.
The rubber wheel shaper works very well for all of the above.
I go through a great number of those little cutting discs, as they are very aggressive (and I have the scars on my fingers to prove it… )

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Can you explain the term “wheel dresser” in more detail for me please? Being mostly self taught, I’ve not heard that term before… And I’ve often tried, and mostly failed, to get into tiny spaces to either cuttoff or polish excess things.

As grinding wheels get worn they no longer are flat across along circumference, developing either a hollow or a hump in the middle. A wheel dresser is set against the wheel while it is running and it wears away the high spots making the wheel flat again.
There are several different styles, but one with sintered diamond would be best for your application. They’re not expensive.

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I use the super thin cut offs,I cant run out of them !

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