Depends on the type of stone you are dressing. For general bench grinder a rotating star dresser is a good balance between precision, time and cost.
I have two bench grinders (1HP 8in industrial Craftsman block grinder, and 1/3 HP Craftsman block Grinder).
I was going to get 4 new stones for them (two 6x1x1 and two 8x1x1) aluminum oxide wheels from Norton.
A Coarse 36/46, brown aluminum oxide
A Medium 60, white aluminum oxide
A Fine 100, white aluminum oxide
and a fourth wheel of undetermined grit and material (options are a 24 grit, which seems too rough, and a 150 grit, which seems too fine to do much). I will be using this for everything from tool sharpening (HSS) to cleaning up cut materials from a dry cut saw
I also will hopefully be adding a 3rd grinder for wire wheels in the near future, and maybe a fourth for non ferrous grinding with silicon carbide or diamond when I get into aluminum and TIG welding. But that isn't important right now.
I have a Desmond Huntington dresser (star wheel dresser) on order from amazon ($15 for the genuine version). Desmond's website states that this type of dresser is only for medium and coarse grit wheels (which makes sense), as it probably would badly gouge a 100, 120 or 150 grit wheel.
Huntington dressers, as far as I can tell, also can't be used to true up a wheel. I also then will need a tool for the finer grit wheels.
There is the single point diamond (which requires a holder, which seem to be very expensive). I have found a single point diamond dresser locally, but it holds the diamond straight on to the wheel, where as I see most hold the diamond nib at an angle. Is the angle important? It's $15 for the straight on version (used one from the 1950s). Do I need the angled nib holder? Is there a cheaper angled nib holder?
There is also the multipoint diamond, which seem good for getting a nice flat surface, but they won't be as precise as the single point w/ holder.
I've also read complaints that while diamonds are great for truing the wheels, they actually just dull the surface of the grinding wheel, and thus after truing you should sharpen it again with a dressing stick.
Then others say that a dressing stick is useless and should never be used.
I understand that a dressing stick is required for cleaning out a diamond wheel, but again, I'm more interested in aluminum oxide right now.
I've done lots of research, but there doesn't seem to be a good guide for the advantages and disadvantages of various dressing tools.
Any help on the tools (and even grits, brands, etc) is greatly appreciated!
