I just got a "new" well not new but an old grining unit from a buddy of mine, it uses a water cooled diamend weel about 80 grit and a buffer on the other end. I think this unit would work fairly well but I'm not at all firmiliar with daimond wheels anything i should know before i touch som,e steel to it?
Mike

I've not worked much with diamond products, other than a few hand sharpeners. It the diamond surface is in good shape and not too worn, it should eat steel for breakfast. Go easy at first, so you do not take off more that you want to. What diameter is the wheel? That will make a difference in the type of grinds you can do with it. You might want to ask the guys over at Bob's and Gene's "Tool Time" forum. They're right handy when it comes to your type of question. Just click on Custom Knife Directory Forum at the upper left of the page, then scroll down the list of forums.

The diamond wheels, as well as the drill bits, are designed for relatively slow cutting of other wise uncuttable/undrillable materials like glass and ceramic tile. If you dont have a copious flow of coolant and the right feed speed, you can ruin your diamind wheel/bit pronto. Try it out and report back, but somehow I dont think it willl be too efficient for steel.

Sound like a grinder that was made to finish stones with the set up you described. What was your friend grinding on it? Ray

Hes a big lapidary guy makes some real nice stuff. He bought one of those units that has a row of six or seven stones so hes getting rid of his old ones. So i picked the coursed one and it also has a buffing weel on the other end. i have to rig up a water spigot or the wheel will get ruined but the buffing end works good. So the grinder was used for the initial rough shaping of stones from a slab form.