What is wheel conditioning and why is it necessary?
When an copper/resin/abrasive ECG wheel is dressed with a diamond tool, the copper in the wheel gets smeared into the voids on the surface (between the grains of abrasive). This creates a thin film of copper that will short out to the workpiece. This film will naturally burn off during the cut but the high amperage arcing that happens could damage a sensitive part such as a thin wall tube. The wheel can be conditioned prior to grinding by shorting the wheel to the fixture using a copper ground cable. Conditioning the wheel with a ground strap basically burns away that film. The cable is sacrificed instead of the work piece. On a deep cut conditioning may not be necessary.The wheel will short out initially but by the time the wheel is fully engaged in the cut the wheel is already conditioned.
