A professional who sets up and operates grinding machines, such as surface and universal, carbide, drill, and tool-and-cutter grinders, to sharpen cutting tools to specifications, using blueprints, job orders, and knowledge of abrasives and metal properties. Respnsibilities include:

• Reviews blueprints and job orders to plan production sequence.
• Selects grinding wheel of shape and grade and attaches to spindle, using wrenches.
• Positions and secures cutting tool on machine table, using magnetic chuck or holding fixture, or mounts tool on arbor and clamps between centers.
• Turns handwheels to position table or spindle to obtain specified taper and bevel on edges of cutting tools.
• Moves controls to set cutting tool rotation speed, feed rate, and grinding wheel rotation speed.
• Starts machine and turns wheel or engages feed to move workpiece to grinding wheel.
• Measures sharpened cutting tools to verify conformance to specifications, using fixed gauges, micrometers, calipers, optical comparators, and surface gauges.
• Dresses abrasive wheel to change cutting action or shape.
• May grind special form tools, involving special setups and wheel dressing.
• May analyze specifications and select tooling to be used on production jobs.
• May design, modify, or make special tools according to specifications or tooling requirements.
• May braze or solder carbide tips to cutting tools.
• May be required to have specialized experience with particular type of cutting tool sharpened or machine operated and be designated Broach Grinder; Drill Sharpener; Hob Grinder.