Valve seat cutting/grinding
Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 5:20 pm
Once in a while you need to refresh some valve seats. The neway cutters are really pricey, even on the second hand market. Then there's the option of the Sioux or B&D grinders, which use pilots and grinding stones. Around here if you can find a set around 400 consider yourself lucky. I've been looking for one the last few months. Normally I would have the job done by Mike in Toronto but it's become increasingly difficult for me to add another 1.5 hours to my trips to visit him. So there were four sets on the market in the last few months, all around 500-550, and someone else swiped them before me.
The solution I came up to is this. Turns out there's a whole market of Sioux and B&D knock offs coming from India. The obvious problems with those are quality and shipping. But I came across a set on amazon, which made it less risky. The set contains the Sioux style stone holder, two popular pilots, 5/16 and 11/32, and a bunch of standard size stones up to 2". All for $80 including shipping.
Measured the pilots and they're right on, seems like good quality. Same with the stone holder. The stones are probably not very good, we'll see how much they wobble.
But a pilot for the big backhoe engine is not a popular size. It's 13/32+0.001 so I turned a big long 1/2" bolt into the right pilot.
The one in the middle
Fits well
But I'm missing one essential piece of equipment. The stone dresser.
The solution I came up to is this. Turns out there's a whole market of Sioux and B&D knock offs coming from India. The obvious problems with those are quality and shipping. But I came across a set on amazon, which made it less risky. The set contains the Sioux style stone holder, two popular pilots, 5/16 and 11/32, and a bunch of standard size stones up to 2". All for $80 including shipping.
Measured the pilots and they're right on, seems like good quality. Same with the stone holder. The stones are probably not very good, we'll see how much they wobble.
But a pilot for the big backhoe engine is not a popular size. It's 13/32+0.001 so I turned a big long 1/2" bolt into the right pilot.
The one in the middle
Fits well
But I'm missing one essential piece of equipment. The stone dresser.