Value Valve seat grinder

Patsdeere

Well-known Member
I came across a valve seat grinder (a Thor and black and decker) with a bunch of stones. Being as how I don't have one (and it would be nice to have), how would go about figuring a fair price for one? Anything I should look for/avoid on either machine? They both come with their own boxes and little compartments for storage.

Thanks.
a172581.jpg

a172582.jpg
 
Search ebay for completed auctions, ans see what they go for.

Likely, not as much as a few years ago.
 

I have that B & D set, I changed to souix and
what an improvement. Check the clearance between
the stone holder and the pilot . If loose ,run
away , also the stone holder in the second pic
is B&D ball bearing holder,they are loose when
new ,the older bronze bushing ones are better.
The pilots wear because the stone holder runs
directly on the pilot. Souix and kwikway have
two ball bearings and the B&D has only one . If
the clearance is too great ,you will make a
lifes' work of doing one cylinder head.

george
 
I have a B&D like the one on the right. I would take it over the Thor brand. You can buy just about anything you need for the B&D one. I have never seen much Thor stuff.

I also like how the B&D mandrels tighten into the valve guide better than many of the others.

As for cost. A good B&D set can easily run $400-700 depending on how many mandrels and stones it has.

The valve spring compressors you have on the left are mainly used on flat head motors. Not much use on overhead valves.
 
Good info so far. I will keep that in mind when I look at them. If I only wanted to do seats in the head/block would either one of these work for me? I did a little searching and the big sioux setups for valves and they are a little beyond my budget right now.
 
So $200 wouldn't be a bad deal for everything pictured? Or would that lead you to believe it was worn out?
 
IF you don't take it for the $200 Send me the information and I will. That is about half price for what they usually bring.

If you need new mandrels they are about $25 each. You may need a size that the set does not currently have. An example of that would be the large one for JD two cylinder heads.

New stones run about $5-10 each depending on size and grit.

The parts for a B&D are on Ebay.
 
Hand operated seat cutters as pioneered by Neway have completely taken over seat reconditioning and for good reason. If your ambition is to do more than a couple seat jobs then pass on those and watch Ebay for a used #462 set of Neway cutters (or similar) belive me you will be glad you did.

I know not what your question was, sorry. Trying to cut decent seats with a worn out seat grinder is an exercise in pure frustration. Some of those outfits have seen heavy usage and need to be retired, others have been barely used, cant tell from a picture. As George said if the mandrels and stone holders are worn out then neither would be worth any of my dollars, zero, would not haul them home for them. If not worn out and for a job or two then $2-300 maximum as there are a bunch around for sale and few selling for any kind of money, and there is a reason for it,, seat cutters .
 
I think he knew what was being asked, just wanted to know if it was reasonable or way over priced.
 
I used a kwikway seat grinder for years, have a B&D that I've never used. Even in good shape I found the seat grinder an exercise in frustration.

I retired the kwikway when I bought a set of neway seat cutters at an auction with two power heads. After using the seat cutters valve seats became a quick painless job that I no longer dislike. The only thing I use from the grinders is the pilots from the B&D.
 
Last valve-service set I bought was a Black and Decker. Came with all you have in the photo plus a "dry" valve resurfacing machine. Paid $150 for the whole lot. $200 seems a bit high to me for just the seat cuttters. I've got two Sioux outfits also. One was free and the other with a "wet" machine was $250.
All depends how useful it is to you. Stones work fine as long as you have a diamond dresser attachment to keep them true. I also have some Newway carbide cutters. Also work fine but I often need the stones for bigger machines.
 
You could do an eBay search [but use the completed listings box]. If you are going to be doing alot of heads consider Neway cutters. I think I paid 700 for mine but they have done many heads and I never had to true a stone. I would take a guess that the one pictured would sell for about 200 bucks.
 

I have a couple of the seat grinder sets, along with 2 Black and Decker valve grinding machines. None of it is of much use though, because every old engine I tear down is in need of all new valves, valve seats, and usually valve guides. Replacing the seats and guides requires specialized, expensive machines, which are affordable only by full fledged machine shops. In a nutshell, you're better off to just take the head to a machine shop and tell him to fix it.
 
Dad has the same set. I think it dated back to the 50's. Works good never had any problems with how it works. I see you even have the mantrel for the flat head fords.
 
I've got Sioux valve and seat grinder equipment but I rarely use it because it is just not practical. With the modern equipment that the machine shop uses they can do about 10 heads in the time it would take me to do just one.

However the original poster asked about the seat grinders because he wanted to use it for seats in a flat head engine. For that it makes good sense because it is just not practical to remove an engine and haul it to a machine shop for a valve job.
 
Last one I bid on at a shop retirement auction I dropped out at $75 and it sold for $100. It had a wet Sioux valve grinder, and seat stuff in the cabinet. It was just not that useful to me and I had already spent a ton at the sale on stuff I needed.
 
Just a general comment. For someone that likes to work on old tractors and autos - I cannot imagine NOT owning a valve service set (for seats and valves). Machine shop prices are through the roof and often a set of stones and a valve-resurfacer are all that is needed to bring an engine back to life that had bad valves before. I'm talking cast-iron heads.

Just this past year, I did two valve jobs on Oliver crawlers with Hercules engines. They were flatheads and to send to a shop - the engines would have had to be pulled. Also did a Chevy V8, two John Deere 202 diesels, and an Allis Chalmers HD4. All with a valve-service-set that cost me less then $250.

In contrast - my little Toyota motorhome blew a head gasket in the middle of a trip and far from home. Ended up having to be fixed at a local shop. Even though it ran perfect before the gasket problem, the shop-owner insisted on sending the head out to be "checked." So my little four-cylinder head cost $460 to get done. What a waster!! Note I could of bought a brand new head - loaded - with new cam and valves for $265! If this had happened at home, I would of pulled the valves, maybe give them a slight "trim", and maybe new guides and seals, and saved hundreds of dollars.
I'm not saying you want an old stone-cutter set for doing a lot of modern heads with hardened seat inserts. But for older stuff - it's fine. Many older machines left the factory seats cut right into the cast-iron of the head and were then induction hardened. If you resurface- the seats will be softer but will work-harden over time. Just means a few rocker-arm adjustments along the way.
 
I have a similar one they seem to be $300 give or take. I paid About that for mine 20 years ago but it had the valve machine too!!!! Far as I know you can get stones etc. from Goodson.
 

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