Lookin' good Tim! == Sam will love it.

Sent from my twisted mind of the mudman

I remember the sodium filled valve stems. Pretty cool technology given the times in which they were implemented.
 

This brought up a memory, from the first shop I worked at.  Was grinding the seats on a Ford flathead V-8, in the case with the stones and shafts were a set with a valve stem diameter of 1/2 inch.  Just huge in comparison to the rest.  Discovered they were for a commercial Ford engine that used sodium in a hollow valve stem.  The sodum sloshing inside cooled the valve in an attempt keep the seat from burning.  We found an article saying to dispose of them carefully, as the liquid sodium could  burn or explode.  Watching for a Sioux set now.

When I had my shop, we had a Black & Decker seat grinder. I can't remember which valve grinder we had, it might have been a Sioux, but I bought it used from our local NAPA parts store machine shop. It was said to be worn out but once I cleaned it up the only thing I could find wrong was excessive play in the guides that were used in the mechanism to slide the valve back and forth across the grinding stone. My father-in-law was a tool and die maker so I asked him to take the guides to work and remove the clearance plus a little more. When I got them back, I installed with some shim stock to get the clearance just right so the table slid smoothly without any chatter when cutting the valve. That grinder served me well up until I sold the place. I wish I had a setup now as this sort of work is getting hard to get done as the automotive machine shops close up one at a time.

Lou Manglass

Same here -- B&D made a good machine, but in my humble opinion it was not as versatile as the Sioux. I learned on the B&D as a young mechanic, and about 20 ago I saw one on Craig's list for sale. Couldn't pass on it -- and the wife actually encouraged me to get it. It was a complete kit, and included a pneumatic valve seat grinder, a complete set of stones, and a nice slew of valve guide reamers. All housed in the OEM cabinet.

I posted the original link to the machine way back on GG version 1.0 -- that's quite a few years ago. Glad I saved the write-up and reposted on GG 2.0

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