Looking for .375" & .385" top valve guide pilots for cutting valve seats

[Gearhead88]

Mostly I grind valve seats , I'm looking at expanding my tooling to cut seats .

I've started with purchasing some Neway seat cutters , an incomplete set , there are some pilots , but I need to add several more sizes , these are the .375" top .

I have plenty of .385" top , as used on Sioux seat grinding equipment , however , I could use a few metric sizes in these as well , 6mm , 7 mm , in the Sioux style .385" top .

I have some Neway seat cutters , but I'm short on pilots ............. these are the .375" top .

Sizes I'm looking for ....... in .375" top for the Neway kit .

5/16" , - .002" , - .001" , std . +.001" , + .002" , + .003"
11/32" , - .002", - .003" , +.002" , + .003"
3/8" , std , +.001" , +.002" , +.003" , +.004"
6mm + - , 7mm + - ,

 

[Gearhead88]

These are the Neway cutters , yes there are pilots but not in the sizes I would need to use often .

 

[Martin w]

Have you tried cylinder head supply? They are in Oregon so dollar exchange may make them too expensive.
Martin

 

[140mower]

Is there any so special about them that they can't be made at home on the lathe? I'd be tempted to make them as I needed them......

 

[Gearhead88]

Have you tried cylinder head supply? They are in Oregon so dollar exchange may make them too expensive.
Martin

Yes , I've bought valve guide reamers there before . Another company I've purchased engine building tools from is Goodson , then , there's ebay ........ lots of my stuff came from ebay .

I'm not new at this .

I was looking to see if any of our members had any of this stuff laying around and want it gone .

 

[Gearhead88]

Is there any so special about them that they can't be made at home on the lathe? I'd be tempted to make them as I needed them......

I have built pilots before , mostly used for alignment while installing valve seats or fixturing a cylinder head , sort of crude , but do the intended job .
I don't think I'd want to make pilots out of whatever I've got laying around and expect to use them repeatedly , while doing precise valve jobs.

The pilots used for cutting or grinding a valve seat are specialty tooling , they are centerless ground , a slight taper is ground into them .
Many of the commercially available valve guide pilots are made from HSS they have characteristics that make them tough , durable and resistant to bending or breaking .
You can buy carbide valve guide pilots .......... they are 3 to 4 x the price of HSS , they have less deflection but are brittle.
I've got a couple of Asian "knock off's" , there is a big difference between those and good American made pilots .

 

[140mower]

I have built pilots before , mostly used for alignment while installing valve seats or fixturing a cylinder head , sort of crude , but do the intended job .
I don't think I'd want to make pilots out of whatever I've got laying around and expect to use them repeatedly , while doing precise valve jobs.

The pilots used for cutting or grinding a valve seat are specialty tooling , they are centerless ground , a slight taper is ground into them .
Many of the commercially available valve guide pilots are made from HSS they have characteristics that make them tough , durable and resistant to bending or breaking .
You can buy carbide valve guide pilots .......... they are 3 to 4 x the price of HSS , they have less deflection but are brittle.
I've got a couple of Asian "knock off's" , there is a big difference between those and good American made pilots .

That would probably be my final reason to purchase some stones for my toolpost grinder, I kinda forget sometimes that not everyone has a couple of those kicking around. Mostly if it isn't to make tools I would almost never get to play with my toys.... Errr..... Tools.
Even if it doesn't work there's a lesson in why, and I can't say I didn't try. I have found round hss in the past on Amazon for what I thought was a reasonable price, I can't remember what I paid for a 10 pack of 5/16", but I seem to recall it was close enough to the price of a single piece that I might spend the rest of my life trying to find a use for the other 9......
... It makes sense as to why you are looking though....