'Neway' or other valve cutting kits

[beezermacc]

Good Morning! I'm thinking of investing in a Neway valve seat cutting kit. These kits seem to be the industry standard at the moment and require no other fancy tools. However most kits contain a range of cutting heads which might be surplus to requirements. Does anybody have experience with these kits and could advise on the correct cutting heads so I can purchase the correct ones? Also, does anybody have experience of alternative brands which may be as effective but maybe not quite so expensive. I've noticed a set by Sealey but these are also expensive and there are various Chinese and Indian kits on Ebay which I am inclined to dismiss without even giving them a chance which may be a bit unfair. Thanks in anticipation.

[RDfella]

Can't help you with details, but the price.... A universal kit apparently runs around $2000. Wow. Looks professional, though.
Glad I've got my stone system. Kit's so old can't see the name on it anymore (think it's Black & Decker) but it still works.

[beezermacc]

Can't help you with details, but the price.... A universal kit apparently runs around $2000. Wow. Looks professional, though.
Glad I've got my stone system. Kit's so old can't see the name on it anymore (think it's Black & Decker) but it still works.

Yes, it's the price that's the problem. It is possible to buy only the bits you need rather than a universal kit, hence the enquiry. A repair shop local to me fixed the seats on an iron head for me recently and I was very impressed with the quality. They used Neway cutters and only charged me £40. I thought if I could get the cutters and guides I need it is a service I could provide for our club as many of us have A10's. I watched a Youtube video and the procedure was remarkably quick and easy.
The stone cutting kit you describe is one that I have used before on my old CCM motocross bike. The problem with these is, because you have to use a power source to drive the stone, you can overdo it!

[BSA_54A10]

Get the lawnmower set LG 1000
IT has the 30 & 45 head which is all you need unless you want to cut 3 angle seats in which case you will need the 60 deg cutter as well.
And more important it has the right size pilot guides for BSA's
Depending upon the wear in the valve guides, the expanding pilot might be a better choice.
The next step up is the LG 2010 that contains the 60 deg cutter .

All of the motorcycle kits have a lot of metric pilots that of course do not fit BSA's @ $ 50 ( US ) a pop so unless you are intending to work on rice burners give the motorcycle kits a wide berth.
The mower ( small engine kits do 3/4" to 1 9/16"

The Gismo valve facer is also a good item to have in your tool box. but again not cheap.

Each cutter cuts a range of sizes around 5/8 " so you only need on for most BSA'a but you can cheat and use  longer cutter to cut bigger seats provided you do not use too much  down pressure when cutting.
Also as BSA's have hard seats you need the coarse cutter blades
The deep throat cutter needs to be smaller because you cutting the inside of the guide but great care must be taken that you don't under cut the guide and allow it to become loose.


If you are not going to work on the smaller engines then you can go to the 200 series cutters which use the thicker pilots.
I have a variety of stuff I picked up cheap but in reality only really use the 102 o 234 cutters.
While the sets are a lot cheaper than individual items, having $ 300 worth of metric pilots that you will never use is not good value.
Thus I bought a big set used , kept the case then on sold all of the metric stuff I will never use

[beezermacc]

That's just the sort of information I needed and, as anticipated, demonstrates the value of this forum. Thanks very much.

[ironhead]

Hi Beezarmacc.
I can vouch for the Neway cutters, been using them for years. For A10's  &  trihards etc  I have a 622, 31/46 degree cutter  &  5/16 adjustable pilot. As there can be a thou or two difference in valve guide bores sometimes, the adjustable pilot pays for itself first time round.
As 54_A10 said above, you could also get the 60 degree 205  cutter as well ( I have both)  I had to machine a little bit off the lower face on this holder as some valve guides are fairly close to the underside of the valve seat.

Havn't tried any other hand sets but the way these work I can't see they could be better.

If by any chance an insert gets damaged you can buy replacements. I bought a couple of spare sets years ago but have never needed them.

[beezermacc]

Really useful info. Thanks. I'm phoning a supplier this morning and will use the above info when ordering. Thanks.

[RDfella]

Just an old trick that might prove useful - I note these tools have an odd number of cutters, so shouldn't 'chatter' but, if they do, put a small piece of cloth under the cutter and let it cut through the cloth. Used to do that with countersinks when the problem arose and it works.

[BSA_54A10]

They only chatter when you push down to hard being too greedy

[RDfella]

I've always found chatter more to do with frequency than rate of feed. Hence today's tooling with irregular spacing of teeth. Same with most machining work, change of speed does the trick more often than change of feed. In fact, my experience is that a light feed is more likely to induce chatter than a heavy one. Of course, there are many other variables, such as rigidity of machine and tool. For example, if a boring bar starts misbehaving on a lathe, simply resting something heavy against the tool invariably stops the problem, because it changes the frequency of vibration. The cloth trick was something I learned in the early 60's when working in the tool room of a local engineering firm. Dunno why it works, but it does!

[ironhead]

The cutting edges on the carbide inserts are very sharp & dig in very easily. As this is a "hand powered tool"  with many cutting faces only light pressure is needed.