No doubt, there is a solid number of you who don’t take your parts to the machine shop because you ARE the machine shop. And for you, we bring you the latest installment of Goodson’s Tech Lab Tuesday, where they discuss some of the tools to make your life easier. This installment talks about cutting valve seats.
Cutting valve seats is no simple matter. Besides being a critical component of your cylinder head — and the performance of your engine as a whole — the fact that there are a number of different materials valve seats are made from, can pose a machining challenge. To combat this, Goodson has released its new lineup of Saber Tooth cutting inserts.
Using advanced insert tooling theory, the Goodson team has developed the new line of blades which are made of a proprietary alloy, which will perform in both hardened and multi-alloy valve seats, meaning one blade to do it all, and last longer in the process. But, as you know, valve seats themselves are not one-size-fits-all (especially if you are looking for optimized flow from your cylinder head).
The new Saber Tooth inserts from Goodson will feature all the same designs currently in the catalog, but with the advanced alloy which performs well in both alloy and hardened valve seats. Plus, if you have a custom valve seat shape you’d like, they can custom design that for you as well.
Because of that, Goodson will be releasing the new Saber Tooth inserts in all of the same profiles currently in its catalog, ranging from single-angle all the way up to five-angle valve seat profiles, as well as blending profiles. “All of our cutter blades will be converted to the new Saber Tooth cutter. We’ve decided to keep the same item numbers to make ordering easier for everyone,” says Dave Monyhan, Goodson’s National Sales Manager.
And if you’re not an “off-the-shelf” kind of machinist, there is a custom profile program where you can submit specs for your desired valve seat and throat design, both in text and graphical form, and they will custom build you a Saber Tooth cutting insert to your specifications. If you’re reading this and would like more information on what’s involved in cutting valve seats, watch the Tech Lab Tuesday video below for a more in-depth discussion.
