Thanks for the replies guys. As it turned out, I have a friend who can regrind valves
It isn't his business so some improvisation was needed. He did them on a centreless grinder that had an optical wheel dressing fitted to accurately form the grinding wheel. I don't understand any of that but it has worked
The photo below is from the workshop manual and shows the grinding angle to be 45 degrees and the minimum thickness after grinding:
This is what the valves looked like before I posted them off - I had de-carboned them as best I could:
I sent off seven but two were slightly bent so will be binned. That showed up on the grinder - I hadn't been aware of it and there were no obvious signs when I stripped the valves out of the head.
These two valves are typical of the 5 valves that came back:
The pitting was quite bad on this one and it wouldn't all grind out without the valve going below minimum thickness. However, it may lap in and give a good seal if the valve seat meets on the valve where there isn't a pit otherwise it's another for the bin
A photo of three of them from above:
Apparently the valves themselves are unusual. They are made by friction welding two different materials together and this can be seen with a magnet as the valve head is a nickel alloy and is non magnetic whereas the shaft is a chrome alloy which is magnetic
I am getting "mate's rates" so can't say how much it would cost to have them done commercially but I am guessing that it will be cheaper than new. The difference will determine whether it is worth the extra hassle!
I am in the process of refurbishing a couple of cylinder heads to go in Steve's shop and one had some slight pitting on the valve seats plus I had a few valves that also had slight pitting.
Bearing in mind that Steve sends parts all over the world it is especially important that any used parts are as near 100% as possible so I took them to a local engineer who has re-cut the valve seats and reground the valves.
£48 for 10 valves and re-cutting the 4 seats PLUS he lapped in the valves for me. Not bad I reckon.
I was impressed to see that he had done the lapping "by the book" as there were still traces of mechanic's blue on the valves and head
This is what the manual says to do:
This is what the head and valves came back like - I am well pleased
Just adjusted the valve clearances and had to go down on each shim by about 20 to allow for the fact that the seat re-cutting and valve grinding allow the valves to sit up farther in the head. Worth remembering if you get this sort of work done yourself