valve grinding machines

The machine that is made by Albertsons and Co is a Sioux. I owned an import car repair shop for 20 years, and my Albertsons
and Co (Sioux) valve grinder, ground HUNDREDS if not thousands of valves for just about every exotic car you can imagine. Great machine- I still have it and occasionally
get sucked into doing valves. Really important to get one where the CHUCK grips the valves accurately, or you have nothing. Although OLD I can vouch for the Albertsons as being
an incredibly fine machine. I think 250 bucks is a steal! The entire machine is repairable or rebuildable, but from your questions, maybe NOT by you.

About 8 months ago, I bought a BRAND NEW Sioux hardseat grinder off of ebay. Maybe it was five hundred bucks, I don't remember, but every piece was still boxed and wrapped, came with an assortment of stones, the dresser and many many pilots, including adjustable ones. I thought THAT was a steal too. So don't expect to get a valve grinder and a hard seat grinder for nothing. I already had a Sioux with TONS of tooling, but a new one just kind of tickled me. It was from the late forties or early fifties. STILL very useful for any engine today.

Valve grinding equipment CAN'T be just a glorified bench grinder. The SIOUX and the Black and Decker were commercial quality machines and when they're new, or in good condition are really
a machine tool. Having the attachment for the Sioux that holds the dresser is almost essential unless you want to waste a lot of time. The right side of the grinder, that's designed to do valve stems, is an incredibly handy grinder for grinding small parts to length. I ground 100's of Jaguar and Maserati valve shims on my Sioux holding them in adapters. A quick and dirty way to square up the ends of any smaller
piece of steel. I think a coolant tank is essential.

Doing heads entails MORE than just buying a couple of used machines. You'll be amazed at just how much tooling you'll need to do all the different types of heads and valves out there. I'm sure I have at least
sixty pilots or more for the guides, and still don't have every one I need for every job. Then you'll discover you've got worn guides bad seats and WHERE does it end? You end up buying a machine tool company, and give up on cars.