-We went thru all of this last month but:
-the very first thing I'd get in my head is to get your head garb figured out regardless of how it looks.
-not using a two strap dustmask is huge mistake.
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-I use a dust mask, a larger than normal shop rag to cover my hair, the forward part of the rag droops down to about the top of my eyeglasses and then I use a large 5/8" wide rubber band made from an inner tube to hold that rag against my forehead and down over my ears, then I use a thin clear grinding shield besides that.
-The head rag also acts as side shields to any grit coming in from the sides of your eyes.
-It's tedious to have to answering the phone and getting "undressed and redressed" but it's all part of the deal.
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-for 3 years I ported heads in a small storage shed, because I didn't have a shop at home, and the shed was really a perfect small room.
-I had one shelf on each side with flourescent lights and a swivel stool in the middle.
-This is really good for containing the dust.
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-I have an 800 square foot shop now and I use about 7 feet along one wall just for the porting stuff, but my actual work place is 40" wide.
-I have a fan mounted from the ceiling about the same height as my face so that air is constantly blowing lightly past my face and above the heads I'm grinding on.
-One primary reason for the fan is, when you wear glasses and a shield and a dust mask, your glasses tend to get fogged up, especially if the shop is cool during the winter.
-I use a shop vac to periodically clean the work area.
-I have one swing arm lamp that has been modified so that I can get that light about everywhere except under the heads when the heads are on blocks.
-then I have a 12VDC power source and I made like an electric "candle" that is about 5" tall that will get up inside the ports from the bottom and I use like automotive dash panel bulbs.
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-for grinders I use electrics only for polishing and with a speed controller to slow'm down.
-I did use electrics only for about 10 years but I'd much rather have air grinders for the serious grinding because you have a wide range of speed at your finger tips.
-I have used the $300 air grinders and currently I just acquired 4 cheapy grinders that I am using.
-If you go to air need a good air compressor (5hp) and large tanks and a fan to cool off the compressor motor and the compressor head.
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-For carbides I like a 1/2" (SE5)or 7/16" (SE4) diameter egg shaped with regular flutes (not diamond cut) and I like about 10 to 16 flutes.
-Everything I buy has special order 6" shanks and then I cut the shanks to suit where I want to use it and most of the shanks end up at about 4-3/4" to 5-1/4".
-You need a smaller 3/8" egg for getting along side the valve guide and I use about 10 flutes on those.
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-There's another nice burr that is like reversed taper that is excellent for getting to the crest of the floors on low port heads that Mondello sells for $36 RT4-6-20-RC which is about a .450" head, 6"shank, 20 flutes regular cut.
-This same exact burr is available from Circofile in Long Island NY as part #SN-3.5-CR (20/0) which I think means it's about 7/16" head, the CR might stand for cone reversed, the 20 is tooth count and the zero means no crosscuts or diamond cut pattern.
-The Circofile guy is Tom Carrella, e-mail is
CircoFile@aol.com and I'm not sure if you have to capitalize the C and the F.
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-Tom sells 1/2" eggs, SE5 6" shank burrs with 10/0 flutes for $30.45each up to 5 pieces, $27.34 from 6 to 12 pieces and $25.79 for 13 or more pieces in one order and you can mix any style of burr to get the quantities.
-They don't take credit cards and but when you prepay for an order they pay the shipping and delivery is within 7 to 10 days on custom burrs.
-They also repair, rebraze and resharpen for about $9.20 for an SE4 sized burr.
-They have a catalog and a webpage.
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-Mondello has'm all. and Joe's catalog has about anything you'd want for porting.