Ahh! finally found someone making their own poppet valves. I have an idea of making my own balanced poppet valves for a decent size steam engine to handle high pressure of a water tube boiler, seems to be the best type for the job. The first project is converting an IC engine, but if I have problems with water condensate in the oil I may build the whole thing from scratch eventually to get one without an oil sump. The valve body can be a simple casting as part of the cy head, but I've been looking for how to make the valves and no steam engine designer or maker on 3 forums has yet had an answer. Drill rod. I'm looking at grade descriptions and; which grade would work best? hardened after shaping or not? Thanks. RT
PS; doing some more looking it looks like W1 is recommended for most general purposes. good for valves too?