I've always done my own, using an engine and timing light and graduated pulley/accurate tacho. It's doable, but obviously a little more time consuming (and noisy) to keep testing a bit at a time.

I'm actually thinking about buying one of the 'proper' distributor testers (you can pick up re-furbished ones here and there but they aren't cheap). I was thinking of maybe trying to make back some of the money it would cost to buy the machine by doing a few dizzies on the side.

So I'm basically asking if anyone here would be interested in having theirs done, and if so what a fair price for that would be (just trying to work out if it will be worth pursuing, or if I'll just stick with doing my own 'the long way'...

not interested in megajolt jnr? DDGonzales has it on one of his A series and might be better for you in the long run to have programmable ignition with your carb/turbo/supercharger setups of choice and as you know different settings for different fuel/boost is possible.

http://www.autosportlabs.net/Megajolt_Lite_Jr.

Possibly for L series if you can do them. Approx price maybe john.
Its an art but I dont doubt your knowkedge.

I made a wooden bracket to hold the distributor and ran the distributor with a drill that would run up to 3600 rpm attached a degree wheel to the distributor shaft and the timing light is also held by the bracket. A hand operated vacuum pump takes care of vacuum advance curves.

Let me be clearer about this David, I'm under no illusions that programmable injection and ignition is superior. If I wanted to I'd go that way, I'd do it, and would have no dramas with the tech side of it. I like older stuff, but am still a realist about the relative merits and pros and cons. In all probability I'll end up buying one of the machines anyway, just because they are available in refurbished 'as new' condition, and they are a part of history, albeit a vanishing one. I don't think for a minute that I'll be retiring on money made from recurving people's dizzies. Not a chance of that. I was curious however to see if anyone was in fact interested in it and how much they thought such a service (at mates rates, because I'm not looking to make a fortune, hell I'm not really even looking to break even) would be worth. some time ago a family friend had a valiant slant 6 and before I 'could get to him' he ended up paying over $500 for some dizzy specialist (I won't name them, though they've never been mentioned on this forum as far as I know) to recondition their dizzy. $500 for a points dizzy. Had I gotten to him in time, the later model hemi 6 dizzy is adaptable, and is electronic in std form (still using a points spec coil, so it works like points on their best ever day, day in day out) and for about $40 more it can be adapted to the bosch hei module fitted to blue motor commodores and the last of the pushrod ford 6s - so then it runs a much higher output coil too. SO all in all he could have had something with probably 3-4 times the result in terms of starting and cold running etc, for 1/5th the price.

I've recurved plenty of dizzys, it's just time consuming to pull them in and out of the motor, strip em, alter them then re-test with a timing light and someone else writing down the readings rpm vs advance. being able to do it on the test rig will cut the time down massively, and is also fun (it also means I don't need to have a running engine of the type required for each specific dizzy.

In very general terms, everyone who I have helped put hei on an early holden and/or valiant has all said the same exact thing - had they known the improvement it would make, it would have been the first thing they did when they got the car.

Dennis I like the drill idea, and I may even try that - I can certainly see how easily it could be hooked up to any dizzy.

My buddy wants to recurve his dizzie blonde as shes out of shape
after halve a dozen kids and the same amount of beers daily.

Nah really like a traditional artisan? good stuff dizzies are celebrating this thread!!! I like it

running the distributor with a drill on a stand reduces making a distributor curve to a one-man-job you set the desired speed on the drill and record the angle on the degree wheel. the timing light is on all of the time I used the car's tachometer but a tach could easily be part of your test stand. It is necessary in any case.

components:
distributor
tachometer
vacuum guage
vacuum pump
timing light
degree wheel
drill
and a stand to hold it all

If you're handy at a little machining you could look at combining the bluebird elec dizzy with the a series's points shafts and then recurving

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone that hasn't had theirs done.
Improves the whole motor response/power across the rev range.

Good luck with it !! Fantastic to see people who still know how the 'old stuff' works and actually want to keep on using it and improving it. Instead of chucking it for newer out of period gear

I agree Boof, I prefer old skool for my old un-tech savvy scone yet since the recent Maz head on A series revelation I find it hard to think of anything else atm. I cant get a 90 degree angled AY like dizzie drive for reasonable $$$ which I would prefer. I have to go newer tech to avoid issues with the crossflow head hitting the dizzie.

For my other normal pushrod A series Ill be happy to get Jmac to re-curve them and support a local effort.

go for it Jmac, if you can keep an old skool art going... I'd be up for one....
bit like getting sideys tuned in the west.... once Penley retired.... ho hum...