I found this ebay seller "g4hlrc1", a.k.a. David Gioia, of Albrightsville, PA, offering to re-grind and polish damaged bicycle bearing races, any two races (both ends of a BB spindle for example) for $37. A bit much maybe for something that's readily available, but reasonable for something that's extra-rare or precious.
I gave him a try, sent him the two bottom races (1 cup and 1 cone) of my '61 Bianchi Specialissima headset (which many of you know are a unique proprietary design, and spares are very hard to find). I didn't take "before" pictures, but they were very deeply dimpled, one of the worst cases I've ever seen.
Got 'em back today, and they are beyond my expectations, better than new. I installed the headset and it's very smooth, with no tight-and-loose spots that would indicate inaccurate grinding. They came back very well packaged, and I was more than satisfied with his communication throughout (almost to a fault - he gave me more status updates than I really needed!)
>From when he received them from USPS to when he had them back into the
mail to me was 3 days, and he had to make a custom centering cone for
one of my races because it was an odd shape he hadn't encountered
before. (He didn't charge me any more because of that, it was still
that flat-rate $37.)
Here's the "after" picture:
http://bulgier.net/
(Anything in the picture that looks like dimpling is an artifact of my amateur photography skillz and weird lighting - they're really nice'n'smooth)
Here's his ebay auction:
It's ended, but I think he just creates a new one any time someone buys his services by winning an auction.
It might be OK to contact him directly outside of ebay, but I suppose there are advantages to going through eBay, like more protection for you if he flakes out. He seemed very conscientious to me, but I am not in a position to vouch for him, beyond the fact that he did this one job for me without screwing up. Use him at your own risk. If you want to email him directly, it's dmgwhbldg@frontiernet.net
Has anyone else in CR-land used this guy, or anyone else offering similar services?
Mark Bulgier
Seattle, WA USA