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Arm and a leg? Have you talked to your local shop of are you just assuming this is a costly process? Any repair shop with a small lathe, proper taps and dies and good, basic brass skills can do this. If you want a new set of brass guides, they are a simple fabrication that can be made to order in an hours time. No big deal. Note: Very old and damaged guides can take a little longer to remove and that can add some to the cost but not a whole lot provided the technician knows what they are doing. Nylon guide conversion requires minor mods and special order guides that will also add to the cost but still not a huge amount (relatively speaking).
Best regards,

Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
Seattle, WA
206.241.5767
www.oberloh.com

There are many ways a tech can fix a valve guide. Most of the time, nowadays, it's easy because the valve guide is some overpriced piece of plastic (like Yamaha) that is easy to remove and replace with another. Many older horns have a screw in metal valve guide which is not too hard to replace but may require some precise shaping to match the groove in which it will pass. Replacing a valve is generally uncomplicated.

but there are scenarios...
My student who's playing on a Besson 4 valve non comp just had a valve guide wear right through... about 2 weeks after besson went into receivership (I can't remember the Brit term for it).
We never carried valve guides at my shop for those because, well, newer Besson horns represent somewhere around 0.5% of the horns we get in. The local store in Brandon did not have it either so I proposed a simple solution which will work for the time being, place a small screw into the delrin plastic valve guide where the delrin material nub is supposed to be.
It's not a permanent solution but by student will be performing in the local festival on Tuesday without worry of his valve spinning around.



so back on topic, what kind of valve guides, because the screw in ones that used to be used on almost everything are available in Nylon.

Nylon guides are MW and available from Alied Supply. Part No. MW123 They are metric thred and fit most any screw-in guide coming out of Europe.

Best regards,

Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
Seattle, WA
206.241.5767
www.oberloh.com

Gosh harold,

You make me sound like the Old Dope Peddler

Dan'l

With a little patience and a vernier caliper it's not too hard to file down the head of a screw and make it into a valve guide. I have made several out of stainless steel. (I didn't know where to buy them.)

DP wrote:it takes a good measure of attention to detail to get from this:


to this:



http://www.oberloh.com/gallery/tubavalvereferbish.htm

I have been following this webpage from Dan for awhile too... because my valve block is next in line... Dan says mine won't take quite as much work as Dale's, so hopefully it will be done very soon. Dan does such great work!