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My son has an F.Schmidt 3301 with nylon vlave guides. I had been working over the various BrooksMays stores for "back-ups" but now they are departing the scene.

My last call to them got me an indication they don't know who would be able to source parts once they finish closing thie doors.

Here is the situation and question....

Today one of the old valve guides broke. I got the threaded shaft out of the valve and went to put the replacement guide on. The threaded portion fit like a glove. But the flat "T" at the top was nearly twice the thickness of the guide track.
Well, ol' dad went out to his power sander and sanded off nearly half the thickness before the valve and guide would fit back into the cylinder.

Is this common? Are guides sold "thick" to be a universal item, or was I sold the wrong guides?

I've still got 3 of the guides left, so We sould be covered on my method of fitting for a while.

That's how it's done!

Brass guide are supplied as what look like very wide-headed screws. You screw 'em in, then shape them to fit.

Be glad that you have nylon!

They are definately way too large, but tell you what. You can send them to me, and I'll put them aside just in case I run across a tuba with guide slots that big...

Sounds like a great job that saved you a lot of bucks. Congrats.

Okay thanks...

Does this mean I should be safe to get most any nylon guides?

Brassdad wrote:Okay thanks...

Does this mean I should be safe to get most any nylon guides?

Depends on the thread, mostly.

I'd really like to see delrin guides rather than nylon, myself.

Delrin guides are available from a supplier, let me know if you need more information.

Although its also plastic, I think typically it's harder, more like metal, though lighter in weight, and wears less. We used to use Delrin for bearings in places like suspension parts when I raced.

Indeed. Tougher. Can you also get the delrin guides teflon impregnated?

iiipopes wrote:Indeed. Tougher. Can you also get the delrin guides teflon impregnated?

Why? The guides shouldn't be touching the channel the whole way down, they are there to keep the valve guided in the right plane. There's no drag associated with these, I've been using them on my personal tubas for a long time now.

Indeed. The key word is "should." How many half-worn, half-abused and improperly lubricated tubas are really out there that do touch and rub? I'm sure quite a lot, and when the guides need renewing, the added bit of teflon would make the delrin go a lot further before next time.