Willson 2900S Valve Guides

[ASRtalks]

I own a Willson 2900. The valve guides are synthetic plastic which cracks and wears down. For me, these guides last about 3-5 months. I am pretty fed up with plastic valve guides. Does anyone know where I can have brass valve guides made or where to purchase brass valve guides?

[ASRtalks]

I have had the horn for about 5 years and I have always struggled with the guides. My final frustration happened yesterday when my first valve guide snapped in the casing during an audition. I am pretty fed up with the guides. I am pretty sure the wear to the guides is from how I play the horn. That being said, I do not hold my horn in a strange way. I do not press the valves down in a destructive way. But for some reason, the guides still fall apart.

[Mike-ICR]

I've noticed when working with nylon parts of any kind that if the nylon is scratched, gouged or damaged (usually during installation [not blaming anybody]) then that usually causes even more damage down the road. If your guides start out damaged then that might be why they're breaking.

I don't know the Willson guides but I know Allied sells a metal oval guide (replaces the nylon oval guide) for Yamaha horns. If you need the screw in type then you can probably just find replacements from another horn (not a Willson). A tech near you probably has a pile of pistons they could take the guides from. They might have to re-tap the hole and file them down to fit properly but it will be a lot easier than making them from scratch.

[Lee Stofer]

I have had no problem whatsoever with Willson valve guides. That said, it is possible to fit the instrument with metal valve guides. However, that would require a technician making them from scratch. The metal valve guides in America are for the screw size 3-48, which is smaller than the metric 3mm X .5 that the German and Swiss manufacturers use. It would be a big job, but it is possible to make larger brass valve guides from metal stock, that would have 3mm X .5 threads.

Wishing you all the best,

[jon112780]

You should give Matt Walters (@Dillons) a call. Make sure you tell him the serial number on your horn, so he can get you the right valve (nylon) guides. Apparently, there were the 'old' kind and the 'new' kind, and the serial number will tell him which ones they are. I did this for my Willson a couple months ago, and the guides went in just fine. No wear problems either.

Hope this helps.

[Art Hovey]

I found that the nylon valve guides on some of my tuba pistons were wearing out rapidly, and concluded that the edges of the slot that they slide in were rough.
I solved the problem by making replacement guides out of stainless steel screws, which can be found with the right thread size at most good hardware stores. I put the screw between two popsickle sticks in a vise, and file down the head until it is one millimeter thick and 3 mm wide, checking it frequently with a vernier caliper.
A dremel tool speeds up the process, but I have made a few using just a file. If the steel guide fits just right it is just as quiet as the nylon, and over time it smooths off the groove edges. Brass is easier to work with, but wears out more quickly. (Still better than plastic, however!)
It's not rocket surgery; it just takes patience and elbow grease. If you mess up one screw, you just start over on another; they are inexpensive.
The stainless guides last for years. Some folks worry that they may enlarge the keyway (groove) because they are harder metal, but I have not seen that happen after seven years of hard playing. (The groove wear is spread over roughly ten times as much area as the guide wear.)