New parts for scratch builders

[gascarnut]

I hope this is the right place to post this news. If not, I'm sure Harry will move it to a more suitable location.

I have had some custom brass guide tubes made and these will be available through Slot Car Corner, or direct from me within a week.

Most of you I'm sure have had issues with guide posts not fitting properly in regular K&S tubing sizes, and I know some folk have had issues adapting the regular 1/32 scale small guide posts into spring steel chassis that are designed to accept a guide with a 3/16" post. Well, your troubles are over.

Guide tube 04.jpg

These guide tubes are available in two designs, one with a flat surface at the bottom and one with a 3/16" spigot below the shoulder. The spigot allows for mounting in a steel chassis guide tongue or in any brass piece with a 3/16" hole:

Guide tube 03.jpg

The flat version can be installed from the underside of a tongue, or just soldered onto a flat brass strip:

Guide tube 02.jpg

The inner hole for the guide post is available in three sizes:

* 1/8" - to fit TSRF guides and many vintage guides that had 1/8" shafts
* 3.55 mm - to fit NSR and Slot.it guides, as well as the ScaleAuto SC16007 and 1608 replacement guides and any others with a similar size
* 3.7 mm - to fit the Scale Auto SC1603 and 1604 guides, the Sloting Plus guide, and any others with a similar size

The tube length is generous enough to accommodate all guide post lengths, and can obviously be cut to size as required,

MSRP is $2.95 each, and as I said, these will be in stock at Slot Car Corner early next week.

The prototypes for these have been tested by some notable builders, and I hope they will chime in here with their experiences.

[RBPhillips]

I was staring at this problem yet again last night - thanks, I'll be buying some next week!

[nhdungeonracer]

Great idea Dennis!!! :auto-checkeredflag: :auto-checkeredflag: :auto-checkeredflag:

[HomeRacingWorld]

OH now we are cooking with Crisco!

Great idea and a very big THANK YOU!

[SlotCarCorner]

First, kudos to Dennis for bringing these well thought out parts to market for the scratch building community. We'll follow-up with a post once we actually have them in hand.

:text-thankyouyellow:

[chrisguyw]

[SlotCarCorner]

[Broman62]

Another great innovative design for our slot car world... :text-bravo:

[TuscoTodd]

Excellent! :D

[munter]

If I bought the 1/8" id piece is there enough meat to open it up for larger diameter guide posts?

[SlotCarCorner]

[gascarnut]

[gascarnut]

While I'm here, just a few more little tips:

1. The internal diameter has been drilled accurately and is obviously the same diameter all the way along the length of the tube. The guide posts, however, usually have a slight draft angle on them so they are bigger at the bottom of the shaft than at the top. You can adjust this misfit in two ways. One is to use some fine sandpaper to sand down the guide shaft; the easier way is to open up the bottom of the guide tube hole a little. This can be done with a taper reamer, or with a sharp X-Acto blade, or even a small round file. A taper reamer is a useful thing to have anyway, here's one version:

https://www.micromark.com/T-Handle-Reamer

In particular when using the Slot.it wood guides, this is needed. I would suggest starting with the 3.7mm tubes for that guide.

2. Since all the tubes look the same apart from the internal diameter, they are marked to identify them. The 3.7mm tubes have two small drill dimples at the top of the outer diameter, the 3.55mm versions have one dimple, and the 1/8" versions are plain with no dimples.

3. Not all guides have a tall enough post to reach the top of the tube, but it is easy enough to trim the post down with a file or a cutting disk in a Dremel tool, or even a small metal saw. I usually leave them as long as the body clearance will allow, to give as much support as possible.

[munter]

[Audi1]

Nice products! Will definitely be giving them a try. Noted that the 3.7 version is now out of stock at SCC.

Allan