Dimensions : slide out cooking tray slides

[Puff]

I have gotten to the point where I have made the cookers' slide out meat trays. I was busy reading about the fabrication of the slides and I took some 1 1/4" angle with one looking up and the other looking down and welded them together as mentioned in another post on the site. I'm using 1" box tubing for the racks and expanded 3/4 metal for the trays. I am wondering if I did not leave enough gap for expansion when heated. I have about 3/32 of a "gap" over the 1 " square tube and expanded metal. I was so excited to see this come together that I never thought about how much of a space I may need for the ability to slide out the trays when the heat is on for 6-8 hours. Currently, it's a one handed operation and moves with no bind and little slop but that may change, correct?

What might be the general consensus ?

[TuscaloosaQ]

You should be fine I generally leave a tad more gap but your cook chamber does not get all that hot. Where you will run into problems is on a firebox

[Puff]

Well I appreciate the information , gives me a bit more confidence. The lower rack will have more clearance when it get to it.

UPDATE: decided to cut out the slides that were probably going to be too tight. Re-did them with a bit more clearance and they slide well..if they completely expanded 1/8 all around, it will still be good, I have a 1/4 " side to Side gap and about 5/32 top gap with the expanded metal on it.

I only know that with my luck, the tray would have slid out and after 3 hours of cook time, it would never have gone back in......