strengtening metal parts?

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drslav

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Friend of mice gave me an old single shot 410 to work on. Specifically the lever that opens the action is the problem. It swings too far left when action is closed. I looked it over and turns out the wire bar/lever inside has lost its rigidity and bends too easy. Is there a way to strengthen it? I was thinking of heating it with a torch to get red and then throwing it into cold oil or water. Any ideas? Or do i simply need new part?
 
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If replacement parts are readily available for the shotgun, it will most likely be far more cost effective just to replace the part(s). I'd be looking for the root cause of the trouble though, is there a chance the shotgun has been in a fire or some other exposure to high heat? I'd be concerned about the integrity of the rest of the metal for safety reasons.
 
I think you may have two problems. The first is that since the lever is connected to the bolt or piece that goes in and out from the receiver and engages the notch in the lump (on the barrel) it can only go too far to the left if the notch or the bolt are worn and in effect the bolt is going too far into the notch. The second is if the spring you describe is too soft for some reason, you can try retempering it or make a new one out of drill rod. If you are retempering, you need to heat it red hot and quench in water then reheat it in molten lead to about 720 F. Molten lead is to give a uniform heating. Simply heating red hot and quenching will make the spring extremely brittle if it is heat treatable and do nothing much if it is mild steel. In the absence of a high temp thermometer, you can float a thin polished piece of iron or steel (think no more than 1/8" thick) on top of the lead and when the thin steel goes from dark blue to grey, pull the plug on the lead pot and keep the hardened spring in the lead until just before it freezes. I make my springs out of drill rod and hammer them to approximate thickness while red hot then anneal in wood ash and grind and file them from there. Also if the spring is the common small V spring, they are usually miserable things to fit and install in spite of how simple they look

cheers mooncoon
 
Well the parts are hard to find.For one I can't really tell what it is. Looks like Iver Johnson maybe. I will try if this wont work. And it is not the spring I'm working on. It's the wire like bar that swings the lock. These parts are not worn. It seems that just lost its strength. It bends too easy. No the gun has not been in the fire. It's just old. Sending it to a place is not a viable option... Thank you all for your input.
 
Steel parts do not lose temper over time. Mind you, IJ, if it is one of theirs, didn't use high quality steel. It sounds like you're about to spend a lot of time and effort on a very low end shotgun that really isn't worth fixing. I'd tell your mice to give it am honoured place on a wall.
 
cosmic said:
Well - Heat treating the part wont change the modulus of elasticity....
Click to expand...

that is not true if the part is over .4% carbon. A spring by definition returns to its original shape when the pressure is released. If you heat treat the part correctly, it should return to being a functional spring. If you do not heat treat it properly it will either break or be too soft. If it is mild steel it more or less should not change but it should also not be a spring in the first place

cheers mooncoon
 
Mooncoon - If the material is yielding (ie deforming permanently) then heat treating can increase the yield strength. This is the case in the spring example you cite above. If the material is not yielding, then the stiffness will be unaffected by heat treatment. The modulus of elasticity describes the relationship between stress and strain for elastic materials - for steel it is 30 ksi, regardless of temper.
 
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