tig welding holes
- Thread starter sealevel
- Start date
JB weld, another of the handyman secret weapons...! Seriously I have a pre 64 M-70 that had it's front sight screw holes and rear sight dovetail slot welded in, polished and reblued. An excellent job was done and even the dovetail slot you have to look very close to see where it was done. I did not have this work done, the previous owner did.
Yes. Main consideration is whether the base metal will handle it. If sintered who knows but I wouldn't touch it, if case hardened will need spot anneal due to carbon pits. Clean very well then weld. BUT make sure the welder knows what he's doing and isn't a hamfist. Also make sure weld can't get inside. I'd plug with screws then weld.
If the welder usually makes gates from pipe, horse trailers, or grain trucks...just don't. It's like going to the butcher for eye surgery.
If the welder usually makes gates from pipe, horse trailers, or grain trucks...just don't. It's like going to the butcher for eye surgery.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Inserting a screw and filing it off will always show - the end of the last thread becomes razor edge thin. Better is to bevel/countersink the threaded hole edge, like with a centre drill, then thread in a taper headed screw as a stud and peen/rivet it, then file, dress, polish. Very hard to get invisible if you are going to blue it, and same issue if you are going to try to cover with weld - the metal in the screw/filler rod will not likely take colour the same as the gun metal, even if you can get it peened/filled perfectly.
An experienced tig welder would not have a problem with that. Ask around your area a aircraft repair shop will have a qualified tig welder on their payroll. I have been tig welding for 35 years.A lot of the sucess is also the quality of the machine as well as the operator. Re bluing will also help with getting a more cosmetic repair.10/32 screws are very common in aircraft repair. The plating on the bolt will have to be removed as tig welding is really dependent on a squeaky clean preparation. The resident welder will know that.Hope this helps you in making a decision.
R
R
Haha, my main question was why, as doing it properly won't be cheap and has a lot of risk. You could end up with it much worse off, unless of course someone else has had good luck with a particular welder/ gunsmith.
This
F**k JB Weld! Crappy five minute epoxy with a bunch of metal powder added in.
It's firstly, a .22 Pump action rifle, and not liable to blow up at random. Second, anything done to it by heating and cooling, is going to far exceed the strength of a 3/16ths of an inch hole, being there.
Get it TIG welded. Or, if you can find a dab hand at it, Oxy-Acet. Mild steel filler wire, coat hangers will likely do inna pinch, but anyways....
There is a possibility that there will always be a little bit visible in the area of the weld, due to the bluing not matching exactly.
Another viable method, is to fit in some threaded plugs, which are trimmed just a tiny bit above the surface of the action. Then peen the ends over, using lots of 'small' strikes of a hammer, and likely, a punch, so as to avoid denting the action.
The idea is that many small light strikes causes the near end of the plug to expand to fill the top of the hole, without leaving any visible gaps.
The plugs are then worked off flush, and the area touched up.
If well done, these can provide an almost invisible repair too. But they can not be drilled and tapped at a later date, if that was possibly an option, while a weld repair can.
Not necessary to seek out an "aircraft" welder. That's just an over priced job waiting to happen. Any good welding shop would be able to handle the job. Just go and have a conversation. I've been welding for 25plus years, the best thing for testing your bluing would be to get a test piece done and blue that,then compare colors where the weld is. Hell I may just try an experiment myself to see, I can't see the base metal and a normal mild steel rod producing that much of a bluing shade difference, but I've been wrong before.
Corey
Not necessary to seek out an "aircraft" welder. That's just an over priced job waiting to happen. Any good welding shop would be able to handle the job. Just go and have a conversation. I've been welding for 25plus years, the best thing for testing your bluing would be to get a test piece done and blue that,then compare colors where the weld is. Hell I may just try an experiment myself to see, I can't see the base metal and a normal mild steel rod producing that much of a bluing shade difference, but I've been wrong before.
Corey
most good welding shops don't have an expert tig welder..... at least not here in BC. Fine detail Tig "artists" are hard to come by and the ones that have done it for 30 years usually can't see good enough anymore for the really fine work LOL
The two tig welders I know are so busy all over the lowermainland doing sanitary and process piping and other stainless work, I don't even ask them to do small jobs for me anymore.
From working as a fabricator/fitter side by side on custom projects with these guys....match the plug and rod to the receiver metal, get the heat setting right , get it pristinely clean and it should work out well. If the metals aren't matched you will get blotchy results with rebluing or discolorations.
Might not even need a filler rod if the plug is left a tiny bit proud and the tig welder just forms it into a puddle and gets it to flow out to cap the plug to the receiver metal...... might actually be the best way to go about it.
Here is an example of a plugged and TIG welded hole. This was done with a cold blue touch-up. I don't think you are ever going to make it totally disappear, but your best bet is to go with the plugging method as guntech suggested above.
