Drill + tap failure. Backwoods Outdoors Corbeil Ontario.

FarmerDanz said:
Ideally you fill the hole with weld from the bottom up, which you can do with a tig and some small filler. Then start from square one.

Hard isn't the word. Difficult jobs just take more time, steps, and money.
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I would definitely not fill a hole that size in a barrel with welding. I think the better method with less chance to warp anything is going to be thread it larger and peen a plug in it. File it flat after. Could be hard soldered in but again warping issues.

Then start over.
 
tiriaq said:
Just curious about the TIG welding...
I'm assuming that you have your own TIG welder.
Do you fill the hole completely with weld? Put in a plug and weld over that for a cosmetic repair? When you drill and tap new holes, do you relocate the base so that the new holes are into previously untouched barrel?
I find it interesting that you have done this sort of thing lots and describe it as not being a hard job.
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yes have my own tig welder and yes fill the hole, with a good quality welder anf fine tungsten rod you can do real fine work, its not like a mig, it would be a slow process but after done not much heat transfers and no issues re tapping the hole or you could relocate it if prefered
 
oneadam12 said:
I would definitely not fill a hole that size in a barrel with welding. I think the better method with less chance to warp anything is going to be thread it larger and peen a plug in it. File it flat after. Could be hard soldered in but again warping issues.

Then start over.
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in the time it would take to re drill, make a plug, peen it over I would have the hole filled, tig is not mig or stick, a fine tungsten and pulse would hit the bottom of hole and with a steel filler rod, in this case I would use 0.02" mig wire and slowly fill it up, cleaning would be minimal,
 
Not trying to be ignorant at all here, but how would you go about dealing with drilling and tapping through the inevitable hard spots left from welding on high carbon steel? This isn't 1018.
In my experience, the hard spots will walk your bit away from where you want it to go, even in a milling machine. Then they will break your tap, and run off with your oldest daughter(I just added that last bit in. Hasn't happened yet, but you never know. ).
 
The spot should be fully annealed if you dont quench the barrel. If left to cool on its own it would be soft to drill and tap. Well as soft as the barrel was originally. If there is any voided In the weld may effect the taps chips but won't cause issue. The tap would be a bottoming tap that also pulls the chips up and out of the whole as it goes in

But if you were really worried about it you could move the hole patter 1/8" or 3mm either direction..so the mount still covers the old holes but you aren't drilling back through the weld.
 
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I find it impressive that a No. 6 hole can be filled with weld from the bottom up. No doubt the filler rod would be the same alloy as the barrel.

Studied the photos again. Really looks as if a tap could be run all the way to the bottom.
Welding repairs followed by drilling and tapping would be extreme overkill.
 
yeah I'm still on the idea of measuring the hole first and see what you have, the proper tap may work if its a bottoming tap, or at the very least going one size over would be the simplest


also i have drilled and taped 1000's of holes in my day, and there were a few that had to be fixed by welding up, mig or tig depending on the hole size. all kinds of types of steel and aluminum, i was also the go to guy for getting broken taps out with out messing up the thread or fixing damaged threaded holes.

simplest way to fill a hole to the bottom is to counter sink (90 or 82*) it to open the top to gain easy access to the bottom then when you redrill it your drilling through mostly filler
 
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Well, I'd just have to go to my tool chest. I've kept some of these around for years.
I've always had my Brownells orders sent USPS. Have costs escalated dramatically?
 
This is absolutely horrendous, Iam sad and disgusted in what I've have just seen and read, there is alot of valuable information posted here hiw to remedy the situation and I hope it works out and the job gets done correctly

What gunsmith did the work?

It would be nice to know so none of us have to go thru this same situation
 
Ipscshooters said:
This is absolutely horrendous, Iam sad and disgusted in what I've have just seen and read, there is alot of valuable information posted here hiw to remedy the situation and I hope it works out and the job gets done correctly

What gunsmith did the work?

It would be nice to know so none of us have to go thru this same situation
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X2 please post this to allow others to avoid this fate.
 
tiriaq said:
Brownells oversized 6-48 substitute is about the easiest way of dealing with a pooched hole.
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I've started making most of my orders through Tracey Tools in the UK.

Sometimes it's cheaper than Brownelle's and shipping is faster/cheaper.

They have a huge assortment of tooling, screws etc
 
Fixing the screw holes is going to be the easy part of this repair, the hard part is going to be matching the straight cut radi of the barrel channel of the rail scope mount to the tapered cut of the barrel.
The OP will want a solid mount this time I'm thinking, otherwise any fix is redundant. The two ways I would recommend are mounting in a Bondo or some other liquid steel epoxy base or building a tapered rib to fit between the barrel & rail. Both ways will have some challenges to do well but can be done.
The first hurdle to overcome with a Bondo job is that you will need much longer screws at the end where the barrel is smallest and long 6-48 or 8-40 are not going to be easy to find so I would consider retapping holes to a common machine screw thread for simplicity sake . Use very liberal amounts of release agent on screws & in screw holes when sucking the rail down to a "level with the c/l of the rifle bore" in the soft epoxy. Also use release agent on the underside of the rail if you ever want to remove it.
The second suggestion is to manufacture a rib that tapers from one end to the other to counter the barrel taper. this is the method I would use but I have mill machine to use. Any machinist or hobby machinist could do this job easily. First I would source a piece of 1/2" square key-way stock of sufficient length and cut a shalow groove from one end to the other so when layed on the barrel , it is suported on both sides, not in the middle at the screw holes (much stronger stability this way). Now drill some holes in it to match the spacings of the holes in your barrel. Two ways to cut the proper taper you need to match barrel taper, one is to now mount the rib to the gun, level the gunwith bore line on the mill table and very carefully cut the top of the rib so it is perfectly flat to the bore line ( carefully as in very light cuts so you dont pull the screw threads out of your gun again). the second way is to mathematically figure out the thickness you need at each end by measuring barrel contour. After you make the last cut to form the rib, counter sink the screw holes so screws are flush.
Your not done yet tho, now you need to use the same mill to sut a very shallow groove in the bottom of your rail as wide as the rib is so it sits solidly on the rib .

now your nightmare is fixed.
 
I just left the business. Spoke to the son, not the guy who did the work. Son said his father suggested that a factory hornady load failed and the bullet was lodged in barrel, and I shot the stuck bullet. “Only way that type of damage happens”. I was sighting in my deer ammo and both bullets were on target. Saw my email, with pictures but did not respond. Will not address the lack of threads in holes. Says we don’t use epoxy. Stated I refuse to “just drop the rifle off” until concerns are addressed.

Not inspiring my confidence at this point. Hoping some sort of misunderstanding between father and son. Hopefully the business takes responsibility and steps up to make situation right.

Edit to add. I left my number, again.
 
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