Rear express sight instal

DGY

DGY

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Good day all I have a rear express sight to re-instal on a 458 win mag and I was wondering if engine had success using epoxy/adhesive and if so what kind? A friend of mine suggested loctite 380 black max adhesive.
Any suggestions?
Soldering might be best?!?!
This is what it looks like
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id just use a lead free plumbing solder with a good flux

remove the sight for the base, tin both the barrel and base so you can place it where you want it them heat it until you see it melt into place then let it cool. you can use a hose clamp to hold it in location or if you are still enough you can just rest it there before starting to heat it. if you don't use a clamp you will be able to move it a little while the solder is still melted if needed

there may be some epoxies that would work but if i was using epoxy i would want to install the base with 2 screws, the remove the base add epoxy then screw it back down
 
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Was the joint that failed so badly a factory job? Ouch!
The mess would have to be cleaned off sight and barrel, down to bare clean steel. Fluxed and tinned, clamped and sweated, as Evanguy stated.
The original bluing can be protected. If it isn't you may be looking at a refinish.
There probably are adhesives that would work. No experience with modern golly-gee-whizz adhesives. I have heard of Loctite BlackMax but have no experience with it. Tried to buy some from the US, not mailable.
 
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The flux for lead free plumbing solder will cause rust within 24 hours. It needs to be cleaned off as soon as the solder job is done. Tinning and sweating shouldn't add enough heat to damage the blueing and the solder just rolls off the blueing. Main thing is to get the flux off when it cooled and maybe even oil it before putting it away for the night

Personally I would heat the rear base 75% of the heat and 25% on the barrel, the thin layer of solder will melt fast with a propane torch (plumbing type)

It's best to assume the flux will effect the blueing. Use it sparingly, clean lightly fluxed tinned base and barrel. The tinning of both sides will allow it to work without flux and if everything is clean enough you should just need as much as if it was lip balm. Very minimal if the tinning was done correctly
 
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Evanguy said:
The flux for lead free plumbing solder will cause rust within 24 hours. It needs to be cleaned off as soon as the solder job is done. Tinning and sweating shouldn't add enough heat to damage the blueing and the solder just rolls off the blueing. Main thing is to get the flux off when it cooled and maybe even oil it before putting it away for the night

Personally I would heat the rear base 75% of the heat and 25% on the barrel, the thin layer of solder will melt fast with a propane torch (plumbing type)

It's best to assume the flux will effect the blueing. Use it sparingly, clean lightly fluxed tinned base and barrel. The tinning of both sides will allow it to work without flux and if everything is clean enough you should just need as much as if it was lip balm. Very minimal if the tinning was done correctly
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Spot on, I’ve soldered rifle sights on a 14” 870 barrel a few years back and it was pretty straight forward once I had the sight bases and barrel prepped and tinned. I used aluminum mig wire to hold the tinned sights on the barrel while I heated them up and solder flowed.
 
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What do you guys suggest for flux and soldering type? Clean all surfaces with acetone?
 
Here’s some process pics, after I finished sanding the sights to fit the barrel radius I marked and taped off the area on the barrel they were to go and sanded off the parkerizing/matte bluing. The flux is acidic and cleans the area but a wipe with 99% isopropyl or lacquer thinner can’t hurt, I used whatever Oatey plumbing solder and paste flux I had in the shop. It’s been 5 years and they are on there solid.

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https://datasheets.tdx.henkel.com/LOCTITE-380-en_GL.pdf

Here's the TDS for Loctite 380.
Amazing stuff, but not a good fit for this job. Look at the heat/strength chart. Strength drops to less than 25% at 120°C. Barrels can easily hit 120°C.
Also, its best-case tensile strength is 2700 psi. The weakest solder out there is about 4 times stronger than that, (some are 10 or 15 times)and not so badly affected by heat.
Just solder it. If you haven't done something like this before, do some practice pieces.
 
To the best of my knowledge, most of the soldering that's recommended for these types of jobs, where strength of bond is a priority, silver solder is used. Takes more heat, but is much stronger than plumbers, or electrical solder.
 
There are low temperature silver bearing soft solders, but high temperature silver "solder" is actually silver brazing, requiring red heat.
Sights and other barrel fittings have been attached using brazing techniques ((some Remingtons come to mind) but that is a lot of heat and requires precautions including protecting the bore. Complete refinishing of the barrel is going to be needed as well. I just reattached a bolt handle using high temp silver solder paste and an O/A torch. I personally would avoid this technique on a barrel.
Soft soldering has been used successfully to attach sights for a very long time.
Often sight bases are attached with a couple of screws; drilling and tapping blind holes in a barrel is a delicate operation that I avoid if possible.
Barrel ribs are now sometimes attached with adhesives. Adhesives are even used to bond shotgun barrels into breech monoblocs.
 
tiriaq said:
There are low temperature silver bearing soft solders, but high temperature silver "solder" is actually silver brazing, requiring red heat.
Sights and other barrel fittings have been attached using brazing techniques ((some Remingtons come to mind) but that is a lot of heat and requires precautions including protecting the bore. Complete refinishing of the barrel is going to be needed as well. I just reattached a bolt handle using high temp silver solder paste and an O/A torch. I personally would avoid this technique on a barrel.
Soft soldering has been used successfully to attach sights for a very long time.
Often sight bases are attached with a couple of screws; drilling and tapping blind holes in a barrel is a delicate operation that I avoid if possible.
Barrel ribs are now sometimes attached with adhesives. Adhesives are even used to bond shotgun barrels into breech monoblocs.
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So what do you suggest I use, solder type(number, link to) and flux type( brand, #, link to) thanks
 
I just checked Brownells. Their HiForce 44 solder is out of stock; it is excellent. The recommended flux is liquid and not mailable. A 'net search should find similar products in Canada. If you look at their Silvaloy products, you will see the high temperature product I use for bolt handles.
A clean 60/40 tin/lead solder will work, as will a conventional flux. Flux is acidic and will attack bluing. I avoid lead free solder now used for plumbing.
 
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DGY said:
So what do you suggest I use, solder type(number, link to) and flux type( brand, #, link to) thanks
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I have used Brownell's Hi-force 44, but getting their special flux across the border is tough. I found it to be very tricky stuff to get wetted out, but maybe that was because of the fact I was not using the aforementioned special flux.
These days I have switched to Forney 38116 self-fluxing silver solder. It's very user friendly, just don't heat it too high or long.
 
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In my experience the Hi-Force flux is critical for success. I used up my supply; have some solder left. There must be a similar domestic product.
I looked up the Forney product. Looks good. 400F - 600F isn't bad at all..
 
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