Barrrel Soldering

[mooncoon]

From time to time, the subject of reattaching shotgun ribs comes up and I thought that I would post the method that seems to work for me. In the past, people have suggested to me that I should use various types of wedges to press the rib down and usually pressing against soft iron haywire wrapped around the barrels. For me, the wire usually slipped when I tapped the wedges in. What does seem to work is using a piece of channel iron with "square donuts" fastened to it, complete with adjustable screws to position the barrels. I also made up a series of C clamps to clamp the rib down and made ones with the lower leg long enough to span both barrels while the screw is centered on the rib. Important to put something soft between the rib and the screw to avoid scratching the rib. I use 32 auto shells near the muzzle and the same or 9mm shells near the breach where the rib is wider. Also important to tin the rib and the barrels before soldering and I find that I have to wipe the solder on with steel wool and flux to avoid bare patches. Also important not to leave bumps or puddles of excess solder or the rib will not clamp down snug to the barrels. Before soldering the two together I wash the barrels with lots of hot water to remove the excess flux and then put a very thin layer of flux on the surfaces to be soldered

One problem I still have not solved is that it is very difficult to remove the last strip of solder along the rib and on the outside of the barrels. I use a sanding drum in a Dremel tool to clean the worst of the solder away followed by drawfiling to bare iron but an invisible layer of solder seems to absorb into the iron close to the seam and that repels all attempts are rebluing.

cheers mooncoon

I think that I forgot to mention that a clean work bench is a sign of a disturbed mind :>) :>)

 

[maple leaf]

Very informative, like all your posts! Thanks for sharing.

 

[jpc]

" a clean work bench is a sign of a disturbed mind"

 

[fingers284]

My goodness...the "jig" of all jigs...good stuff

 

[gunsaholic]

Thanks for the info and pics. Quite informative.

 

[trevj]

Nice fixture!

Two things come to mind re: excess solder.

IIRC, Brownels sells a paste that stops solder flowing where it isn't wanted. Some guys use graphite from a lead pencil for the same purpose.

For removing excess, after the file, make a scraper from a lathe tool bit or other hard steel (or hardenable steel) and with some care you can scrape a very fine, narrow contact patch to clean up the last vestiges of solder. Files, as wonderful tools as they are, seldom have a perfectly flat cut at the edges. Look at your files under strong magnification to see what I mean. A scraper can be shaped to fit in to places a decent file will not fit, and i not subject to being bunged up on lead filings either.

It is a molecular level bond between the solder and the steel, any unevenness in the surface, or porosity is going to allow the solder to bond below the general surface of the metal, if that makes an sense. You may have to resort to staining the solder to blend it in.

 

[mooncoon]

I have a scraper made from a piece of drill rod, that I will use. Basically heated the rod up and hammered it flat then bent it an L shape and hardened it. I have ground the working end to a point which allows me to scrape right to the seam. Just too lazy this time and will have to scrape it clean then re rust that little strip. I am more or less using the method of Oscar Gaddy, who wrote about browning damascus barrels in the Double Gun Journal, several years ago. I am afraid that I can rarely achieve the level of contrast that he was able to do. His rusting solutions are more or less the same as found in Angier and also partly found in Foxfire 5 in the section on gun making.
Traditionally, the ribs were soldered on using resin flux I think but I find I need to use the corrosive grease type flux to get the solder to flow. If I take both ribs off, I tin all the way from top to bottom which in effect galvanizes the void space and I don't have to worry about corrosion. In this case I left the bottom rib in place and after tinning, washed away any remaining flux and then applied only the thinnest amount again before actually fastening the upper rib. Hopefully any corrosion from it will be inconsequential. I have tried using grease or oil as a barrier to stop the solder flowing, in the past but not much luck with it. I have heard of Brownell's solder paste but never tried it. Partly because of the hassles of bringing it across the border

cheers mooncoon

cheers mooncoon