Removing "bubba" front sight, max barrel temp? SUCCESS!!!

Plinker

Plinker

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Hi Team:

I had a previous post about an M1 Carbine barrel that had an aftermarket Williams front-sight attached, that I wished to remove.

Well, I heated the sight up until it faintly glowed red, but I couldn't get the thing off. Am I using enough heat to melt the solder? I'm also worried about overheating the barrel. At what point is the barrel pooched? It was faintly glowing red as well...

Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom!
 
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Well - Dull red is certainly enough to melt solder. If memory serves, dull red is around 1000 F. You likely did affect the temper of the steel, but at the muzzle end of the barrel, the pressure is relatively low. I'd be more concerned about the finish.
 
stocker said:
Did you remove the front sight from the ramp to see if there is a screw under the sight?
Click to expand...

Yes - no screw. I even tried to peel the sight off with vise-grips while it was hot, but to no avail. I know I melted the solder in places, because it bubbled out from underneath the sight in places.

Regarding the finish, I'm not worried. I can always tidy-up the barrel end later. I'm more concerned about reduction in strength.
 
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some brazing solders are higher than that but usually non factory installs do not use, but maybe the heat from the sight was being drawn off by the barrel mass. try heating the barrel. Heat up to 1200 F. or1400F. will not affect barrel it's just a form of stress relief. Most barrels are low carbon and can stand cherry red. When up to temp. use a drift and hammer to knock off rather than pliers in case of an oxide bond.
 
I would think at those temperatures I'd be more concerned with oxidation/scale formation than with any decrease in strength.
How would one protect the muzzle/crown?
 
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unless your using an oxidizing flame in a two gas system or trying to heat too quickly this is not a harmful heat, work outside the hot cone tip or use a fan spreader work in dim light and watch colours change grey or yellow sunglasses help, if you see orange or yellow hot spots back off and allow heat to even out
 
Anti-scale compounds are available, and it would do no harm to apply one to the bore. Once the barrel and sight are hot enough, you should be able to pull the ramp off with pliers. Don't apply a lot of force to the barrel when it is hot.
 
Well, I had to heat the entire barrel-end and sight until they were glowing a nice, uniform, dull red... Then the site just suddenly pulled right off.

Success!!! :dancingbanana:


Now, how can I remove the silver solder residue? I was thinking that I would just use a Dremmel with a course-grit polishing compound. Is there any way to do this chemically?

Thanks in adance for your replies!
 
I'm unaware of a chemcal process that you could use, perhaps there might be a way of deplating. I suspect that a Dremel could leave behind marks in the steel. I use a Dremel for different jobs all the time, but for something like this it wouldn't be my first choice. Will you be rebluing or touching up the area? If so, I would be inclined to just use strips of abrasive cloth bootblack style to remove the residual silver and blend the area. Don't know how you could eliminate the residue without touching the surrounding barrel.
 
tiriaq said:
I'm unaware of a chemcal process that you could use, perhaps there might be a way of deplating. I suspect that a Dremel could leave behind marks in the steel. I use a Dremel for different jobs all the time, but for something like this it wouldn't be my first choice. Will you be rebluing or touching up the area? If so, I would be inclined to just use strips of abrasive cloth bootblack style to remove the residual silver and blend the area. Don't know how you could eliminate the residue without touching the surrounding barrel.
Click to expand...


Thanks - the abrasive cloth idea sounds good. I'm not too worried about the finish. The front site was a ramp type, approx. 3-inches in length, so the barrel is finished from a collectability standpoint. I'm more interested in using it on a "Frankengun" shooter built up out of spare parts. I'll just cold-blue the last 4 -inches of the barrel once I'm done cleaning up the silver.

The crown took a bit of a beating during the process, and is flaking a tiny bit. I haven't checked the bore yet in detail, but it seems fine at first glance.

EDITED TO ADD:

To remove the silver, first I filed down the obvious lumps... Then I took a strip of cloth, and saturated it with valve-grinding compound. I "boot-blacked" the barrel with the cloth (thanks tiriaq!) until all the silver was gone, and I was left with bright, shiney, steel. The cloth can be twisted-up like a rope, to concentrate the abrasive action on a small area, or left in a strip, to clean a broad area. Finally, I blew the grindng compound out of the barrel with brake cleaner, and then re-blued the muzzle-end of the barrel with RB bluing compound (while warm). The barrel actually turned out kinda nice, especially for a barrel I was going to throw away. :)
 
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