Silver soldering with Harris stay brite(5-6% silver)

DGY

DGY

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Good evening all,

So the front sight on the withworth 458 win mag stays put while shooting the 350gn bullets, but after one shot of the 500gn, it flew right off… rear sight is still on and doesn’t show any signs of wanting to fly!
So I bought some Harris silver solder stay brite kits, and I was wondering wat gas or combination of gas should I use?
Prep wise, clean matting pieces with acetone?
Thanks
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Check out Arts Gun Shop on you ewe toob.
He recent soldered a sxs to reattach the rib that had separated.it is a side by side and he covered a lot of bases on which you ask the question.
Iirc it was a Winchester or was it a Browning, no matter it was very recent and should be easy to find.
Rob
 
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Thanks guys that is the project for tomorrow morning perhaps then load some more rounds and go shoot it and hope it stays in place!
 
Hey, I'm just a refrigeration guy but we use this all the time for brazing. There are certain conditions that you have to be aware when brazing with silver solder, most important is that for steel the surfaces must be CLEAN and shiny. Next is the paste flux, use just the right amount, not too much and not too little. 3rd is the heat - you need to get your pieces to the temperatures below in order to get the silver solder to flow properly. Even then, steel tends to get too hot very quickly and you can burn it. Then you have to clean it again but beware, you might score the steel enough that you permanently damage it. We use an Acetylene turbo torch with an A3 to A5 tip for the smaller items like this.
  • BrandHarris
  • Composition0.15% Other, 2.5% Tin, 25.35% Zinc, 26% Copper, 45% Silver
  • Flow Point (Liquidus)1265 F (685 C)
  • Melting Point (Solidus)1195 F (646 C)
  • Net Weight (oz.)4
  • ManufacturerHarris Products Group
By the looks of the product you are using with only 5% silver, that is not a true silver solder but rather may act more like a soft solder product. With that in mind it may not be the best product for re-attaching a front site, but I may be wrong too.
 
AlwaysSmiling said:
Hey, I'm just a refrigeration guy but we use this all the time for brazing. There are certain conditions that you have to be aware when brazing with silver solder, most important is that for steel the surfaces must be CLEAN and shiny. Next is the paste flux, use just the right amount, not too much and not too little. 3rd is the heat - you need to get your pieces to the temperatures below in order to get the silver solder to flow properly. Even then, steel tends to get too hot very quickly and you can burn it. Then you have to clean it again but beware, you might score the steel enough that you permanently damage it. We use an Acetylene turbo torch with an A3 to A5 tip for the smaller items like this.
  • BrandHarris
  • Composition0.15% Other, 2.5% Tin, 25.35% Zinc, 26% Copper, 45% Silver
  • Flow Point (Liquidus)1265 F (685 C)
  • Melting Point (Solidus)1195 F (646 C)
  • Net Weight (oz.)4
  • ManufacturerHarris Products Group
By the looks of the product you are using with only 5% silver, that is not a true silver solder but rather may act more like a soft solder product. With that in mind it may not be the best product for re-attaching a front site, but I may be wrong too.
Click to expand...
I will try it out and see! Thanks for the info!
 
DGY said:
So I bought some Harris silver solder stay brite kits, and I was wondering wat gas or combination of gas should I use?
Click to expand...
You can use a propane torch or MAPP - the melting and flow points should be on the packaging or the MSDS docs. Flux up the area around the joint well - not just the contact points....

What you have there is "Silver bearing solder" i.e. solder with a little bit of silver in it. As opposed to silver with some other stuff in it. You can tell the difference when you need an oxy/acetylene setup to melt it.
 
Well thanks everyone, I thought by stating silver solder and 5-6% silver I made it clear I knew it wasn’t brazing, especially that nowhere in my post I talk about brazing… anyway thanks again for everything! I will post back with the result!
 
Well good news, the sight is still on after 10 rounds of 350gn hotcor going over 2550fps and the rifle has great potential to be a shooter!! IMG_1415.jpeg
 
Great to know that it is still attached. Looks like it is shooting decently. Love to see the results of 3 shot groups of the 72 gr.
 
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