Tig weld on barrel?

nomad 68

nomad 68

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Going to have a rifle of mine done in cerekote or simiiar and want to fill sight holes on barrel prior to this. I have heard that these can be tigged and filed,sanded to look as if never there. I also hear that it won't blue well in these areas afterward. Not a concern since I plan on a coating vs bluing. Thoughts?
 
I would prefer mig over tig and with regular wire it blues not bad.

Why bother if you are painting it... just fill with a screw and file it down.
 
interesting... MIG welding on a barrel, is that not going to effect the strenght significantly.

I have a enfield receiver with a nasty drilled and buggered up hole in it, I always assumed that MIG was not the way to patch it up.
 
Trust me on this tig weld is the my second choice , fill the holes either threaded screws or plugs and have the spaces welded with a laser weld.
You will have to find someone near you that has a laser welding setup. Laser weld will not add any heat to the weld area and there will be no worry about warpage or softening of the weld area.
 
If you're using one of the coatings then Bondo, soft solder, any sort of epoxy or Accraglass or anything will do just fine. I'd draw the line at used chewing gum though.... :d

Since you're using a coating the filler does not need to be any sort of metal. And indeed I'd prefer a filler that is sanded down so it doesn't show any sort of joint through the coating.
 
I've used mig on deep rust pockets and it blued very nicely - really surprised me. Bluing is nice but such a bother compared to some of the new finishes.
 
woodchopper said:
interesting... MIG welding on a barrel, is that not going to effect the strenght significantly.

I have a enfield receiver with a nasty drilled and buggered up hole in it, I always assumed that MIG was not the way to patch it up.
Click to expand...

There can be a difference in using mig to close off a screw hole on top of a rifle barrel and using mig on an action. Absolutely no problem on a rifle barrel, it's been done hundreds of times... but welding on an action - it depends where and how big the hole is and how good the welder's skills are ... what model Enfield and where is the hole? Even a picture would help.
 
I concur with Dennis and have mig'd and tig'd on both barrels and actions..........rear of actions, that is, as well as bolt handles. One does not create enough heat to worry about when filling screw holes........larger holes are just done with a "spot and let cool" method. I have welded second recoil lugs on barrels a couple of times and have seen at least a dozen more done the same way.
 
Regardless of the welding method there is a heat affected zone and stress risers. Firearms have a huge safety factor but one should not eat into that margin arbitrarily and certainly not for "cosmetics".

As FBMI says there is little heat input to the parent metal with TIG but this can depend on the skill and speed of the welder. Who is going to be pulling the trigger - you or them?
 
Not to ignore all the warnings about welding on the barrel but I have never seen any evidence of any problems in 45 years of 'smithing ... and some of Remington's finest little shooters (the old 600 series) had 4 or 5 studs spot welded on the barrel to attach the rib. Many barrels have been heated red hot to silver solder a front sight...
 
I would thread the holes or re thread them if they are buggered up then turn in a screw, peen the screw with hammer to swell , file screw down and polish/buff ... have done this a few times on stainless and blued guns to get rid of sight holes with good results. .. no heat exposures and you can't even see where the holes were . But tig welding works too.sometimes its hard to get the finish to blend /match.
 
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