welding/repair of antique parts

tactical870

tactical870

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I have several antique revolvers with parts showing significant wear. Can I tig weld or torch weld these wear points to build them back up or do I need to machine new parts? (I'm thinking a trigger for my Hopkins & Allen dictator is worth more than the gun) Can these parts be re-hardened after? How? Thanks in advance
 
Back in the day broken hammers and rounded sear and trigger surfaces were gas welded, however there was always a lot of filing to clean up the parts and recut them. Tig welding can now do a much better job, I have seen some outstanding repair welds to thing like cracked stamped metal recievers. I do not know the make and details of the pistols, but case-hardening was extensively used on older guns as the steel of the time was poorer quality than today. You can easily case harden your part (re-case harden) using "Kasnit" obtained from Brownells: http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/productdetail.aspx?p=7626&st=kasenite&s=
 
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I go for standard welding rod suitable for welding mild steel, the resulting weld is easy to work and case hardens well. One issue with Tig is that if the part is blued, the weld is often visible, gas welding seems to mix it up a bit more!
 
Tried gas welding on an old .32 rimfire dictator tonight... Tough on the small parts but I've got enough welding experience that I seemed to get things working ok... Now I just have to hand fit the parts and case harden and polish them (already did the trigger). Wish me luck!
 
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