Softer, easier way ????

[THOM]

On smooth bore assembly directions - they read: "Barrel tennons and front sight must be soldered to barrel."
My question is; has any one used J&B Weld instead of solder ???
Does the barrel get too warm for this type of epoxy to hold after repeated firings ??
I would like to know the pro's and con's on this before I put this rifle together..
Thanks in advance for any help..
Winter well
Limpin'frog :snore: :hmm: :snore:

 

[tg]

I would use the solder and insure a positive bond, elseways you will be starting with a patch job on a new gun.

 

[Ed Wenger]

Limpin' Frog... I don't know about the JB Weld... I have done one Fowler and soldered the underlugs and sight. I was a little nervous about it so I went to a gunsmith first to have him do it. After he told me the wait would be 2 months, I decided to do it myself.

I used Hi Force 44 solder (from Brownell's). It melts at a lower temp but has something like 38k psi strength. Don't know what the tensil strength is, but I know other folks who use the stuff and they've never had a lug come off.

To prevent barrel warp, pack the bore with crushed charcoal or wrap the barrel just in front of, and behind the weld spot with dripping wet towels. Tin the lug, fluk the barrel, wire tie the lug in place, and heat with a propane torch until the solder flows. There's also a paste you can buy that will prevent solder from over flowing. I didn't use that and found I really didn't need it.

It's really much easier that I thought it would be....

Ed

 

[wolfers]

I don't know how hot a barrel gets, but I have used JB Weld to fix cracks in water jacket of engine blocks for antique tractors and it holds up to that level of heat very well. In fact I have never had an issue with it.

 

[Cherokee]

You can solder it yourself with a propane torch and some silver solder at your local hardware store.
A propane torch wont do any damage, but you have to clean the barrel solder area to clean bare metal. And you must use flux. Without the flux its a useless attempt.
I have soldered muzzlebreaks on with this and underlugs. None of my underlugs have come lose with well over 200 shots on one rifle and No idea on the other.

 

[ehoff]

I agree you can solder them on! I just soldered on the lugs on my fusil barrel with no problem. The thing to remember you are heating the item to be soldered (the lug) not the solder or the barrel. Clamp the lug to the barrel, heat the lug. Keep trying the solder on the joint till it flows, when it does feed till you see it flow from the joint. Capilary action pulls the solder into the joint. Or you can tin the lug by fluxing it and then appling a thin layer of solder, when cool clamp it into postion on the fluxed barrel and heat the lug till the solder flows, either way you can do it!

 

[54JNoll]

I tried JB Weld on a front sight because I was affraid to solder it on. 5 light to moderate taps with a nylon hammer and she popped right off.

Solder it on and do it right. You will have fewer problems in the long run. Brownells sells a low temp silver solder that works great and does not require much heat.

 

[Cherokee]

I wanted to add this. In your hardware store in the plumbing section they have a few solders to pick from. I get the one that has the most silver content.
It works and its not as expensive as buying silver solder from the gun supply places.

 

[ladysmithtrading]

If you can sweat a copper joint for a pipe, you can solder any under lugs, ribs etc, and you dont need a boat load of solder on the lugs either, just remember clean EVERYTHING! down to brite and shiny, degrease with brake cleaner or carb cleaner, flux Everthing and tin the lugs first!( cover them with a thin coat of solder) while their hot knock off any excess, ususall this forms tiny little beads, place a bead on each outside edge of the lug,apply the heat to the inside edge of the lug, when its warm enough, it will pull the solder under the lug, do same for other side,you dont need to build up a bunch of solder on the outside edge of the joints like welding steel,the amount of solder under the lugs should be plenty, then quench with a cool watered rag, good luck.

 

[Zonie]

J-B Weld is good stuff, but I wouldn't want to use it to attach sights or underlugs. Even soft lead solder has been known to fail in this sort of application.

J-B Weld's package says it has a tensile strength of 3950 PSI which is less than soft lead solder.

 

[THOM]

Thanks everyone..
I used to weld - no I'm not scared to solder;
was just looking at it from a different angle ..
In knivemaking a lot of the guys are going to J&B to do the guards on knives.. just seeing if it could be applied here..
Thanks again -
Zonie, and all you guys - winter well out there- starting to finally get cold here- no snow to speak of..
Limpin'frog :snore: :bow: :snore: