Thought I would share this with AR readers, I am bad about not taking pictures of things which there is no excuse for this day and age so I thought I would document this project and you guys can critique my process and/or maybe learn something. I'm sure I will be learning as this is my first job of this nature.

So....here it is. The first pic is the action in the jig ready to be welded. I received it in two haves already shortened so some of the big gaps are from the brutal work done by the government to destroy the actions.

You gotta have nerve to weld a action together and then use it! PS Let us know how it turns out. God Bless, Louis

Well..have fun! I've done this a few times..you'll end up with a real spiffy action..In my experience, you can't keep the action from warping with fixtures...the damn thing will warp no matter what..start off on the side with the most mass, then go to the other side...while the "most mass" side cools a bit....You'll have to use heat/cooling to bring everything back close to sraight....keep us posted...best regards Duane

Interesting Duane,

I have actually already welded it and overcome the warp issue. As I add pictures I will comment on how I solved the warp problem. Of course every case is different but this one turned out real straight (after a little persuading).

As for the comment on welding the action and using it projects like this always get heat treated and can very well come out better in that respect than the origional

I bought an unfinished Mauser looong time ago from Sarco and started doing the samething. I was going to make a short 22/250 single shot out of it. Back then i knew very little about welding and it warped on me. Some day when my experince gets better, i plan to re-tackel this job!
Soooo, I'm interested in this thread, keep us noted! & Thanks for doing so.

Nick:

If you are going to keep your 1922 in the original .22 Long Rifle, re-heat treating is probbly overkill.

Dave

few years back I had a 257 built on a shortened springfield. Don't know who made it, but it was one beautiful job. Action was cut and shortened by 1", the bolt was cut and pinned, the floorplate, follower and even the spring were all cut and welded. The was one really small weld pit on the action. outside of that you'd never know it was done. Name under the butplate was ross c king. whoever mr king was, he was a craftsman 1st class

Nick

I thank you for your offer to share. I would be interested in your approach.
You state that this is your first attempt but your action jig looks used.
A few things of interest is.
Type of tig rod and heat range.
How you avoided the warp issue.
Pictures of your jig.
Closeups in high resolution.
Thanks again.

James

To Dave,

I may not heat treat but if I do the main purpose would be to obtain a uniform crystalline structure in the steel to help hide the welded area when blueing. As it is, one half was nickel steel and the other half was carbon steel so I may be asking for too much.

To James,

This actually was the first go around with the jig, you may be looking at the sides which were not machined. As for welding rod I used Tartan G which I first heard of from Jack Belk. Problem is like I said earlier the two halves were different so I didn't know wether to use nickel rod or cromo rod or plain steel. We will see how it turns out in the end. As far as heat goes it is controlled by remote and is dependent on what you need. One of the hardest things to do when welding is not melting the sharp edges thus getting "undercut" or the like. I am out of town right now but will take more pics when I am home. One other thing worth mentioning is I weld in a purge box so there is always an inert atmosphere around the part being welded.

Here it is in the mill getting the weld cleaned up. One thing I should say is that the steel in the receiver welded very poorly. I had a lot of bubbling and porosity the first go around but was able to grind the bad out and re weld.

When I welded I tacked the receiver to the jig and then removed the mandrel. After a little welding I removed it from the jig and finished it. One thing I would do in the future is grind or mill the bottom of the receiver so it sets flat on the jig, since this one was already cut the two pieces mismatched a little and weren't as true as they could be.

Another thing I learned is the halves should butt up against each other with no gap so they can't "pull" as much. It is also important to grind a bevel all the way to the inside areas so you don't have to weld both sides. By leaving little metal and purging the back side you can get a nice joint without going on the other and filling it.

Nick, I didn't mean to sound so negative in the earlier post. Makes me nervous shooting a weopon I have just done serious repair to. Just glanced at the action and thought it was a bigger caliber. I actually have an old Savage 12 ga auto that I have been thinking about repairing. It cracked at the rear of the "humpback" receiver. If you would like to tackle it could send it to ya. I do a little welding too but don't have access to a tig now. God Bless, Louis

Nick

See if you can find a copy of the book "The Gun Digest Review of Custom Guns" edited by Ken Warner. There is an entire chapter in there about welding receivers together that you might find interesting.

Great project and I’ll watch it with interest. One cold winter with nothing to do I designed a short 1922 on the computer. I’ve never done anything about it but I think it’s a great idea.




butchloc, PM Send.

Here is how I dealt with the warp issue. I just worked the action around in the vise in different positions to find out where to put pressure to get it straightened out. After I got what I needed I heated the action up to a very dull red where I needed it to stretch and to my surprise it came out as good or better than it was. The mandrel that goes in the action wouldn't go through after welding but now goes in all the way including the threads with no effort. It should be noted that the mandrel has no more than a couple of thousandths clearance and this action has a lot more bearing area than a standard centerfire.

Next I will post a couple of picture of the grinding jig I made. I have been putting it off but this project inspired me to get it done.

quote:

It is also important to grind a bevel all the way to the inside areas so you don't have to weld both sides. By leaving little metal and purging the back side you can get a nice joint without going on the other and filling it.

So, you're saying make the bevel from the outside, and more-or-less knife-edge the "V" to the interior?

Just trying to get myself clear- I want to try this some day.

I'm really interested in how to control the warpage, and finishing the interior.

Fascinating thread, thanks.

FWIW Frank deHaas has a picture of his shortened singleshot M17 chambered in 219 Imp Zipper in his book "Bolt Action Rifles".

Years and years ago I had a Sedgely 1903 .22 Hornet on a shortened action. The outside was clean but the inside receiver rails were rough. Feed and ejection did not function too well and it is possible that it was a "lunchbox special."

Well...

I have some very sad news. While traveling for my real job I had this receiver in my truck along with another shotgun and some personal stuff. I'm sure you can see where this is going, my entire truck (07 ford diesel) was stolen out of a parking lot while I was eating dinner last Monday night. I would prefer not to go into details about it but I would like everyones help to locate another action so I can finish this project. I will start from scratch and give everyone plenty of pictures the second go around. I was really pumped with the progress so far, I really had the hard part over with and was looking forward to dressing up the action.

man, that SUX.

Hope you get your truck back in one piece.

sorry to hear that

That sucks hope all comes out to your satisfaction!