When my 470AR gets back from Pac Nor I want to put a barrel lug on it. Just a shallow slot on the underside of the barrel with a lug. Can the lug be welded to the barrel without harming the barrel or is silver soldering the way to go?

i like a light slot and sliver solder. if the barrel is heavy enough, tig!

I cut a dovetail then solder. Never seen one done that way come loose, but bedding it correctly is just as critical.

quote:

Originally posted by Toomany Tools:
I cut a dovetail then solder. Never seen one done that way come loose, but bedding it correctly is just as critical.

Ditto, shallow dovetail and then Force 44. WIth just a dovetail, if the barrel heats up too much it will come loose.

I don't like silver solder (braze) on a barrel, too much heat!

why not just order a large dia barrel blank. Then your gunsmith can turn it down to the desired profile and machining a barrel recoil lug out the same time.. That way it will be an integral lug and no dovetail / silversoldering etc is needed..

Cutting an integral lug is a great deal more work and therefore much more expensive but not really more effective.

All these ideas make sense, but I would never weld a lug to the barrel...WAY too much heat! You'd end up with an area called a "hard boiled egg"

Depends on who's doing the welding and how it's handled.

OK....educate me!

On my 458AR the lug is dovetailed and bronzed

ON my 500AR the barrel profile is a little thinner SO

I believe my gunsmith is cutting a serries of 4 100 thou countoured teeth into the bottem of the barrel

The opposite into the top of the lug and soldering the lot together

I can't think why you would need to weld a barrel lug to the barrel , the pressure applied is straight back isn't it not downward, as long as the dovetail and or teeth bite and you have something to stop the lug from sliding out that should be fine

Shouldn't it ?

regards
S&F

I don't like the welding idea either. But TC is welding every day on there barrels.

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe:
OK....educate me!

The common practice of "silver soldering" exposes the bore to more potential heat damage than a short, "controlled" pass with a TIG torch. As to a demonstration to the amount of control we're talking about here, a competent welder, and that's what we're talking about, can run a bead with a TIG machine across the edge of a sear with a lot more control and a hell of a lot less heat damage than can be done with a conventional Oxy/Acetylene torch and a rod.

With this level of control, running a simple bead across a lug, on the cylinder portion of the barrel is piece of cake. The post weld treatment of the area surrounding the weld has more of an affect on the stability of the material than the weld itself.

quote:

Originally posted by J_Zola:
I don't like the welding idea either. But TC is welding every day on there barrels.

They weld the breech lug using electron beam welding (EBW) which is very fast, precise, and is very easily controlled for penetration. It does not put much heat into the barrel.

Older octagon large bore TC Contender barrels such as the .44 Mag. had a welded stud for the forend. You could see a heat distorted area in those bores.

"commonly" people use gunsmithing solders, like force 44, to silver solder. BRAZING is an entirely different process.

slot or dovetail seems to work great, silver soldered. little bitty tacks with a tig also seem to work very well.

Yes, distinguish between "solder" ~ 400 F and "braze" ~1100-1300 F. For this job I'd prefer a carefull TIG .Alternate solder. Braze puts in too much heat.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
"commonly" people use gunsmithing solders, like force 44, to silver solder. BRAZING is an entirely different process.

slot or dovetail seems to work great, silver soldered. little bitty tacks with a tig also seem to work very well.

I've been warned about this before, silver soldering in not soldering, it is silver brazing. It has to do with the higher heat range than soldering.

Westpac,
when we mentioned soldering before, it was meant to be with something like Force 44. I would never subject a barrel to weld or silver brazing due to the high heat necessary. I know it has been done in the past, just don't want to do it myself.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Kobe:
Westpac,
when we mentioned soldering before, it was meant to be with something like Force 44. I would never subject a barrel to weld or silver brazing due to the high heat necessary. I know it has been done in the past, just don't want to do it myself.

A man's got to know his own limitations and I can respect that.