Hello Fellas,

I am hoping to get your insight on how to proceed here.

A dear cousin gave me a 20ga S/S Sidelock Shotgun made by "The Liege Gun Company". Overall it is in pretty good condition except that the forend iron has snapped in two right at the "T" or knuckle. There was an old "repair" at the break, where someone had believe it or not, cemented the pieces back together with metal glue!!

The forend iron itself seems to be made from some type of metal (Not Steel) since at the break, it seems to have a grainy look to it.

I contacted a few gunsmiths however none of them seem to be interested in fixing it.

So with all that said, I am hoping to get some insight/opinions on what to do. The gun itself is really nice so I would love to fix it but is not a high quality sidelock worth having a new iron made for it which is an expensive proposition I'm told.

Whatdaya think?? Can it be welded, etc?? It doesn't seem to be a high-stress bearing part so I am hoping to have an alternative.

Thanks Fellas!

first step would be to identify exactly what type of metal it is... then you could determine the proper repair... welding, brazing, heliarc..

First, see if a magnet will stick to it and then tell me what happens. We will go from there.

Thanks to you both!

Dpcd it DOES stick to a magnet.

Then it can be welded if it is not cast iron. Which is might be since it broke. Hence the grainy look. Which is a bad thing since iron is very hard to weld. Can be brazed and sometimes welded if you are careful and pre-heat it.

Have you got any pics?
If the pieces can be cleaned 100%, no glue or residue, it could be brazed, but this is not always successful on cast iron or cast steel. It normally works quite well if the parts are acid cleaned, but again cast is brittle and if it is subjected to impact there are no guarantees it will not break again.

Cheers.

Several years ago I acquired a Greifelt drilling with a crude replacement for the fore end, including the iron. New England Custom Guns fabricated a replacement for both which is indistinguishable from the original and functions perfectly. You will have to determine whether your gun is worth this kind of an effort.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Then it can be welded if it is not cast iron. Which is might be since it broke. Hence the grainy look. Which is a bad thing since iron is very hard to weld. Can be brazed and sometimes welded if you are careful and pre-heat it.

So since it stuck to the magnet, what do you think its made of??

Sounds like I need a good welder??

Well, you know it has iron in it and not pot metal. I don't think it would be cast iron, but could be cast steel. Most of these old irons were color case hardened and can get brittle. Any hardened steel will break with a grainy structure and fore end irons are plenty hard. The adhesive can be removed with a media blaster. I know several welders in my area who weld cast iron and steel and they say it can be done by proper pre-heat. I used to work as a valve tech in power plants. Cast valve casings for high pressure steam lines often crack or erode. They are repaired by preheating and Tig welding, then have to be cooled slowly to prevent brittleness.

This fellow did some work for me last year and I was well pleased:

http://www.accu-tig.com/

Bobster,
I am going to send him an email....seems to be the guy I'm looking for thanks!

welding castiron isn't really all that hard, just takes some knowhow and pratice. like dcpd said pre heat then weld (tig works well with a nickel based filler ) and then while the piece is cooling continually tap on it with a small hammer. it is time consuming though

I've successfully welded quite a lot of cast iron using the arc welder and cast iron rods e.g. cast manifolds, pump volutes, etc and some quite small items. Used 3.15mm rods, not sure without researching if smaller rods are available. A real bugger to start the arc with these rods and once arcing a very good steady hand is required as it it not touch runs with the cast rods.I have had very good results with every cast job I have done.

I have found that the BEST people for this are experienced general welding worksops and not gunsmiths in fact.

These people may not know one end of a gun form the other but they do know metal, how metal can be welded and how it can't.

The ONLY input they need is in simple terms what the part does n terms of does it "flex" does it have another hardened surface bearing against it and etc.

And the best of it is they often find the work interesting in itself as it is something that they wouldn't normally see...a gun part...with a problem to fix that they are fully familiar with.

Thanks for your help fellas!

Thanks to Bobster I contacted Dan Armstrong in Fairbanks, AK and my piece is boxed for tomorrow's mail.

I will let you all know how it comes out.

FWIW, Dan is charging me only 20 bucks for the repair....how fair is that! Seems like a great guy to me.