Is it possible to use dental amalgam (the silver filling material) to fill in stripped out screw holes? This would be on a barrel of an Interarms Mark X .270 to fill in the front sight screw holes.

The metal is made up of approximately 50% mercury, 27% silver, 14% tin, 8% copper and 1% zinc.

I know this is not the best way to do this, but I don't want to invest a lot of money in the gun. I bought it cheap and I am refinishing it myself as a "brother in law" gun.

For a bro in law gun I'd use plain ol' JB weld. If it was my rifle i'd have the holes tigged.

What's wrong with filler screws?
Regards, Joe

quote:

Originally posted by J.D.Steele:
What's wrong with filler screws?
Regards, Joe

Aye; quick, neat, easy.

The front hole is totally stripped out. In the back hole, the screw broke off about 1 mm down the screw hole. Otherwise, filler screws would be the answer. But, that would mean retapping the front screw hole and drilling out the back screw.

If I fill the holes with JB Weld, can the JB Weld be cold blued, so it will somewhat match?

Stay away from amalgam !
Since you want to match the color [reblue] you have to drill open the screw hole .Insert either a force fit steel rod or slight undersize with epoxy .Polish and blue the gun.

If you use an expoxy it can be dyed. Or, once you have sanded/finished it (it will probably be a grayish color) you can use a black or a dark blue Sharpie pen to get it close enough for brother in law work. Sorta like the old saying "good enough for who it's for."

Let's see, dental amalgam and cold blue... You must really like the guy. In that case why not drill the holes into the bore and call it ported.

Or, keeping with a dental theme, why not cut the barrel back past the holes and "Crown" it. Much more classy than Amalgam and cold blue.

JB Weld the front sight back on.

Just had a young friend pass away from his amalgam teeth fillings.

The amalgam is a silver and mercury alloy
Over time the mercury dissolves and goes into your system.

It sure did and dentist still use it.

I know somebody who had all their old fillings drilled out and replaced because of fear of this, but then talked to the dentist and they say supposedly you're exposed to more doing that than if you leave them in place.

I go white or if it's a crown I go gold. hopefully not too many more of those needed.

On topic, I think the cut and crown idea is a good one, drill retap and go from there second choice, install a banded front site third choice.

Red

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Just had a young friend pass away from his amalgam teeth fillings.

I'm sorry for your loss and don't intend to be insensitive, but dental amalgam is a very stable alloy which doesn't transfer any elemental mercury to the bloodstream. If your friend died from complications related to heavy metal poisoning I would suggest that the source was not his dentist's chair.

That said, it is a novel and innovative approach to consider it as a hole-filler, but as has amply been discussed, it is probably not a practical application for it.

Another option would be to make some plugs from soft iron such as a coat hanger and tap them into the holes with a 1 or 2 oz hammer, then file down and refinish.

Or you can JB weld it up and apply a spray on finish to the entire gun.

So I went ahead and tried Amalgam and JB Weld on an old set of rings to see how well each would look. I'm sure you all know how the JB Weld looks. However, I was very impressed with the Amalgam. The fit and finish were excellent with the joint being nearly undetectable after polishing. Unfortunately, as Mete had mentioned, attempts at rebluing were showed poor results at best. In fact, the JB Weld and Sharpie Marker looked better.

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
The amalgam is a silver and mercury alloy
Over time the mercury dissolves and goes into your system.

Dont put the muzzle in your mouth......