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welding on a rifle receiver

fourtynine

Aluminum
Joined
Nov 12, 2005
Location
southern u.s
I would like to get some opinions from some of you professional welders , I have a winchester rifle receiver made in the late 1930's, that was driled for a scope , now the owner wants these holes welded up , i have looked the net over and talked to some gunsmiths , one said he would bury the whole thing in wet sand inside and out except what he wanted to weld another said to purge the inside to keep it cool , i dont want this thing to warp it is a very expensive peice , there are only two small holes , i will be using tig and a 3.5 % nickel rod and i can't get behinde one of the holes to put a peice of copper or ceramic , any advice or opinions are welcome and appreciated.
 
One alternate to welding I Have seen done, is to make a dummy screw that fits the threads in the receiver, cut the top off and peen the area around the edge, File close, stone and polish the profile back and reblue, if the filler screw is close to the same material as the action it will be less obvious than a weld and no distortion, no re-heat treat neccessary
JIm
 
I fully second "enginebuilder's" suggestion, easy to do cold and will make a seamless repair if done carefully. You can Loc-Tite in place but I doubt it will back out if the initial fit is good.
 
Please note that if you follow enginebuilder's suggestion, you should leave 1-2 threads sticking out when you cut off the screw, so that when you peen the screw it will mash over so that you haven't got a low spot. Didn't know if this was obvious to you, just wanted to be sure since it's a high-dollar item. Although I think you'd be fine TIG welding it since it wouldn't take more than a few seconds of arc time, therefore very little heat would be put into the receiver. You could also combine these ideas, and cut the head off a screw and thread it in just below flush, and then just quickly tack weld the screw to teh receiver, filing and polishing the weld and re-bluing. I'd guess that'd be more permanent. I'd be afraid the peened screw would back out eventually from the shock/vibration of being fired.
 
thanks for the replys i think we my do that, put a screw in and use just enought weld to get it flush, it will be rust blued so the nickel rod should blue ok.
 
I think the idea is put a screw in the hole and don't use ANY weld. Peen the screw over and then file/stone the remainder flush, re-blue.
 
I like the screw idea. You might make your own screw slightly over size for an interferance fit that should keep it from backing out. I've worked on large compressors with interferance head bolts, if one ever breaks theres the devil to pay getting it out. Brent
 








 
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