[TheOtherOne]

Yes, I'm asking after the fact. :)

I have a cheap AK-47 (Romanian SAR1) that I recently pulled the lower foregrip off of and then when I went to put it back on, I snapped off the lever of the metal piece that holds it in place. I didn't want to spend alot of money to have a gun smith fix it, so I just had a friend put a couple of tiny tack welds on each side.

Other than the ghetto look, does anyone think putting a couple of tiny tack welds on the barrel could be bad?

[Badger Arms]

On that gun? No.

[craigz]

Sounds like a very Russian solution to me.

[Cal4D4]

No personal experience, but it is going to depend on how tiny those welds were. Gun barrels achieve most of their strength thru material of the barrel, not by heat treatment. Welding penetrates the base metal and alters its composition somewhat. A tack weld may only do this .03 or so, no big deal. Maybe.

[TheOtherOne]

No personal experience, but it is going to depend on how tiny those welds were. Gun barrels achieve most of their strength thru material of the barrel, not by heat treatment. Welding penetrates the base metal and alters its composition somewhat. A tack weld may only do this .03 or so, no big deal. Maybe.Well, we used a mig welder and he was careful to get the right feed speed and voltage... so I hope it's okay. If not I guess it's not a huge deal when you can pick up these guns new for $300 without looking too hard. Hmmmm... dangit! Now I just got me an excuse to buy a second one! :)

[redneck]

Might affect accuracy, welds are generally harder than the surounding metal. Can cause stress. Maybe increased warp as the barrel warms up :confused:

[NevadaPistolero]

I just had a muzzel brake TIG welded on the end of my WASR 10 high cap, it will not hurt them. Spot welds if done correctly have no adverse effects on the barrel. Ive had at least 5 TIG welded on various SKS rifles.

[TheOtherOne]

Good to know. I hope it'll be okay... here's what the weld spot looks like after I repainted it:
http://u.cc.utah.edu/~gmj06b50/Guns/AKPainting-XX-OopsWeld.jpg

[tex_n_cal]

Hmmm...you may have a problem, though...

except for most .22's, rifle barrels are usually made from at least 4130 steel, which does harden when welded.

When heat-treatable steels are welded, they are heated rapidly to melting temps, then cooled rapidly. If you don't do anything else to it, they DO get brittle around the weld area. If it's high enough hardenability, like spring steel, it can even crack just sitting around.

The portion of the barrel you show is what, halfway down? I doubt that the pressure there is ever very high, there, so you may get away with it. Near the breech? scrap it:what:

[duckfoot]

You could take the stress off the weld by sticking it in a oven 400 degrees for 3 hours cool and repeat three times. Problem is that any metal that is heat treated on the part will also be affected. Or some how heat the weld and cool very very slowly but even I have a hard time doing that in a fully stocked Fab shop on something so small. So, it's a Romak don't worry buy another and now you got extra parts.

.02 taken with salt

duck

[redneck]

41 series steels are pretty stable through heat treat IIRC. I don't think they will harden to the extent that you should worry about the barrel shattering at that point.
I can't see it hurting anything to put it in the oven at 350-400 for 2 hours or so, for a cycle or two. If there are any spring clips or anything like that on the barrel I would remove them, but chances are everything on the barrel is drawn back beyond a 400 degree temper to begin with.

[TheOtherOne]

The only problem with trying to put it in the oven is that lower wood foregrip is on their permanently now because of the weld. I don't think it would be a good idea to bake it at 400 degrees with the wood.

[duckfoot]

You got a point One. Cooking wood is not such a hot idea with what ever kind of finish is on it, so just shoot on and what ever happens, happens.

[Gerald McDonald]

Probably wont be a problem, if you used E70S6 or E70S3 mig wire it will decrease tensile strength a hair but wont affect much at that point of the barrel. In 4130 or 4140 steel you only use a 41 series filler metal if it wont be subjected to a lot of stress. Rifle bolts are a good example, in something that will be exposed to shearing stress (race car chassis for example) they use ER70S2 tig rod. If you could have had it tig welded it would have looked better but wouldnt have shown much if any more strength. If you had run a bead you would have changed the point of impact for sure but I doubt thost two tacks did any damage.
Gerald