Welding Barrel Taurus Revolver

You might get away with TIG welding ...

but I think MIG would cook the muzzle. My MIG experience has been on relatively heavy stuff, so I don't know how fine the heat control is on a MIG setup. Must be some MIG folks out here that can give a no-B.S. answer.

It'd be way safer to soft-silver solder the sight back on, if there was enough bearing surface. Temperature needs to get up to several hundred degrees lower than MIG or TIG. If you wanted to take a somewhat greater chance, then try silver brazing. Hotter, but still less than MIG or TIG.

It's a small spot but a very visible area, Tig is better heat control than Mig but if it's a pin hole and you can just hit it quick without wandering it will work. Match wire with surface and check speed and feed before welding, i would drill some bugger holes in something close to the same size and metal before doing the real deal though.

If you just hit what is needed and don't linger it will be fine, kind of like a spot weld. it is really less heat than tig if done this way because there is heat up time.

Not so sure about a pistol, but I MIG welded an AK front sight onto my Saiga-12 after both epoxy and silver solder failed under recoil. It got just hot enough to begin to discolor the chrome barrel lining. I figure that a shotgun is not under such tremendous pressure clear out at the end of the barrel, and the worst possible case is the barrel splits open Elmer Fudd style. It has been fine through several hundred rounds, including some heavy buckshot. I would suspect that with a fairly heavy revolver barrel, it would be hard to screw it up too bad, but I'm not a welding expert.

I have a Ruger Vaquero 44 that someone welded the front sight on and to beat it all they got it backwards. Shoots better than any 44 I have ever had so I just keep it. Welding didn't seem to hurt it at all[except for looks]. At least if it ever gets stole I will be able to recognize it.

I don't see how it could hurt if you just tack it. Not like you are going to run a bead on there haha. Just turn down the amps and don make it glow and I think it will be fine. People weld thin sheet metal all the time without warpage.

People weld thin sheet metal all the time without warpage.

Click to expand...

But not with a MIG welder.
Soldering it on is your best choice.

If I mig weld the front sight to the barrel, will the electric current damage the barrel?

Click to expand...

Not the electric arc itself, but the heat will damage whatever heat treating the barrel had. TIG, which holds the heat in a more concentrated area for a shorter time, might be better, in conjunction with heat control paste.

Purge the barrel & TIG weld it.

MIG is a constant current short arc process-
Turning voltage/wire speed up/down will not regulate amperage as with SMAW/Stick welding.

Um, I hope this doesn't sound stupid, but couldn't you just use a bigger pin?

simmonsguns said:

If you just hit what is needed and don't linger it will be fine, kind of like a spot weld. it is really less heat than tig if done this way because there is heat up time.

Click to expand...

#1.. for a light tack, the MIG with the heat turned down, an .023 wire, using standard welders mix as a shielding gas, the job will be done in about 1 second of dwell time.. and it does not require a high skill set to do.

TIG, it can be done, there will be a bit more heat, and dwell time.. but I would not let just anyone try it.. TIG, at least for me, is an art, and acquired skill, takes practice, something you would not want to practice on is a gun...

Silver solder is also an acquired skill that will take a bit more surface prep and cleaning prior to the job.. but it is the preferred method for attaching sights, etc.. Not as much heat, a bit easier on the finish..

With ANY welding process, you are going to be generating molten plasma, and it will have to be filed, sanded, drilled etc to blend it in. .. which means a refinish.. the MIG,, because, from what I understand, you are just trying to fill in and re-drill a pin hole will probably work fine. I hope you have a mill, or a large and stable drill press to poke the hole..

If you are careful enough, and it is not an heirloom, museum quality, just my shooter, cold blue may do the job. but again, with that too, cleaning and surface prep is the key to success... read the darn directions! and q-tips are your friend...

Sent from my 1986 Motorola Bag Phone.

Seek professional assistance-
as in a professional welder not a professional gun plumber/hack.

I can and have welded sheet metal with my wire welder, 18 gauge and 24 gauge. you don't weld a full bead you weld here and there untill you get the whole thing done. no warpage and no body filler when finished if you do it right. heat control, same as this sight repair. get in and get out.Tig is too damm hard for me to learn, two hands and a foot. i taught myself how to weld sheet metal because i own jeeps and my CJ likes to run into rocks and trees and roll down hills sometimes(not on the tires).

Onward Allusion said:

Um, I hope this doesn't sound stupid, but couldn't you just use a bigger pin?

Click to expand...

I don't know about the 'sounding stupid' part but if it does....

We have the same stupid sounding question.

Why couldn't you just go to a bigger hole and pin?

He did say -

It's just a Taurus. I don't care if it looks any more ugly than it already is.

Click to expand...

I think a bigger pin would be easy and probably wouldn't even be noticed.

Seedtick

what size is the pin?

The primary concern would be damaging the heat treatment.

With a large frame .357 it is probably not an issue as many large frame .357 have more material than needed to begin with. But the danger is others reading this may apply the same fix to something else.
Some guns gain a large percentage of their strength from the heat treatment.
I think you could make some of the .454 Casull and similar really high pressure cartridge revolvers very dangerous by partially undoing the heat treatment on a portion of the barrel.
Or making it less uniform.
Some models are just barely adequate with some margin of error for these high pressure cartridges with the proper heat treatment. Remove that heat treatment and they are inadequate or lose the safety margin that prevents minor variables from causing catastrophic failures.

Randomly welding barrels that are finished with a very specific heat treatment could be a dangerous habit to get used to.

Would it be possible to redrill the hole with a larger bit so everything will line up? If so you could cut the shank off the bit for a pin and red loc-tite it in place. Drill bit shanks aren't hardened. If you ever need to remove the pin a few hundred degrees of heat, about as much as soft soldering requires, will loosen the loc-tite so you can drive the pin out.

Yes, I thought about using a bigger pin. But that would mean buying another pin and paying shipping. Will probably come out to like $10. Hit the sight with a quick weld is free.

Click to expand...

You can't chuck up a small nail in your electric drill and make a custom size pin using a file?