Front sight fell off

[4v50 Gary]

dstorm911 is right. That's how we were taught to tighten up a sight at Lassen College.

 

[Misfire99]

neither will silver solder as it takes to long to cure and does not have the strength.

This comment tells me that I shouldn't have scrat work on any of my guns.

Silver solder has a tensile strength in the 50,000 psi range and it's used to hold carbide onto tool steel to make a carbide tool.

Now JB weld might work but the proper way is to use silver solder when installing front sight ramps and other attachments that are steel to steel. Maybe the reason scrat thinks it's not strong enough is the work he saw, or did, wasn't prepared correctly. The fit between the parts MUST be held down to .001 or less of a gap. You don't just hold a couple of bits of steel together and flow some solder on them, it's not brazing with brass alloy. You have to fit the parts. Or maybe he is thinking of lead/tin solder, commonly called soft solder, that is used to join shotgun barrels.

Silver solder takes high heat to work, in the 1200 degree range. And it will discolor your finish. But I guarantee that if the work is properly prepared and the proper amount of heat is applied it will hold a front sight on no problem. I gave a demo once of silver soldering two half inch bolts together. Then had one in a vice and turned the other with a wrench. The bolt broke not the solder joint. I think that is strong enough for a front sight.

 

[sundance44s]

It would probally melt one of these Itilian made barrels if ya got it hot enough to silversolder it on ..I`ve used 5 min epoxy ..the front sight is still on after years of use . I was thinking about JB weld ..but couldn`t find mine. so I used the epoxy.

 

[DuncanSA]

Thanks dstorm1911. This was info I needed right now.

 

[Mark whiz]

J-B Weld......................the greatest thing since duct tape.

I intentionally took my Pietta sight off cause the pistol was shooting off to the right. This was probably more a function of barrel installation, but adjusting the sight was an easy fix. I ordered a couple of new sights and J-B'd one of them in. The sight looks a tad crooked now, but it shoots straight as an arrow and that sight will probably survive Armegeddon.

 

[sundance44s]

Duct tape is a quick fix till the JB weld sets up ...lol

 

[bigbadgun]

hell ill just leave the duct tape so forget about it.

 

[Misfire99]

It would probally melt one of these Itilian made barrels if ya got it hot enough to silversolder it on ..I`ve used 5 min epoxy ..the front sight is still on after years of use . I was thinking about JB weld ..but couldn`t find mine. so I used the epoxy.

Steels melt in the 2500 degree range. So you are only about half way there when silver soldering. When you realize that the puddle you create with an oxy/act torch is around 2500 degrees you're doing something. That's real hot.

The JB weld and other epoxies work but they are ugly. When you silver solder something you only have one thousandth of an inch thick area of silver and you can blacked it to match the bluing. When silver solder is done properly you can't see the joint.