Solder or Braze

[Traffer]

Hi folks,
I have two unrelated questions: 1)I am doing some fix up on an old butchered up JC Higgens bolt action 16 ga.
It has had extensive repair and modifications from many years ago. All the work is horribly done. It was given to me so I am trying to finish making a slug gun out of it. The barrel has been cut down to about 23". There is a front sight soldered on (crooked). It shoots very low according to the height of the sight. I want to straighten out the front sight and add a rear sight. I assumed that the front sight had been silver brazed on. But after doing some research I see that regular lead solder can be used on steel. I don't know what it is put on with. I guess I can heat it up and see at what temp it melts. I want to solder a ring around the rear sight to hold it on. I am planning on using regular lead solder for that and reattaching the front sight with lead solder. Do you have any advise? Do you think that regular 60/40 solder will hold?
2) I am making a break open 22 mag from scratch. I bought a barrel from a Marlin 60, 22lr rifle. I have bored it out for the 22 mag. I am planning on loosely following Cryptic Cricket's design seen here: https://youtu.be/fAiwkGaoSbQ My question is: I plan on making a receiver that will be pinned to the barrel. I want to attach the barrel lug to the receiver (Schedule 80 black pipe) by welding with a flux core wire welder. Or weld the lug directly to the barrel. I have never heard of anyone welding to a barrel and don't know if I would be messing up the temper or if the weld would be strong enough. What would you suggest?

 

[boom boom]

Pt. 1--soft lead solder is actually more commonly used on shotguns and the like than silver brazing because 800 F and above temperatures are needed depending on the specific alloy. Try Highforce 44 solder sold by Brownells instead which only takes about 475 F which also makes it suitable if you are hot blueing the finish. You can also talk to the gunsmiths on duty about your project if you call Brownells.

Pt. 2. Generally exposing a barrel to the kind of heat necessary for welding will affect its heat treatment. The closer the weld is to the chamber, the more dangerous as this is the area of peak pressure for the barrel. What is worse is that the effect will be unpredictable which is why generally people re-heat treat the metal which is a specialty.

Have you thought about mechanically joining the receiver and the barrel. You could use a trunnion with a pinned barrel such as the ak--or have the barrel and receiver threaded to fit each other, etc. Find a good machinist's shop with a lathe and talk with them about what you want to do is my advice unless you already have a machine shop.

 

[Traffer]

Pt. 1--soft lead solder is actually more commonly used on shotguns and the like than silver brazing because 800 F and above temperatures are needed depending on the specific alloy. Try Highforce 44 solder sold by Brownells instead which only takes about 475 F which also makes it suitable if you are hot blueing the finish. You can also talk to the gunsmiths on duty about your project if you call Brownells.

Pt. 2. Generally exposing a barrel to the kind of heat necessary for welding will affect its heat treatment. The closer the weld is to the chamber, the more dangerous as this is the area of peak pressure for the barrel. What is worse is that the effect will be unpredictable which is why generally people re-heat treat the metal which is a specialty.

Have you thought about mechanically joining the receiver and the barrel. You could use a trunnion with a pinned barrel such as the ak--or have the barrel and receiver threaded to fit each other, etc. Find a good machinist's shop with a lathe and talk with them about what you want to do is my advice unless you already have a machine shop.

Thanks Boom Boom. That is what I was looking for. I am encouraged about low temp solder. It means that desoldering the front sight and resoldering it should be pretty easy. And about the welding of the barrel, I kind of figured that is why it shouldn't be done. I am going to use a pin system. The chamber area of the barrel is almost consistent in diameter. So I am just going to finish making it all the same diameter and fit the Black pipe receiver (with the lug prewelded on) to it with a very tight fit and runa pin through the bottom. I noticed the pin hole in the Marlin Model 60 barrel is about 75% through the barrel. I will just copy that method.