Stan,
When the hinge pin is replaced, it would be replaced with a larger diameter one to take up the wear( or in the case of your barrels abuse). The fitting of the hook to the hinge pin would be done by "Spot" and "scrape". If the barrels are canted, it wouldn't hurt to check the lugs for fit in the receiver, they shouldn't be able to close canted. There is no doubt that you are better with a mill, than I (everybody is better); but if I tried to straighten this problem out with a mill, I would have it so screwed up, I couldn't sell it for scrap iron. With a scraper, you can take less and take it in a limited area, where the smoke or Prussian blue tells you to take it.
Mike
Mike, the barrels aren't canted when they close. The cut on the hook is what is canted, badly. What this amounts to is that only a small portion of the hook bearing surface is actually contacting the pin, and only on one side. It wouldn't last 'til the water gets hot, with a lot of shooting.
The mill will only be used to get the cut "close", to hog out most of the excess weld, and establish the proper position of it. The rest will be done as you describe, but I prefer using my little kerosene lamp to smoke the surfaces, as opposed to Prussian blue.
Stan, don't assume anything is square , parallel or perpendicular on the original gun. Have you checked the original barrels to see how they compare?
Mark, the firing pins hit dead center on both barrels, so that is not an issue. And, the original barrel set has the hook cut perfectly square, or parallel with the breech faces of the barrels. I checked them in the exact same way I checked the new set shown in the picture.
Thanks to all for the great info and pertinent questions. I called a friend a few minutes ago who teaches welding at a local technical school campus. He said I can sign up for the continuing education course for tig and he will show me the ropes concerning it. He says they have some of the small machines like I would use for delicate work, micro-tigging, as it were. Things are coming together.
SRH
