doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Relaying a Botched, Silver Soldered Rib

I have a SxS with a poorly relayed rib, I know the person who did (tried) the job and he said he used a MAPP torch and real silver solder. I realize I will have to remove this junk and relay the rib with the proper material, I'm planning on Brownell's Hi-Force 44 (or whatever it's called-melts at about 450F). I've done this before with good results, but always with barrels that were not screwed with previously.

My question is, what is the likelihood that anything has been damaged by the barrels seeing enough heat to melt real silver solder (which likely melted onto the barrel at >750F)? The barrel shims between the barrels are intact and soldering occured away from the lump. Should I just give up on these or clean them up and resolder the right way? I would likely have to heat them up again very hot to remove the existing silver soldered top rib.

What would some of you do? Any advice or things to look for?

Thank you

Here would be my concerns: The compatibility between the two solders, and the build-up of solder.
HF 44 is really a soft solder, it will melt long before the higher silver bearing solder will. So basically you�re going to attach the rib to old solder using a softer solder. That�s not going to make a very good bond. . Think of using glue/epoxy on a painted surface, no matter how good the epoxy is, the bond is only as strong as the paint�s bond to the underlying surface.

Also keep in mind that the thicker the solder joint the weaker the shear strength of that joint.

Don�t think heating the barrels to 750 caused any issues, just need to either remove all the old solder and replace with new, or fix using the same type of solder that was used earlier.

Gently gently . Problems could arise in getting sufficient heat in to the back ends to melt the silver solder but not to affect the brazing of the lumps. Good luck.

And as you know, you can use a heat sink for the breech end.
Some even use wet clothes
Mike

While I have never soldered a rib before I have done a ton of commercial silver soldering. First, solders are most likely incompatible with each other. you will need to remove the silver first to have the best chance of success. I would not try to heat the silver to remove it. The remelt temp is likely 100 - 150 degrees higher that the initial heat. I would file or sand the silver away. The good news is that it is a much higher remelt temp and if there is some solder left that is not in a contact area it may not hurt you. It will not melt and purge into your new joint if you can control your heat well.

You will need to get it up to whatever heat it takes to get it apart; that may be over 700 degrees f. But then, I would clean off all the old solder. You can start with a bead blaster if you can get access to one, then with emery cloth. get it back to bare metal wherever you absolutely can. Definitely use low temp solder and stay away from acid flux; it's nothing but problems down the road.

Thanks for the suggestions. When I got into it, I discovered that the material used was not silver solder but was more likely a flux coated bronze brazing rod. I needed oxyacetylene and some prying to get the rib removed. No way I want to spend the time and effort getting the rest of this bronze off the rib and barrel, plus I wouldn't feel comfortable shooting it after all of the heat this barrel has seen. So a ruinous attempt at a simple repair has, unfortunatley, relegated this old Nitro Special to the parts bin. :-(

Why do you believe your barrels have been damaged by the heat? Unless they are severely dented, the heat is not likely to have hurt them. They are not made of heat treated steel.