Should the weld be built up at the back of the hook or slightly towards the lower part of the hook, so that the barrels are pulled down and into the action face?
Silvers,
I haven't welded, but I have soldered in shim stock and refit. I've covered the entire surface uniformly (recently .008 feeler guage), then removed material to have decreasing thickness toward the bottom of the hook. Having excess metal at the bottom of the hook initially "sets" the barrels down too far and the initial contact with the breech is at the bottom. As you remove metal preferentially from the bottom of the hook radius, barrel contact is broken with the bottom half of the breech and moves toward the top. The goal with a Fox is to set the barrels "up and back" so they contact the breechface only across the upper half, having zero contact with about the bottom quarter of the breech and the watertable. It only requires about 1 - 1.5 thou between flats and table. As the hook/pin mating wears, the bolt pulls the barrels "back and down;" the lever moves left and eventually the flats hit the watertable and the barrels go off face.
I've also soldered shim stock in the bolting slot, but it blew out after a few thousand rounds. I paid a shop to add weld there. The last thing in the sequence, after maximum mating of hook/pin to effect good contact across the upper chamber area and flush barrel/breech ball mating is honing in the bolt bite/lever position.
I'll probably get flamed, but hey, I'm a wood guy.
