doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Welding a top lever back together?

Bill,
If I cant find somebody locally, I will take you up on your offer. Thanks, Ross

Send it to Bill G. Great guy to talk with and he knows welding!
Cheers,

Another consideration with gun parts is it's material. I wonder why it snapped and just didn't bend. Even being casehardend it should have bent. I would anneal it before welding. That can be done in your oven on the clean cycle. If you don't you may end up with a big blob of porosity at the weld zone. Hopefully they didn't use cast iron for that part. That will make things really tricky. I agree that someone that works on guns and welds would be a better choice for the repair. There is functional welding and restoration welding and the corner shop may just weld it for function. I also weld for a living and wouldn't let many of the guys I work with get anywhere near my guns with a welding rig.

Reb:
Congratulations on the SAC acquisition and hopefully the top-lever will be a minor repair issue. You have made some astute observations on the early and later SAC gun differences; and are correct in your evaluation of top-lever modifications. Top-levers on the earliest guns are the most delicate (the earliest example I have seen is serial number 37, and an even earlier prototype with some unusual features); then the levers are "beefed-up somewhat by serial number 5XXX, and finally transition into the "clubby" shaped levers seen on your later gun (differences which I attempted to illustrate in one of my SAC articles). However, the amount of metal in a SAC top lever was also determined, to some unknown extent, by the weight of the gun; lighter guns got more filing, and heavier guns less. In the case of your early AE, your photo shows the frame to exhibit what I have referred to (due to my ignorance for a better term) as "flattend" breech balls, whereas the later gun has the typical and most common rounded breech ball treatment. I have seen a fair number of SAC guns with the flattened breech ball feature (to include one lower grade model, a Grade 2), and all were lightweight guns with 28" barrels. It is not uncommon to see 28" guns without that feature; but they are generally heavier. I have never recorded a SAC gun having 30" or 32" barrels with the "flattened" breechball feature (but there's likely one out there somewhere!). Originally I thought this a feature used only on the earliest SAC graded guns; but have since seen the one lower grade, and presently own two late examples (1902 and 1904) also having that feature, and again both are 28" lightweight guns. The later example is a CE Grade; and, at some point prior to my acquisition, it also suffered a broken top lever; a problem that a previous owner resolved by replacing the lever with an unengraved piece salvaged from a low grade gun. As C Grade SAC guns are very rare, I have yet to find the appropriate engraving pattern so that the replacement can be re-cut in a style similar to the original. As it appears you find SAC guns interesting, email me at thomas.archer@charter.net and I'll send photos of the unique SAC prototype (I'm too dense to understand how to post photos directly to this forum).

Ross,
Send it to Bill G. He needs the practice. :p Just kiddin. Bill could weld tin foil together.

Here are the pics that Tom sent me of the awesome Syracuse. WoW!!

That is one good looking Syracuse! Prettiest one I've ever seen. I usually dont care too much for the shape of the frame, but this one overall is very pleasing to the eye!

Best,
Dustin