I've been on this bbs for almost 4 yrs now and hadn't seen any posts on how to re-lay ribs on a double. I've seen bits on Shotgun Journal and the H&H dvd. But nothing more detailed for the uninitiated like me. Like many of you, I've run into situations where a prospective gun purchase had a loose rib or, in this case, my prized gun. I've been working up to doing a rib re-lay and now I had gotten in a pickle where I needed a gun re-layed. So, this is my first full job of re-laying. This is just the way I did it and I make no claim to it being the best way or the "right way", just the way I could deduce that pros do it, based on snippets of information. I welcome tips, criticism, or anything else from those that have done this or those that see a better way.
Strip the ribs from the barrel by heating the muzzles and loosening the ribs and pull lightly heating further aft until the rib drops off.
Once the ribs are off, you'll see all kinds of nasty stuff between the barrels. Don't get too excited. Let them cool and get some sandpaper and clean up the barrels between the ribs, but leave the old blueing as much as possible. It'll act like a solder stop-off. There will undoubtedly be a step where the barrels were "struck" (filed and polished) leaving higher metal under the ribs. Take a small file and run along this step to get a clean surface for the solder to stick to. This will be the fillet of the solder joint so it needs to be cleaned.
Once they're clean down to the bare steel, no rust or anything else, you can re-tin them. Do the same with ribs. Squeaky clean for them too. Leave the blueing on the rib tops as well. You don't want solder sticking to the top of a matted rib.
Before you start tinning the barrels, get some Weller solder blocking paste. It's more like a grease. Put some in the muzzle ends as far back as you can stick your pinky in. Don't get ANY on the front of the muzzles. Put your finger in and then apply it while pulling your finger out to the muzzle.
You'll need to tin using acid flux. I found acid core solder and well as having some acid flux around. You'll need a stainless steel brush that looks like a little acid brush. Weller sells them, but a little use and the plastic handle melted on me. So I pulled the shaft of the brush and made a wooden handle for it.
Had to break here due to limits of posting. Please let me finish before posting comments.
