doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Forearm lug failures

I don't think I am abusing my SxS's, but I do shoot them a lot. Over the years, I have had 4 forearm lug failures, all from various mfgs. I suspect this is not a problem unique to me alone. Comments invited.

I've repaired quite a few of them.
They don't seem to be any one mfg'rs problem.

Fox, Parker, Ithaca, LCS, even a very modern (2000's mfgr) Italian SxS 5 figure gun.

The most common problem that I see is that the lug itself, the rounded portion that mates to the round bbl contours is a poor fit.
They drop down and the top edge sits nice along the bbls, the part you can see. But beneath there, the contact betw the two steel surfaces can be fair to very poor.

Soft solder needs a very good parts fit for it to have any strength. With out that, it's just a layer of Lead/Tin betw the parts and you know how strong that is.

The other problem I see is often just a very poor sweat solder job in spite of the fact that there may be a good fit.
The loose lug pulled from the bbls shows some tinning as does the bbl contact surfaces. But in many areas there may be none or the surfaces were not clean and the solder refuses to do what
it's supposed to do.

The Reinforced Lug does hold on a lot better and I can think of maybe 1 that had come loose that I fixed.
The reinforcement is simply that the Lug AND the Short Under Rib normally separate pieces soldered in place, are now made as one piece.
The Lower Rib section of the Reinforced Lug is much larger and has a greater area of contact to the bbls for better solder contact.
If fitted right and soldered correctly, this will solver most of the problems.

The lug takes a lot of spring tension in some mechanisms like the J Spring snap on forend. An 80yr old soft solder joint is liable to give it up. Things do break down.
Nothing everything lasts forever no matter what the old adv used to tell the buyers.

The long bolt in the tip of the FE that runs thru to engage the front end of the FE iron is there to keep the FE Wood from pulling off of the FE Iron.
This on BTF mostly where the shooters grip is on the wood, Simple physics,,the gun recoils backwards, the wood is held so it cannot recoil with the gun like it wants to.
So the gun and FE iron pull away from the FE Wood.
The 2 screws that usually attach the FE Iron to the FE Wood can act as wedges to split the wood as it is pulled forward off of the iron.
Any small screws inserted from the FE Iron shoe into the back end of the wood are of little strength. They are often stripped on guns when you go to dis-assemble them

BTF w/o the bolt anchor sometimes have other reinforcements to avoid this problem. The Fox U shaped steel plate around the iron and inletted into the wood attempts to do the same thing.

I've fixed a few 21's (w/o the bolt and with broken FE wood) by inletting at the very end of the FE iron tang for a 3/32 square steel recoil lug ( Used up, too short 3/32 HS Steel engravers bits).
The underside of the FE Iron is milled out cross-wise for the lug just ahead of the front attachment screw. Not much room there but it fits.
Kind of a bumper hitch arrangement.
Everything reinforced and positioned, then glas bedded.
The lug transfers the recoil to the wood.

When the FE lug gets loose but has not yet pulled free of the bbl's, it will slide back and forth. Sometimes takes some effort to move it by finger power, sometimes not.
The real clue will be it's forward movement will push against the very end of the under rib.
This will buckle the rib sometimes. Others will buckle it a small amt and then detach the rib for a few inches.
All depends on how good That sweat solder job was too.

Straightening out the under rib with a kink in it is sometimes difficult.
The ones where it's detached a few inches are actually easier as you can slide something under neath that end to use as an anvil to (lightly) strike and reform the rib back to normal.
They will always need some polishing after the dent & fender work.
Resetting rib(s) & lugs usually end with at least a touch up express rust blue.
Sometimes the easy ones where you can simply clean off the lug, tin it and re-sweat solder it back into place can be done w/o any sign of a repair

Here's a couple pics from 2 or 3 lug fix'es. No particular order.

It always appeared to me that the old J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. had the right idea for attaching the fore-end lug --



Wonder why others didn't pick up on this style fore-end lug?

I use a propane torch for the repairs to the lug generally.
Clamp the parts together including the top rib and the bottom ribs in the immediate area.
Heat the area slowly with a gentle flame till the solder flows. Pull the torch away at that point as the metal is plenty hot to keep it melted for a few more seconds at least.
Tighten the clamp(s) just a bit if they seem to need it especially the one one that lug being resoldered. The ones holding the ribs generally don't need tightenin
unless you are resoldering the ribs in place too.
Don't over do it.

Have your solder wire flattened out with a hammer to a paper thin section and touch that to the joints here and there if you think they need any additional solder.
The thin solder will instantly melt and flow into the joint(s).

The main thing is to NOT over heat things. People get nervous when heating the ribs and lugs on a SxS set thinking at some point the whole thing is going to come apart and fall to pieces.
It won't.

Bring the heat up so the solder melts and then flows thru the joints thats all. Any more heat will only burn the flux away and then the solder joint is no good.
Heat the metal around the soldered joints and not the joint directly.

I do use an elec soldering gun, a 200w, to tin the ribs and the bbls when re=ribbing a set of bbl's.
It's quick and clean for that job. A smaller watt gun won't have the power to do it, but the larger one does.
Sometimes right up to the thicker area of the bbls at the forend lug I have to use
a soldering copper to tin the bbl's. The HD soldering gun won't quite be able to do it there. But that goes fast with the copper. I don't like using a torch for the job as it just spreads too
mush heat around for what is being done.

I use the elec soldering gun to fill the muzzle end of the bbls with solder as well.

All clamped together, then the propane torch come back into play to set the ribs down onto the bbls in place. Start at the breech and solder them down towards the muzzle.
The rib(s) grow in length a tiny bit from the heat. If you start at the muzzle, the rib will likely be a bit to long at the breech end to fit right when you get there!



re:
those LCS forend lugs with the screw attachment to a small plate above the bbls..
They can be a pain when a repair comes around.
The lug can get loose even with the reinforcement screw and plate. The solder joint gives way and the loose lug moves regardless of the extra screw.

The problem for the gunsmith is that the lug though loose inbetw the bbls,,is you can't get it out of there.
It's still attached to the small plate above the tubes by that screw.

You can usually slide it a small distance back and forth and lift it a very little distance off of the surface of the bbl's, but that gives you almost no
room to scrape, or otherwise clean the lug and bbl surfaces in there to prep them for a re-solder.

The underrib is usually pushed up a little from the lug being loose and moving forward. That has to be straightened and then also cleaned and tinned for re-solder. But the lug is still in the
way in the bbl's.

I don't know about other manufacturers, but I have a few L.C. Smith's that the lug (loop) was loose and on a few older "elsies" they put a short rib between the loop to the end of the barrels. The longer bottom rib and this shorter one helped hold the loop in place even if loose. Sometimes going unnoticed while shooting the loop pushed the bottom rib loose. Also on some of these earlier guns it shows a drawing of a 7-32 screw from in-between the top of barrels (under the top rib) down to the loop holding it in place.



Also on some of the beavertail for-ends there was a screw that went through the top of the for-end wood and attached to the for-end metal. Hunter Arms called this a Recoil Rod and was to relieve the recoil on the loop.



This print was for Regular framed L.C. Smith's and I did not see any drawing for the Featherweight guns showing this screw.