Barrel Fitting Finished

[All Hawks Kill]

Well I had a bit of a strange one, and it was my first one as well.  After reading all the help in the FAQs I set out to see if I could do the fitting myself.  This barrel would lock closed but it was sloppy, with both up and down and side to side movement.  So I set out yesterday to find out what size shim I needed and that was a task in itself.  I tried the soda can trick and that was too much shim, so I back down to alum. foil.  Even on layer of foil seemed too much as it wouldn't close. Then I got to looking and saw the that the pivot opening didn't appear to be round, and there was also evidence that someone before me had done some filing on the pivot.  So after much testing and trying different things I found that what it needed to lock up properly was to be built up on the lower part of the pivot opening and very little to boot.  I tried to epoxy a .001 shim in place, but it was way too thick.  I carefully removed material from it little by little, trying the fit to the receiver as I went.  The problem was the shim was completely filed away and all that was left was a thin layer of epoxy when it fit right.  I knew that wouldn't work, so I had to come up with plan "B".  So I removed all the epoxy and then got out my soldering gear.  I removed the extractor, spring and pins then got the the barrel in a vise in the best position I could to solder.  I cleaned the area I wanted to solder with acetone and wiped it dry.  I then applied my little torch to only the lower part of the pivot opening and let it heat up until the solder melted and started to flow.  I did put a bit more solder on the pivot than I knew I'd need so that I could file/sand it into shape.  It took some time, and I had to add more solder at one point in the shaping, but I got there.  I found that one of 11/32 cedar arrow shafts makes a great tool to wrap with emery and do the finish sanding.  Well once completed to what I like, I might now have the best fit of any of my barrels.  You can close a piece of alum foil in it and you can not pull it out, and it latches solid and with enough bite.  Now I know solder is soft, so only time will tell how long this is going to last.  Guess I'll give y'all a report at some time later.....

[quickdtoo]

Congrats, as always, whatever works!!  But to be honest, good epoxy has impressive compressive strength, some members have just used JB Stik with no shim, its compressive strength is 10-14kpsi which is about what forces are upon the hinge according to some here that have calculated that spec on high pressure chamberings. Super Weld's spec is over 3 times that at 36kpsi and easy to work with, so if the solder doesn't work out well, you have an option. Let the epoxy set up partially, then lock the release agent treated barrel in position and allow the epoxy to fully cure, remove the barrel and file away the excess epoxy.

I've worked with a couple barrel pivots that had been botched by previous owners, the easiest solution for me was to file the pivot oversize to clean it up and square it up to the bore, then epoxy a thicker shim, then cut it to fit, one such barrel was a 270 Ultracomp with a .026" stainless steel shim, I put about 90 rounds thru it before selling it to a member here, he gave it to a relative who was still shooting it at last report. So there's always a work around to a butchered pivot. 

Tim

[All Hawks Kill]

Thanks Tim!

I hadn't read were anyone had just used epoxy, or I'd been finished a hour or so sooner.  If the solder fails, the I'll go with the epoxy or your other idea of making the pivot hole completely oversided and shimming it.

Derek

[quickdtoo]

Mattparliament used JB Stik, it's in the barrel fitting info, I don't recollect any range reports tho, but my recollector doesn't always work so well!!

Tim

[All Hawks Kill]

I read so much over the past few days, I could have missed it or just read it and it didn't compute........ 

Either way, I'll give a range report in the next few days on my solder job.