Tinning a barrel prior to soldering on sights

How to prepare and tin parts prior to joining by soldering.

[@genegoodwin8925]

I tried this on an old piece of steel I had and it stuck, but I didn't do it right and could break my "sight" back off. I wish you would have continued for us and showed us how you soldered the sights on. I am glad you shared this and I will try it again, but next time I'm goung to follow this video closer. Thankd for sharing.

[@neildock3973]

Thanks Rod! Looks easy, when you know how. I can't wait to try this.

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

It's pretty simple. But getting a good solder joint on steel is not as simple as copper pipes. Lead and tin LOVE copper and solder flows easily on to it. It will stick to steel and to stainless steel. But it has to be convinced to do so and you MUST follow the proper protocols. Those who say that soldering on sights does not require tinning are simply asking for a disaster. Do it right, or don't do it at all!

[@raulmartinez7730]

Wow I always wanted to know how it was done and it seems easy

[@dznnf7]

Cool video. Of course now I want to see the sight going on, the removal of the excess solder, the finish on the completed barrel... lots of requests from internet strangers, eh?

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

Ahhh, but that would be no fun. All you do is clamp the tinned sight to the tinned portion of the barrel, heat it until the solder melts, wait for it to cool and take the clamp off. That would be like watching that guy paint on the PBS channel! People would stop offering to pay me for putting adds on my videos. I don't know why they ask, because I always tell them to get stuffed! I hate waiting for adds to play to watch dumb videos. LOL

[@WHATAGIRLWANTS2009]

@@RodHenricksonGunsmith How to you clean the excess solder off that is showing around the cooled sight?

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

@@WHATAGIRLWANTS2009 normaly, after tinning I clamp the sight on and reheat. Before it cools I blow straight down on the top of the sight with an air compressor which blows away 99% of the excess material. The rest I remove with light sanding.

[@WHATAGIRLWANTS2009]

@@RodHenricksonGunsmith Thank you

[@Avchoca78HM-AA-E]

What is the tin-lead ratio in the solder wire?thanks.

[@danhayward9186]

60/40 rosin wire for soldering if you use acid flux for tinning wash parts in hot soapy water to remove acid which will cause rust again

[@Ryan-qz3vh]

Does the heat added to the barrel not warp it or degrade the strength? That seems like more heat than it would ever be subject to in normal use.

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

Barrels produced in 4140 and 416 are in their annealed state and are not hardened or heat treated. They are dead soft. 4140 is typically about 20Rc and 416 is about 25Rc. Heating to the 400F temperature of Tin solder and air cooling does not change the hardness at all. Heating to the 1200F melting point of silver solder and air cooling can sometimes increase the hardness of the steel a couple of points which makes no difference. The problem with silver soldering is that the high temp can cause the barrel to scale which can destroy a barrels internal finish and cause accuracy problems. The risk can be diminished by running an inert gas through the barrel. In olden days gunmakers would drive a piece of dry, non-oil bearing wood into the barrel into the area to be soldered. The gases produced by the charring wood would keep the barrel from scaling. SILVER SOLDERING ON GUNS SHOULD ONLY BE DONE BY PROFESSIONALS ! Gun barrels can be warped with heat if the barrel has been bent and straightened at some point in it's life. But generally only if the entire barrel is heated. Modern barrels are all stress relived and should not warp with heat. NEVER APPLY HEAT TO ANY AREA OF THE ACTION OR ANY OTHER HEAT TREATED PART.

[@Ryan-qz3vh]

@@RodHenricksonGunsmith Great information and exactly what I was wanting to know. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[@LilYeshua]

Like tinning a shotgun barrel before soldering the rib on.

[@fordfan3179]

What type of flux and solder would you recommend for a 150 yr old musket barrel? Also, are you using map gas or propane?

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

Well, tin solder is going to be the strongest of the soft solders as long as it's for affixing sights and not tying to weld components. As far as flux goes, just about anything will work on that old, carbon steel. Even rosin. I would probably tin both parts with an acid solder and then clean it with steel wool, clamp the two parts together with a bit of rosin powder between them and hen reheat and feed in more solder on the edges.

[@fordfan3179]

Thanks Ron, yeh it's the front site on an 1862 contract rifle that had been "Sporterized" at some point in it's life. Some 7" was cut off the barrel, over 2' off the fore grip and stripped of just about every part not required to fire the gun. I've been working on it for almost 6 months. The hardest part is locating period correct parts. I'm just about there now. I have to set the front site and inlet some barrel band retaining springs then stain and finish.

[@NYRM1974]

Greetings Rod: I'm working on an old shotgun restoration project. Can this method work on minor pitting dimples? And if so what materials do I need? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[@jackbarnes9728]

How do you go about perfectly aligning the front sight?

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

I put a parallel on the front scope base an one on the sight and step back and check the alignment and then clamp the tinned sight down with a machinist clamp and reheat.

[@swingingrichard]

I would like to place a brass shim on the full cock notch on the tumbler of my musket to set the trigger pull at a little over 3 lbs. is this tinning process the same?

[@bmoesucka8619]

i just tried this on a spanish mauser an it just rolled right off when i dipped steel wool in flux an wipes like you .what am i doing wrong i have lead free solder plumbers stuff an im using water soluble flux ?

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

Probably either the wrong kind of flux, or it was not hot enough. I generally use Worthingtons acid flux or rosin, but I generally will start with acid to get it to bite and then switch over to the pine goop. The temperature of the steel is just beyond the yellow color, breaking into light blue and not quite into deep blue. The flux I use is for stainless steel but it works well on a broad range of steels. www.amazon.ca/Worthington-Stainless-Steel-Flux-200-850/dp/B00V7UND10/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1550328657&sr=8-3&keywords=solder+and+flux+worthingtons

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

Practice on a piece of scrap steel first to get the feel for the correct temperature.

[@bmoesucka8619]

@@RodHenricksonGunsmith thanks now should i be sanding all way to bare metal

[@bmoesucka8619]

im. trying to put on a front sight

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

Yes, you have to get rid of all the rust and bluing. It has to be bare metal.

[@joeblo5516]

How does the solder take rebluing?

[@usnchief1339]

You have to remove the solder by sanding after the sight is soldered on. I have done this twice and it works just fine. you can also cold blue the areas you don't want the solder to stick to.

[@tysonrowe1002]

What type of solder are you using? Thank you

[@RodHenricksonGunsmith]

Just standard Walmart tin solder.

[@tysonrowe1002]

@@RodHenricksonGunsmith thank you

[@อาคมมากบุญ-ภ7ฐ]

ต้องการลำกล้อง

[@birenderkumar2227]

Wire name please

[@bendangwatilongkumer4829]

lead wire...😂😂

[@StrelokTheStalker]

What a bizarre time to cut the video...

[@อาคมมากบุญ-ภ7ฐ]

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