Attach sight-blade to stainless steel barrel; silver solder?

[nfafan]

Hello all,

Anyone familiar with gunsmithing, ie - silver soldering or brazing metal to metal?

Reason I ask is that I have an old Freedom Arms .22LR belt-buckle mini revolver that had the front-sight blade fall right off.
It apparently was never properly secured as it should have been, considering the level of abuse it would be subjected to when using the belt-buckle as the "holster".

Anyway, given that the gun itself is stainless steel, can the sight blade simply be silver-soldered or brazed back on the barrel?

Thanks!

[Azzy]

May want to check this out : http://www.artmetal.com/brambush/for...sages/149.html

Looks like good advice. I would say it would work well, but would it be overkill? How tight of a fit does the part have now? if it is snug enough, would a drop of some sort of adheasive do a fair job, without worrying about the barrel being heated to the temps you would have to braze at?

[nfafan]

It has to be on the barrel tight, straight and true, and, most of all: secure enough to withstand "belt buckle OC".

Now in practical terms, the little Freedom Arms mini is a novelty act - even moreso when the little "bird's head" belt-buckle-fitting grips are installed.

It's usable (what a stretch...) without the front-sight blade, but I was just thinking of "completeness".

I am thinking the downside to trying to braze or solder is the heat and discoloration to the barrel...

[cdi]

How about a nice dovetail with a custom front sight?

[richbug]

I have silver soldered stainless front sights in applications of severe abuse. At minimum it takes 1100 degrees F. I got some discoloration of the barrel(some straw colors came out). Your results might vary.

A silver bearing, low temp solder might be a better choice if you want it to stay pretty. Brownells sells several. I used one called Hi-force 44??? It worked well, nothing broken free yet.

[nfafan]

How about a nice dovetail with a custom front sight?

Doubt that there is enough steel to dovetail, bbl itself is under 2". The sight blade was literally surface-soldered (or epoxy glued??) to the barrel. Attaching a flat surface to a curved surface is never easy, especially in such small dimensions.

Have no idea why Freedom Arms took that approach. Maybe explains why they got out of the mini-revolver business.

I may ask a local jeweler to take a look as I would guess they know how to silver solder and clean up after themselves.

[cdi]

I'm working at the retail store (Lowe's Certified Guns) on Sat. I think we have one. I'll measure the bbl. and let you know if there is enough meat for me to cut a dove tail in it.

[nfafan]

I'm working at the retail store (Lowe's Certified Guns) on Sat. I think we have one. I'll measure the bbl. and let you know if there is enough meat for me to cut a dove tail in it.

Thanks, appreciate the recon!

Just be advised that the old Freedom Arms .22LR mini-revolver interpretation has a typical tubular barrel, while many of the NAA minis have a flat-topped, beefer barrel. (Or at least the ones I've seen in current pics of their products.)

[wa3ra]

A well-equipped bench jeweler will have a miniature arc welder (tack-arc, pulse-arc) that will do the job for you; they then polish up the bead with a ceramic impregnated buffer-wheel and the sight will 'look like it growed there'.