Hollow under ribs

[billd]

Has anyone used the hollow under ribs Rice Barrels sells?   What's the best way to solder them? Very little contact surface.

They seem to be deeper than necessary, did you thin them down?

Thanks,
Bill

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I bought one from LC at Dixon's in '09 and used it on my last Hawken build.  After cutting it to length, I welded up the end and filed a crescent into it like the originals, then spread the sides with a steel rod until the rib fit along the diagonal flats.  I did this to give more surface contact, but I think it's incorrect.  It appears from photos of original rifles that the Hawken boys attached them to the bottom flat.

Here's a pic of one of theirs, and mine.

I take it back...now that I've studied my own photos, it appears they did fit them slightly against the diagonal flats, but not as much as mine.

[docone]

What I did, was to pre-tin both the barrel, and underrib. I then sanded away the excess. I wanted a clean fit.
From there, I got a piece of 1" pipe, clamped it with hose clamps on the underrib and made it tight. I fluxed before I clamped it down.
The gave me a chance to really get it lined up before soldering. I heated the barrel, full of charcoal, to get both the solder on the barrel, and underrib ready to flow. I then dabbed lead free solder to the exposed solder. It pushed out the flux, and accepted the solder.
When cool, I got the charcoal out, cleaned the bore, and cleaned up the joint of excess solder and flux. I then fine sanded it all. I had previously pinned down the pipes, they also accepted solder.
I browned the barrel and underrib.
It came out extremely well. At least I thought so. Good clean fit, the pipe kept the underrib from getting out of line and being uneven on soldering.
Next rifle, I plan on blind riveting. That was another method used back then. I will use a flat bottom rib for that.
All in all, it went smoothly.
Just heat the barrel evenly and do not over heat. Once in a while ghost the underrib with heat.
It was a good job, and what little solder went outside the seam betweent he rib and barrel, cleaned up quickly and neatly. No pull away with browning. I used the Dixie in house browning solution. Great finish.

[Dave B]

I used one on my current build for an English sporting switch out rifle/Shotgun. The Shot gun barrel was the one I used it on and it worked well. I  filed the front of the rib a little to fit the profile of the barrel at the swamped area towards the flare of the muzzle and squeezed the rib into place for the rest of it. The best method I have ever used to date to do this is to make a copper slug that is nothing more than a long copper rod just under bore dia.with a section of cold rolled threaded into it. This copper slug is heated red hot and run up and down the bore after barrel surfaaces and under rib have been tinned and wired in place as you see. The Copper will heat the contact points to solering heat and only following the copper as you move it back and forth in the barrel with the rolled solder will heat flow the solder perfectly into the joint. Just a little clean up and your done.

[Herb]

See Muzzleloaderbuilderssupply home page, online catalog, "underlugs-keys&ribs" item 16618, Hollow underrib.  I am going to use one soon and I will rivet it on.  I just soldered a rib and thimbles on a Green River Rifle Works barrel, and I prefer rivets.

[Gaeckle]

I've used those hollow ribs and here's what I do............


I tin the hollow of the rib,if the solder lumps in the bottom, that's ok.......I then tin only the flat, the bottom flat and then clean off any residue of solder.

I small c-clamps to afix the rib onto the barrel and then heat at the joint....the solder from the rib and barrel will flow together towards the source of the heat. This leaves me very little clean up work on the barrel's side flats.

[Dave B]

This is a great shot of an original hollow rib held with a blind rivit. Some one was nice enough to cut right through the middle of it for us to see how it was done.

[billd]

Thanks for all the info.    Dave,   I like the idea of the copper rod but do you think it will work on a octagon barrel?

My concern was the contact point is so small.  Using Taylors method seems more solid.

Bill

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Rice's hollow rib is not like the originals.  It is made of quite thin sheet, perhaps only 1/32" thick if that.  It does not have that thickened bottom and I don't think it will support rivets.  I know that I would not be able to get a water tight joint using anything other than solder, and I can't handle the fact that the barrel and rib are going to rust like a bugger from just normal use.
I silver-soldered the pipes to the recesses in the rib, tinned the rib and barrel, and sweat the unit in place.  Scrapers and abrasives clean up the mess.  I did not use anti-oxidants in the bore, and got no scaling.  I've used this system lots and it works well.

[ironwolf]

  Anyone tried Swif solder like this?   The only one I've done was screwed on with 5-40 screws, a Hawken light sporting rifle as shown in the Gordon books.  Would be cool to have it sealed up.

   Kevin