Soldering front sight and lug

[Mauser06]

Tonight I soldered on my front and middle barrel lug...dovetailed the rear into the octagon portion of the barrel. 

All went much easier than expected. I haven't dovetailed anything till tonight and have never soldered in my life...


Anyways...my muzzle end lug is maybe 4" or so from the end of the barrel. 


I realized my front sight will be within a few inches of that lug and will also be soldered on.


The solder I'm using is low temp silver paste. 430 degree and I think it's 650 remelt.



I am afraid heating for the front sight will melt the solder on my lug.  Surely I'm not the first...


I was thinking of getting a rag and wrapping the lug to hopefully keep it cooler.  I know...gotta keep the water away from the joint and don't catch the rag on fire...


Don't know if there is anything else I might do....or maybe I'm worrying over nothing.  Seems possible that it'll re-melt though.

[satwel]

I have seen photos posted by other forum members who wrapped the front lug and barrel with steel wire to hold the lug in place if the solder melted during the installation of the front sight. I have soldered two front sights to round barrels using low temp silver solder without melting the front barrel lug.

[Barngunguy]

https://www.eastwood.com/ew-anti-heat-compound-1-qt.html

That stuff in the link will work very well.
A little pricey, but what isn't these days.

[Maineshops]

The heat sink works well. I’ve used it for years but as satwel says just wrap it with fine iron wire. That is a common jewelers practice and you can get the soft fine wire at any jewelers supply. Get a small spool you’ll find other uses for it. Dan

[chubby]

You can strip a bread twisty, works great for a soft fine wire!! Chubby

[Mike Brooks]

It has never posed a problem for me. Once the front sight sticks turn off the heat.

[Mauser06]

Thanx guys!  As usual! Good info!


Mike, I wasn't sure if there's be a problem or not. Figured this is a situation that I'd rather remedy the potential problem before it exists though. My 2nd lug went on very well and I used hardly any heat after I got practice with the first. 

[elkhorne]

Mauser,
What brand of low temp silver solder do you use and where can you get it? Need to do some very soon with lugs on a Rice squirrel barrel. Thanks.
elkhorne

[Mauser06]

I ordered it from Track with one of my orders. I've seen it various places...it's a syringe type tube. It's silver solder/flux paste.  I squirted it on the lug and put it in place...worked the opposite side of the barrel back and forth with a propane torch.  You'll see the flux start to melt. A couple more weconda of heat is all it needs.  Longest part was waiting for it to cool down.

Easy and worked well.  They seem solid too.


Oh...I prepped the area  and lug with maroon scotch Brite and then 91% alcohol.

[Goo]

Magnets anyone? Assuming your soldering steel lugs?  They don't lose strength until heated past critical temperature.

[David R. Pennington]

I solder and braze for a living. Nothing beats wet rag. No synthetic cloth, they melt. I braze delicate refrigeration devices that have to be protected from heat to copper tubes and find nothing works better than cotton rags torn into strips and soaked in H2O and tied around the part. Tie a strip of wet rag around the barrel at the lug and solder your sight on.

[Mauser06]

Goo, a magnet is a thought I would have never came up with. That could have also been a handy way to hold them in place..though I had no issue just setting them in place. I know it won't re-melt till it hits a much higher temp...but, if it's 430 degrees on the opposing side of the barrel, I was worried it may be hot enough on the same side of the barrel a couple inches from the torch...I'm not sure...like I said, I might be solving a problem that doesn't exist...but it's probably easier to solve than to fix later.



Thanx David...sounds like my own thought was also appropriate.