New-old member

[Turtle]

 Hi,
I used to be on this board years ago. Lost access somehow. I have a building question. I have built numerous rifles, but never a "B" weight 50 cal. I'm ferried about attaching a lug at the thin center portion of the barrel. How should it be done?
                                            Thank You,Turtle

[Acer Saccharum]

You can soft solder a lug in the thin portions. Make it out of folded sheet, and give it a nice big base, and it will give you no problems with strength of attachment.

[Stuartg]

I'm with Acer on soldering the tenon on the waist. I've done with on my 40 cal a weight. One word of advice is to thin down the plate of the lug more than the others to ensure they all line up. Otherwise, you could end up with a lug that wants to be inlet too deep in the barrel channel.

And another word of advice, when soldering anything on the barrel...BEFORE you apply head swab the barrel out to get the oil out. If not, you will end up with a think hard layer of oil and possibly a tight spot in the barrel. Then once the barrel has completely cooled, put a good layer of oil through it.

[Turtle]

  Hi,
I'm a new-old member here. I used to post here years ago, glad to be back. How do you guys fasten the center barrel lug on a "B" 50 cal weight swamped barrel? I never built a rifle with that contour and caliber and am worried about the dovetail leaving to thin a barrel wall.
                              Thanks, Rich(Turtle)




(Note from Moderator: This was the first post of a separate thread by "Turtle", but on the same topic, so the 2 threads have been merged. -Ron)

[bob in the woods]

I solder mine on in that location. although I do try to avoid the narrowest portion of the barrel when fixing lugs.

[Acer Saccharum]

Tin your pieces before you try to solder them together. flux the parts, heat gently until solder melts, back off the heat. Rub the solder around with steel wool and flux until steel is completely coated. Do both barrel and lug in this way. Put the parts together with a little more flux, and heat. Add solder if you need.

Whatever you do, keep the heat to a minimum. Too much heat destroys the flux, and you have to cool the work and start all over again.

[Acer Saccharum]

You can file down a little patch for the lug to sit in. That won't hurt the barrel any.


Good tip on wiping out the oil, Stuart.

[Turtle]

 Thanks, you guys are great!
                                Turtle

[t.caster]

And another word of advice, when soldering anything on the barrel...BEFORE you apply head swab the barrel out to get the oil out. If not, you will end up with a think hard layer of oil and possibly a tight spot in the barrel. Then once the barrel has completely cooled, put a good layer of oil through it.

Hey I learned something new today!!! Thanks, sounds like good advice.

I usually thin down my bases to 1/16" and dovetail them in. You should be back far enough from the waist of the swamp to be plenty safe enough. Of course measure and calculate your wall thickness where you want the lug, before deciding which course to take.

[Acer Saccharum]

lugs don't need to be very thick.  A base that is only .03 thick will work fine. All the lug does is pin the stock to the barrel.

The stock is only a carrier for the ramrod once you get past the grip, merely an overly complicated under-rib. And to look nice.

[Robby]

I use .032 thick sheet and fold it over to make the stud. File my dovetail to that .o30 depth, insert the tenon with a real snug fit, then peen down the the edges of the slot to lock it in. If you choose to solder, don't forget to slot it so the pin has room to slide back and forth a bit. I have repaired a few soldered tenons that pulled off due to not being slotted.
My repair was to reinstall as described, no problems.
Robby