Soldering a drip bar

[J-team]

What is the normal proceedure for soldering on an English style drip bar?

Do you solder it on with the breech plug installed (and therefore soldering to both barrel and breech plug)?

Or, should I remove the breech plug so it is only soldered to the barrel?

Any/all suggestions welcome, this is all new to me!

[snapper]

all of mine are only attached to the barrel. 

I have had to pull the breach plug a time or two.

Fleener

[Bob Roller]

all of mine are only attached to the barrel. 

I have had to pull the breach plug a time or two.

Fleener

The "drip bar" should be soldered to the barrel.Minimum solder and
the cleanest possible contact surfaces.I was on an automobile forum that
had a signature that read "If you get them really clean an ice cube can be
soldered to Teflon"
What are you building? English match rifle or?

Bob Roller

[Clowdis]

If it's an octagonal barrel I don't see how you can unscrew the breach whether it's soldered or not. The drip bar lays alongside the flat on the breach plug. Unless someone has a different breach plug than I do.

[snapper]

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[J-team]

What are you building? English match rifle or?

Bob Roller

Thanks for the replies, I though that would be the case otherwise it wold be impossible to remove the plug.

I'm building an English sporting rifle by the way, it's a lot more work that the pistols and underhammers I've done before!

[T*O*F]

all of mine are only attached to the barrel.

Yeah, but how did you solder them on?   

[snapper]

I had one that I had to fix......

fleener

[Daryl]

I had to re-solder mine, which was easy with lead-free, 5% silver, low temp solder. Piece of cake and it is only

soldered to the barrel, not the plug.  It does not interfere with plug removal, which was done only once,

when the original plug was found to have a casting flaw & was replaced with a Hawken-type plug. Track was

out of 1 1/8" English plugs at that time. Taylor soldered in a spacer to fill the normal bottom flat of the English lock so

that it would fit the rounded Hawken plug.  (edited- originally said lock - meant B plug)

That joint is invisible.



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[Bob Roller]

I had to re-solder mine, which was easy with lead-free, 5% silver, low temp solder. Piece of cake and it is only

soldered to the barrel, not the plug.  It does not interfere with plug removal, which was done only once,

when the original plug was found to have a casting flaw & was replaced with a Hawken-type plug. Track was

out of 1 1/8" English plugs at that time. Taylor soldered in a spacer to fill the normal bottom flat of the English lock so

that it would fit the rounded Hawken plug.  (edited- originally said lock - meant B plug)

That joint is invisible.



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The late Don Brown had the BEST breech plugs for these long range rifles and he sold
them and used them on his Alex Henry copies.Don went to extreme lengths to make
a plug that was right and didn't look like it was made in a mud mould
Rod England bought all of Don's tooling for the Henry and has continued that level of
quality. <rtengland864@aol.com>.His business card has a phone number1-864-590-6718.
These are NOT cheap but then when a quality breech is the last thing between your eyes
and 100 grains of black powder goosing a 500 grain bullet down range then the price is
cheap.

Bob Roller

[Clowdis]

After looking at this breech I don't know if the shoulder is past the snail or if it's even with it, I didn't install the breech. If it's flush with the front of the snail it will unscrew but if it's forward of it then it won't unscrew. I guess it's a question that I should answer before I continue with this build

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

With that breech plug, the forward face of the snail is flush with the end of the barrel, so soldering on the drip rail to the barrel still allows you to turn out the breech plug without interference.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

To help answer the question - "how to do it", here's how I do it.

Once the lock is inlet to this stage, and the wood is removed to accommodate the drip rail, it's location can be marked on the side flat of the barrel.  The mating surfaces of both the barrel and the drip rail are prepared for solder, ie:  filed, mated, and tinned.  Then the barrel and rail are fluxed and clamped together, heat applied 'til the solder flows, and a little more solder introduced to the joint.  When the solder begins to flow, make sure you remove the heat or at least back it way up while you add more solder.  Then you won't overheat the unit.  Clean up is with scrapers, abrasive cloth, etc.

[J-team]

To help answer the question - "how to do it", here's how I do it.

Once the lock is inlet to this stage, and the wood is removed to accommodate the drip rail, it's location can be marked on the side flat of the barrel.  The mating surfaces of both the barrel and the drip rail are prepared for solder, ie:  filed, mated, and tinned.  Then the barrel and rail are fluxed and clamped together, heat applied 'til the solder flows, and a little more solder introduced to the joint...

So, once the position of the bar is established, you remove the breech plug to do the soldering?

[Daryl]

I didn't and that was over 30 years ago. All still good today.

On second thought - maybe I did remove the plug - long time ago - I almost remember, fuzzy though, like a bunny's tail.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Yes, once the location is determined, the plug comes out, the barrel is tinned as well as the drip rail, and they are soldered together.  With the plug still in, you run the risk of losing a lot of heat through the breech plug.  As always, there are many ways to go about it...but that's my way.