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Welding a rifle barrel

bk0331
Can you weld a bead on a rifle barrel without weakening the barrel's integrity?

Sorry, should have been clearer: Can you lay a bead of weld onto a rifle barrel to replace some gouged metal?
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • ikeda
    Sure but why would you want to? There are many other ways of attaching a bead to a barrel without welding on it.
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  • PA Shootist
    MOST welding processes would harm the barrel in one way or the other, for example, changing the heat treatment; leaving scale deposits; dimensional changes from expansion and shrinking. That is not to say that it would be impossible to successfully weld-attach sights, underlugs, etc. by correct, and in most cases, relatively sophisticated processes unavailable to the gunsmith or the hobbyist.

    That said, sight ramps, ribs, and many other items are routinely attached to gun barrels with both soldering and brazing processes. These aren't "welded" in the technical sense of the term, where parent metal (the barrel) and the added item, are both melted, and the molten metals, to include any filler metals that may be added, freeze together into a homogeneous mass. Soldering and brazing methods of steel and steel alloys both occur at much lower temperatures than welding, soldering typically at less than 800 degrees Farenheit, and brazing above 800 degrees farenheit but below the melting points. Done with care and expertise, those methods can attach items to the gun barrels without damaging heat treatment, creating scale, or causing dimensional changes from expansion and shrinking forces.
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  • Mr. Perfect
    It's going to depend on just how large and deep an area you are filling. Most likely for a small area it can be done by a true professional with minimal impact on the bbl. Anything larger than say the tip of your finger, and deeper than a few mils I'd say would be out as you'd be in for some serious stress cracking at the weld site.

    That said, I seem to recall a story on here where some schmo had literally bent his rifle bbl 90 degrees and had it straightened in a machine shop, after which it purportedly functioned as if it'd never happened.

    Truly a "don't try this at home" type of scenario in either case.

    Edit:
    was this the auction by chance:
    http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=151950288

    I don't think that could/should be repaired by welding. It's basically a parts gun.
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  • rhmc24
    With the hazards and concerns cited above, a TIG Or MIG weld would probably be best. Either will localize the heat and the inert gas shroud offers protection from scaling. If your reason is fixing a 'gouged' area for appearance you may have difficulty in refinishing the repair. It is likely the added weld material will have a different density, hardness, alloy than the barrel, all/any of which will affect the physical refinishing and possibly re-bluing. If the reason for the weld is structural, strength related, that is a different set of issues and probably to be discouraged.
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  • cbxjeff
    Depending on the size & depth of the gouge, I have used laser welding while working at Allison Gas Turbine. Virtually no heat involved, no warpage, no metallurgical changes to the steel, but very time (and cost)consuming. If the area is too large, this isn't practical.
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  • robert smith
    most people that weld for a living do not have the equipment to weld on firearms. a barrel can be tig welded by a welder with proper equipment. if you can find a welder that repairs moulds that are used in injection plastic moulding he should be able to do the work, or someone that repairs turbine blades. if the gouge is close to the chamber i would not attempt it. pictures of barrel would help.
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  • rcoane
    I have messed with this before for a freind that had deep pitting on a m77. We did tests on bad barrels and found it is a waste of time. I side with PA Shootist. If the barrel is too light it will bend and the bluing never matched. We went to duricoat. They have fillers and they have every color you can think of. Duricoat is cheap and we used the gun blue finish. It looked ok. We redid it in tactical black and it was sweat. It cost us over $200 to find out that a $80 garage job is the best way. 12 year and he still loves it.
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  • bk0331
    This was in regard to a rifle being auctioned here on GB. The rear sight had been ground off the barrel and left and ugly slash. I was wondering how it might be fixed. At this point the piece has been bid up higher than I think it is worth anyway. So...thanks to all for your input.
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  • 25skinner
    it looks like they ground it down to put a big belled scope on it, and it is way to deep to be safe or welded up[xx(]...it's a sows ear and no one can make a silk purse out of it [^]
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  • oneoldsap
    I saw that POS ,the barrel wasn't the only issue with it . I bid it up to $100.00 since I have all the parts to fix them . I was flabbergasted that it went over $200.00 . Somebody got nothing for that money . P.T. Barnum was right !![:0]
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