Front sight goes bye-bye!

Mossyrock · December 02, 2007, 08:47:04 PM

I took the Taylor 56-50 out yesterday to give it a shake down with a few rounds loaded with the Rapine mold. From what I could tell, I think it is going to work out well. At some point, the front sight must have taken a sharp rap, because when I brought it up to my shoulder to fire a string, it was gone! After searching the gravel at the range for 20 minutes, I resigned myself to the fact that it was, indeed, gone for good. Looking at the end of the barrel, it's a wonder it hung on as long as it did. While it was silver soldered on, there was only solder coverage on a third of the sight base. Needless to say, this kind of shortened by range session.

This morning, I set out to built a new font sight, this time with a silver blade made from an old nickel. The front sight base is pretty close in size to the old one, but it might be a little bit bigger. After I had the basic sight base figured out, I ground a concave in the bottom of the base to match the contour of the barrel, cut the slot for the front sight blade, and silver soldered the blade into the base. The blade is probably going to be too tall, but better too tall than too short. After I cleaned up the excess solder and did some polishing, I blued the front sight base, leaving the nickel blade bright.

In a perfect world, I would be able to silver solder the base onto the barrel and rust blue to whole thing. While I have the tools and tank to do the rust bluing, I have no way to unscew the barrel from the action. Given that, silver soldering was out. My fall back position was good old JB Weld. I degreased everything well, mixed up some JB Weld, slathered some on and positioned the sight. Before I set the sight, I used a level to ensure the rifle was square in the vice to make sure I could get the front sight as straight as I could. This is kind of ironic given that my front sight was crooked from the factory.

I am currently in the wait and watch mode since I still have at least four hours until the JB Weld will be dry enough to handle. When is is completely dry (probably this time tomorrow evening), I will clean up the excess JB weld that oozed out from under the sight base, and do a little touch up bluing. Until then, this is what is currently looks like:

Two Flints · December 03, 2007, 06:32:50 AM

Mossyrock,

You wrote: "When is is completely dry (probably this time tomorrow evening), I will clean up the excess JB weld that oozed out from under the sight base, and do a little touch up bluing". How will you clean up the excess JB Weld once it's dried? Just curious. Wouldn't it be easier to remove the excess while it's still soft, of course, without disturbing the sight base?

We'd like to see the finished result. Thanks for posting.

Two Flints

Mossyrock · December 03, 2007, 10:20:18 AM

Quote from: Two Flints on December 03, 2007, 06:32:50 AM
Mossyrock,

You wrote: "When is is completely dry (probably this time tomorrow evening), I will clean up the excess JB weld that oozed out from under the sight base, and do a little touch up bluing". How will you clean up the excess JB Weld once it's dried? Just curious. Wouldn't it be easier to remove the excess while it's still soft, of course, without disturbing the sight base?

We'd like to see the finished result. Thanks for posting.

Two Flints

Two Flints,

Frankly, I'm scared to touch it until it is completely dry so I don't risk it moving. I checked it this morning and it looks like it worked out just fine. I'll clean it up and post an update this evening.

Mossyrock · December 03, 2007, 08:56:02 PM

I cleaned up the JB Weld and did some touch-up bluing. I still have a little bit of clean up to do, but this is basically how it turned out. It feels solid and give me a good sight picture.

After looking at these pics, I see that I still have some clean up to do. It's amazing that photos can show more than your eye can!

Appalachian Ed · December 04, 2007, 09:39:29 AM

Looks great, but why not just solder it back on? I cannot image JB weld working very well for the long term. Maybe a quick fix, but not long term.

Mossyrock · December 04, 2007, 01:14:23 PM

Quote from: Appalachian Ed on December 04, 2007, 09:39:29 AM
Looks great, but why not just solder it back on? I cannot image JB weld working very well for the long term. Maybe a quick fix, but not long term.

The only reason I didn't silver solder it back on was that I didn't want to go through the hassle of rebluing the barrel after the original bluing is destroyed by the heat. I have the tools to do the soldering and to rust blue the barrel, I just don't have a good way to unscrew the barrel from the frame. I am sure I could put together a set of wrenches to do the job (and I might end up having to do that), but for right now, I am going to see if the JB weld will do the job.

Grizzle Bear · December 06, 2007, 07:25:57 AM

I replaced the front sight on a percussion 1860 Colt using JB Weld. Been shooting it for years now with no problem. A Sharpie marking pen will turn the grey epoxy black enough to pass for bluing.

Grizzle Bear

Harve Curry · December 06, 2007, 12:15:31 PM

On silver soldering front sights. I have had two SAA's that had a portion of their rifling altered by the heating for silver soldering the front sight on. Both were from the factory, so they should be experts at it. One was a Saur/German made SAA in 45 and the rifling land just below the sight was squigley like it was heated to melting point.
The other is a Colt SAA and the rifling under the sight is eroding, like the metal is rougher there.

Mossyrock · December 06, 2007, 02:05:17 PM

Quote from: Harve Curry on December 06, 2007, 12:15:31 PM
On siver soldering front sights. I have had two SAA's that had a portion of their rifling altered by the heating for silver soldering the front sight on. Both were from the factory, so they shopuld be experts at it. One was a Saur made SAA in 45 and the rifling land just below the sight was squigley like it was heated to melting point.
The other is a Colt SAA and the rifling nder the sight is eroding, like the metal is rougher there.

Very good point made. I saw an expensive Green Mountain Hawken barrel ruined by a first-time builder because he insisted on silver soldering on a rib instead of drilling and tapping the barrel. The heat from the torch basically "cooked" the barrel and destroyed the bore, leaving it rough and scaled. There is quite a bit of heat required for silver soldering and it doesn't always do the steel any favors.