• formerly known as "eguns-com"
• M4Carbine required notice/disclaimer: I run eguns.com
•eguns.com has not been actively promoted in a long time though I still do Dillon special
orders, etc. and I have random left over inventory.
•"eguns.com" domain name for sale (not the webstore). Serious enquiries only.
A good silver solder job on a barrel is hard to do. It takes a LOT of heat since you have a big heat sink of a barrel draining heat. They can be done such that they look fine but it is hard hard hard.
• formerly known as "eguns-com"
• M4Carbine required notice/disclaimer: I run eguns.com
•eguns.com has not been actively promoted in a long time though I still do Dillon special
orders, etc. and I have random left over inventory.
•"eguns.com" domain name for sale (not the webstore). Serious enquiries only.
I know Bushmaster has their issues but the 14.5" bbl on the Bushy I bought in 1996, had the Vortex pinned and sloldered so you could not see the mark with out knowing it was there. Once you looked at 6 o'clock it was clearly there but you would not have noticed it w/o looking for it. They did an awesome job with it. I miss being able to snap a bayonet on my AR! That may be the only reason I buy a 16" Middy.
"Real men have always needed to know what time it is so they are at the airfield on time, pumping rounds into savages at the right time, etc. Being able to see such in the dark while light weights were comfy in bed without using a light required luminous material." -Originally Posted by ramairthree
Seeing as how we're working with 4150 milspec barrel steel and whatever alloy the muzzle device is manufactured from, how real is the "screwing up the heat treat" argument? Do these alloys have a heat treat floor of only a couple hundred degrees higher than the silver solder or is it much higher (several hundred degrees, 1,000 degrees perhaps)? Does the silver soldering process affect the chromelining of the bore underneath the heated area?
If there's plenty of margin to begin with between the barrel steel's heat treat floor and the silver solder melting point, and if there's no affect on the CL, then this argument is moot.
There are two types of silver solder, low temp (around 600 deg) and hi-temp (around 1200 deg).
Since the Batfe requirement for silver solder is that it must exceed 1100 degrees, you are supposed to use the 1200 degree stuff.
The heat treat damage floor for chromoly steels is around 1100 degrees.
100 degrees above that and you are surely beginning to anneal the barrel steel.
At 1600 degrees, the steel will be fully annealed.
Add to the fact that most people won't know the difference between 1200 and 1400 when heating up a piece of steel and you have an even larger likelyhood of fully annealing the muzzle of the barrel while silver soldering a muzzle device on it.
Now, will the barrel be damaged to the point of negative results from being annealed?
That's a whole different topic of discussion...
Last edited by AR15barrels; 09-21-10 at 19:32.
Randall Rausch
AR15 Barrel Guru
I called Brownells earlier today before posting this question and the tech person told me to pack the bore with grease to prevent damaging the bore. He said it would be very messy.
"Real men have always needed to know what time it is so they are at the airfield on time, pumping rounds into savages at the right time, etc. Being able to see such in the dark while light weights were comfy in bed without using a light required luminous material." -Originally Posted by ramairthree
I've tried to permanently attach a flash hider with silver soldered and a MAPP torch and it was a major PITA. I've played around with silver solder and thought how hard can this be? The hardest part is estimating the temperature. The color of steel at 1100 degrees fahrenheit depending on who's chart your looking can be described as a dull cherry, dull red cherry, blood cherry, blood red, or dark cherry. WTF? It's not a color that's in a box of crayons. At 1200-1300 degrees, it's a medium cherry. 1400 degrees is cherry or full cherry.
Not hot enough and the solder won't melt, too hot and it flows out of the threads. That's not even touching on the importance of surface prep.
Been there, tried that. Not worth the trouble.
Yeah, I just sent my back to ADCO to have them pin and weld it. Should arrive this morning.
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