Filling pits prior to finishing

[Sid K]

What is the best (most simple) way to fill in rust pits on receivers and barrels prior to finishing by blueing or one of Brownells bake-on finishes?

 

[cntryboy1289]

Tig

Have them TIG welded and then file and sand the weld down to the barrel or reciever. Not only is the best way, but if you're going to reblue or park, it's the only way. if you're just going to use a spray finish, get some metal paste such as lab metal and use it with a spatula and overfill the pit and then sand the patch back to the barrel or reciever. There are other metal paste but the lab metal works very well. Good luck,

 

[mikikanazawa]

Have them TIG welded and then file and sand the weld down to the barrel or reciever

A note on this route. The weldor should "normalize" the parts to be welded before welding them.

Normalizing means heating the part to be welded to a high temp (say 400 F) to prevent warping.

 

[mete]

What you are describing is preheating not normalizing. The problem with welding is that you usually can't get an exact match in rod to the gun and it will show as a different color. There may be other problems depending on the gun and what ti's made from.

 

[Sid K]

Thanks for the info. I've been using a MIG welder and gotten satisfactory results but I have to do an awful lot of filing and grinding because of my ineptness with the welder. I was hoping somebody had a better solution. I'll try the metal paste for the spray finishes, and perhaps the preheating will help me to make a better bead.

 

[cntryboy1289]

Use gas

Use a 75-25 mix of Argon and Co2. Go slow and make sure you have the polarity right. The gas will cut down on the extra work as it won't leave the flux and you can see the weld better.