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Gunsmithing Is Silver Solder good enough for a Mosin bolt handle?

acebanana

Obi Wan Kanobi
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 7, 2012
58
0
Charlotte, NC
I've never silver soldered anything before, and since boltman has like a 3 month wait I was wondering would it be possible to silver solder the bolt handle from Rock Solid Industries onto a mosin nagant bolt body? I was thinking maybe I'd drill & tap a spot on the bolt body and drill the bolt handle and screw it on first and then solder it if solder is strong enough?

I don't own a tig/gas welder so I'd have to get someone else to tig weld it. Anyone ever use a wire feed mig welder on one and some sort of "shield" to protect the rest of the bolt from splatter?
 
silver solder is fine to use for this make sure it's the 1100* stuff, not the plumbing crap(made from tin).
 
i'd say braze it using a nickel alloy, gonna be much stronger than any solder
 
Silver solider is not what most think it is because of it's name. It's actually a very strong alloy that if used with minimal gap between two parts, it's very strong. Remington has been using it for a very long time with great success. When you hear that "my handle broke off my Remington" is most of the time the fault of the owner for pushing the envelope with hand loads, or they jammed an improperly size brass in the chamber, and had to beat the handle with a 2x4 to get it to open. Most will not admit they might have had something to do with the problem. It works just fine if not abused badly.
 
Bottom line....it's not "solder", it's brazing.

You would be using a silver brazing alloy.

The liquidus temperature of silver brazing alloys is much higher than the lead/tin, lead/antimony, or tin/antimony solder that is traditionally used for plumbing, wiring, etc.

Silver alloy brazing has been incorrectly referred to as "silver soldering" for decades.

JWHarris may have some information about brazing alloys that could be used for joining steel parts.
 
Yea I was researching it a little further and was getting quite confused with the term "1100* Silver Solder" yet somewhere else I read the difference between solder & brazing is at 840* (brazing being the higher of the two). I think I'll just try my hand at brazing it, since it seems I shouldn't have a problem with normal usage. Thanks fellas.
 
silver brazing w/gas welder _
All State No.101 and 101FC Trucote Braze:these are general-purpose silver-brazing alloy rods. They have a high tensile strenght of 52,00 psi with a working temperature of 1145°F (618C). Either rod may be used to join almost any metal with a melting temperature above 1150°F (621C). Number 101 or 101FC Trucote braze rod is especially good for soldering copper,brass,steel,stainless steel or aluminium. These rods may be used with a separate flux or can be bought with a blue-colored flux coating. They come in diameters of 1/16",3/32",and 1/8".
Welco 200 Braze: this is a high-strenght, 56% silver alloy for ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Its bonding temp. is 1155°F (624C);TENSILE STRENGHT 85,000 psi. By contrast, the tensile strenght of chrome-moly steel is only 70,000 psi. This silver brazing rod can be used for race car suspensions and airplane wing ribs. It requires liquid flux. (from Richard Finch's "Welder's Handbook", p.139)
 
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