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Under lugs popped off

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putodebabylon

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I have a flintlock Fowler that I noticed at least two of the pinned underlugs have detached from the barrel. I believe these should have been silver soldered on, perhaps they weren’t prepped right. Is the fix as simple as fluxing and using a soldering iron and pure silver solder? I’ve done plumbing and electrical solder but never silver solder on guns. I’m also concerned I won’t get the alignment just right and the pins won’t line up with the holes. Any tips? Thanks!
 
If you did sweating of copper pipe joints with tin/silver solder then it will be no different to sweat on the two tenons that came off. As for their location there should be some remnants of the original location that you can use to locate the tenons to. If not then use the existing tenon to locate the other two - or am I missing something:dunno:???
 
Regular solder works fine. My wild guess is the pin holes were drilled but the barrel set back a little with recoil after a bit and popped the under lugs loose. Seems likely a weak solder joint at fault.
 
You can't use a soldering iron with pure silver or one of the silver braze alloys. All of these require temperatures well above 1000°F.

They do make some low temperature solders which have silver in them and I've found that they are much stronger than pure lead/tin or just tin based solders.

Look for "silver bearing" solder with a silver content of around 2 to 4 percent. The melting temperature will be around 450° F.
 
I have a flintlock Fowler that I noticed at least two of the pinned underlugs have detached from the barrel. I believe these should have been silver soldered on, perhaps they weren’t prepped right. Is the fix as simple as fluxing and using a soldering iron and pure silver solder? I’ve done plumbing and electrical solder but never silver solder on guns. I’m also concerned I won’t get the alignment just right and the pins won’t line up with the holes. Any tips? Thanks!
Torch- yes, iron- no. Not nearly enough heat.
 
Real silver solder requires a very high temperature, enough to possibly cause heat distortion, tight spots in the barrel. Follow Zonie's advise. It sounds like you have enough experience to make an excellent repair. Get the pin holes as close as you can and then redrill them. Slot you new pin holes slightly to allow for expansion and contraction of the barrel.
 
Use this stuff and they won't pop off, a propane torch is all you need.
Put a piece 220 grit and paper around your barrel and sand the lug until you have a perfect fit to the curvature.

I feel it is unlikely that you will be able to get the pin holes to align, I would put on a new lug and redrill the pin holes using the holes in your stock as a guide. Be sure to slot your holes after you drill them to accommodate any expansion.

silver solder paste.jpg
 
I agree. It does indeed sound like the holes weren't elongated. Even though wood doesn't move vertically seasonally, if there is wavy curl the wood WILL move across the grain, which has the effect of shortening and elongating the stock seasonally. The pins / keys' fit may change seasonally. Did you leave a little bit of a gap behind the tang too? That shouldn't bear the brunt of recoil, (no matter what you do, the barrel WILL move a little bit under recoil and the G forces are quite large) as that should be borne by the breech.
 
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