Welding on a sear.

[fox fire]

I have a old .22 that I bought to learn on & while experimenting with the sear I removed to much metrial & now it dry fires just as the bolt closes.
 
Can I simply use a heliarc welder & weld a shim in place without damaging the rest of the metal ?? or should I just fab a entirely new sear & start over ??
 
Like I said its just something to learn on but needs to be safe to shoot, no more than I have in it it can be a great learning tool & will pay for itself in the education I recieve.
 
Thanks.

[gunnut69]

Welding on the sear will certainly soften the metal rendering the gun extremely unsafe. If you must weld you will have to re-harden the sear. The how will depend on the material the sear is made of.. Many cheaper/older guns used case hardened mild steel which can easily be replicated with a material called 'Case-Nit' (sp??). It's a powder available from Brownells as well as other suppliers. It may also be possible to cut the sear notch(s) deeper and correct any angularity issues. The sear meeting angles should be 90 degrees from the spring thrust. This allows the sear to remain engaged even with no return spring tension at all on the trigger sear. Also sufficient engagement is required to allow the action to be cycled briskly and is one reason autoloaders tend to have coarser trigger actions..

[fox fire]

Kind of thought it mite not work with the tempered metal.  the gun is old & the sear isnt very technical the way its made so probably be safer just to fab a sear then treat it, dont want to end up with a gun that dont funtion at 100%.
Thanks for your input, always enjoy your insight & food for thought.