Soldering Front Sight (Help)

[hylander]

Just got my new old model SS Vaquero today, Feel's Good.
 Havn't shot it yet.  I have a Problem, Maybe.
I noticed the front sight looked bent.
Well I desided to straighten it, Ya' I know leave things alone, "Ya' Right".
Well I stuck the sight blade in the vise and turned the gun, just a tad.
It is straight now, but when I turned it I think I felt a POP, it feels tight but I can see how it set's in a groove, can I silver solder the sight.
No I do not want to send it to Ruger so they can have it the next Six weeks or so.
Help !!

[John Traveler1]

Yes, you can repair the front sight by soldering.

The factory front sight blade should be pressed into a slot crimped in place.  Look for the crimping marks parallel to the blade.

The requirement for soldering is that you must remove the blade, and then thoroughly clean both the blade and the groove.  Fail to do this and it's guaranteed that the blade will pop loose and be lost.

I recommend soft (tin-lead) solder instead of silver solder.  It will be plenty strong enough to resist recoil forces and has the advantage of not hurting the bluing.  Silver solder is even stronger, but precautions must be taken to prevent scaling of the bore and even then, bluing damage will probably happen.

To clean and prepare: remove the blade, and using scrapers and abrasive cloth, carefully clean out the groove sides and bottom.  Do the same to the base of the blade where it fits into the groove.  Degrease with lacquer thinner or acetone.  Tin the blade with resin core (electrical) solder.  Tap the blade into position, wire or clamp it in place, and heat the front sight/muzzle with a propane torch.  Apply wire resin core solder every few seconds until it just melts and flows into the joint.  Remove heat and allow to cool.  Clean off flux residue with alcohol.

[John Traveler1]

OOOPS!

I just re-read your posting.  You have the STAINLESS STEEL model Vaquero??

Neither soft or silver solder will work on that stainless!

I think the factory just uses the press and crimp to hold the sight in place.

[michael orlen]

Stainless Steel can be soldered as easily as carbon steel. It is true that lead/tin solder will not work, but there are some hard solders (Brownells High Force 44 comes to mind) that will work with stainless.

[gunnut69]

Hello JohnT!!  Mike is right here though. There are solders that will work with Stainless but they almost always require a special flux..  I've always had poor luck soldering in front sights such as the vaquero uses.  The crimp is usually fairly easy and work well.  The key is to keep the fit of the blade to the socket very tight. If making a sight or installing where one as lost, an undercut on both ends of the sight with one thrown up as a burr to be peened back into place is very sure.  The blade of course is cut to hold into the undercuts and is lightly driven into place. Then the burr(light of course) is peened back into place.  I use cape chisels to clean the socket and create the under cuts, pushing one to nearly verticle.  I've soft soldered blades in but the solder is so soft that bending the blade(some times necessary to sight in the colts and clones) often smashes the solder and loosens the blade in the socket. Silver solder will work but the high temps are a lot of trouble to deal with.  I have not used any of the lowtemp silver bearing solders.  A call to Brownells TechLine will get the right solder and appropriate flux. Be sure to mention the satinless steel...