Most folks to include folks with some knowledge of welding seem to think the task of attaching the lug to Contender barrels is no big deal. They are DEAD WRONG and in fact that idea some day likely will get someone killed.
It is neither simple or anything like what most other welding is like. Folks who do it right and professionally understand what's involved. A whole lotta folks have tried to do it and mostly made a big mess.
I'll not mention names here, heck it would just read banned even if I tried,
but once upon a long time ago a fellow who thought of himself as the ultimate source of knowledge on Contenders solicted a contract with SSK. The story was told to me by JD himself. He told the fellow to build some with no chamber and submit them for inspection and he'd decide on whether to allow him to put them together for SSK use.
When JD got them none of them were usable or even safe. He put the lugs I think in a vise and rapped them with a rubber mallet on the barrel or maybe it was vice versa with barrel in vise. Been a long time I forget which was held by vice and which rapped with mallet. The result was all came apart due to poor welding procedure. Needless to say no contract resulted.
SSK uses the same procedure as TC. I don't know what the welding process is called but I do know that it involves preheating both lug and barrel to some predetermined temperature and then using the proper type welding medium whether stick or wire I don't recall but think it's wire. They are then allowed to cool over a set period of time and tested. If you apply too much heat the barrel or lug or both will be brittle and dangerous. Too little and you don't get the proper bonding. It is anything but a simple procedure and anyone new to it should expect to ruin a bunch of lugs and barrels in the process.
I just hope that if you proceed with this you do the world a favor and don't sell any of them to anyone else who might be maimed by the workmanship. Sure you might actually get it right but a whole buncha folks with more experience have tried and failed and even today there are some real unsafe barrels floating around waiting to harm someone when it comes from together to apart.
