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Double Rifles, Single Shots & Combinations >> Building Double Rifles & Gunsmithing
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TomN
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Reged: 07/03/10
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Loc: washington
S.S. can it be soldered .
      #207693 - 26/04/12 12:20 PM

I have been offered a ruger red labol 12 gage and was wundering if one could make a rifle out it but you would have to be able to solder ribs on and I doin't know if it can be soldered thanks. Tom N

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DBLGN
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Reged: 16/10/07
Posts: 46
Loc: Colorado, USA
Re: S.S. can it be soldered . [Re: TomN]
      #207716 - 27/04/12 12:26 AM

It has been years since I soldered SS, and things may have changed, but basically, the answer is, "yes". When I was soldering 304 and 316 SS, we had to use an acid flux (probably methel-ethel-death these days, and totally unavailable). For gun work, especially ribs, it would mean that somehow you would need to be able to clean up all the flux under the ribs, because even on SS, the acid would start to eat away at the steel.

That said, I am not sure what kind of SS steel Ruger is using in there Red Labels, it may be a .416SS, which is magnetic and barely qualifies as SS. I believe that .416 is more easily soldered, but, to my knowledge, I have never done it.

Brownells sells #4 Comet flux which I have used, is an acid flux, and claims to work on "all metals except aluminum". This flux is extremely corrosive and I gave up using it on guns years ago, but as a flux, it works extremely well. You just need to be able to clean all the flux up (which is harder than it sounds with this flux) - it needs to flushed, even boiled repeatedly to get it all out of the pores in the metal. The most minute leftovers will cause serious rusting. There may be some way to "kill" the acidity of flux, (boil with baking soda??????), but I don't know for sure.

Yes, SS can be soldered, but with "issues". These can probably be overcome and somebody out there probably has more experience with this than I, so I will be interested to hear what they have to say.

Ellis

--------------------
DBLGN

Edited by DBLGN (28/04/12 10:40 AM)

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Birdhunter50
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Reged: 03/06/07
Posts: 815
Loc: Iowa,U.S.A.
Re: S.S. can it be soldered . [Re: TomN]
      #207799 - 28/04/12 11:26 PM

Tom,
As Ellis told you, Some types of stainless can be soldered with some types of acid flux and silver solder, but there are alot of differences in the types of steel used in guns. I have sucessfully soldered on a stainless barrel using regular Brownell Hi Force 44 and their standard Comet flux, but I don't know what the make up of that stainless steel barrel was, (I got it by mistake). If you try it, be sure you tin everything with solder first.
If you are going to do much soldering on guns you need to get some of the standard Hi Force 44 and try it on your barrel steel just to see if it will do what you want. You definately want to get the barrels washed off immediately after soldering. I rinse them in Hot water from the tap first,(we have our water heater turned WAY up), then I boil them in a stainless steel tank I had welded up. It is just long enough to stretch across two burners of our stove. I add very hot water to the tank and a copious amount of baking soda.
I boil the barrel or barrels for 30 minuites at a gentle rolling boil. Then I pull them out and run more hot water rinse over them and dry them immediately with a electric hair dryer set on High/Hot. That drys them off very quickly. If I am bluing them I do that job next. Last, you need to get some good oil on them ASAP to stop after rusting. I check and re-oil them every few days just to make sure no rust is forming. I do that for a month or so.
If your barrel is truely stainless, you may not be able to come up with anything that will blue it. I know that there are commercial bluing products out there that will blacken or blue a stainless barrel, but I have never been able to find any of it to buy. Again, that product may or may not work on your stainless barrel, depending on it's composition. Good Luck to you on your project.

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Birdhunter50
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Re: S.S. can it be soldered . [Re: TomN]
      #207801 - 28/04/12 11:40 PM

Tom,
If you do try and convert the Ruger 12 gauge, you will either want to make it a big bore rifle or reduce your barrels' diameter rapidly so you don't end up with a very heavy gun. I did do one conversion of a Ruger Red Label but it was a 20 gauge. I converted it to a 45/70 for a guy down in Florida who wanted a red dot scope on it for his bad eyes. He hunts deer and wild hogs sucessfully with it down there in the swamps. Here are a couple of pictures of it. The first two pictures of it were taken during the construction process, (the gun is not finished in them.) Bob










Edited by CptCurl (03/05/12 10:48 AM)

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doubleriflejack
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Reged: 11/11/07
Posts: 352
Loc: Oregon, U.S.A.
Re: S.S. can it be soldered . [Re: TomN]
      #207816 - 29/04/12 06:34 AM

I recall that a student in gunsmithing school converted a Ruger Red Label 12 ga. to .470, successfully. It looked nice, when finished, and he shot it quite a bit without a problem, but I no longer am in touch with him, so have no idea how it has held up, and have no details about his building it. Personally, I have never done anything with a Ruger RL.

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TomN
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Reged: 07/03/10
Posts: 149
Loc: washington
Re: S.S. can it be soldered . [Re: doubleriflejack]
      #207877 - 30/04/12 12:51 PM

Thanks for all the replays I doin't know if I will do a deal for the ruger as I have a 12 gage for hunting and I just wanted to know if it was possable to do. Thanks.
Tom N

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4seventy
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Reged: 07/05/03
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Loc: Queensland Australia
Re: S.S. can it be soldered . [Re: TomN]
      #208054 - 04/05/12 07:04 PM

Red Label to double rifle conversions, were first done around 30 years ago.
During that time a number of makers have done this DR conversion in the US, and elswhere including Australia.
The Red Label can be made into a nice functional DR, but there is a fair amount of work involved.

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Birdhunter50
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Reged: 03/06/07
Posts: 815
Loc: Iowa,U.S.A.
Re: S.S. can it be soldered . [Re: 4seventy]
      #208081 - 06/05/12 04:55 AM

According to Tom Ondrus, the first Red Lable rifles were made by Paul Jeager for Bill Ruger himself. Ruger intended to make the rifled barrel sets available for sale with the Red Lable shotguns, almost from the beginning. Tom had one of the original 20 or so that they built in 45/70 on twenty gauge actions, for sale when I visited with him. If I could have afforded it at the time, I would have bought it. I think he was asking $5500. for it at the time. He told me that they had also made up one gun in 300 H & H but Paul Jeager said he would never do another on on that caliber, not that the Red Lable couldn't handle the strain, but because it was too hard to get it properly regulated. They will hold up if you get them properly converted.
If I were to do another one I would hold out for a blued model, I wouldn't chance it with a stainless one if I could help it.

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