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Shown below are three photos of the .32-20 barrels. I have soldered on the ribs and cleaned up the resultant mess. Here's how I do that. I've found that the best solvent for the residual rosin flux is gasoline. I take the barrels outside, pour about a quart of gas into an old pail, and scrub everything well using a brass-bristled brush. The one that I use is one of those toothbrush-sized cleaning brushes that you see at all of the gun shows.

I then use various wood chisels, that I keep honed razor-sharp, to pare away all of the sags, bumps, and lumps of extraneous solder. I also use the chisels to pare away all of the surplus solder along the edges of the ribs. Your chisels need to be sharp enough that they'll cut away the solder in one long continuous thread!

Next I switch to a wire wheel. I use a 3/4 HP motor, at about 3500 RPM, mounted on top of two pieces of 2" x 8" x 12" lumber, on top of my bench. This gives me about 5" beneath the wheel to work with. I use an 8" x 1" medium wire wheel. This set-up will remove all of the solder with about an hour's careful work. Always wear heavy leather welding gauntlets when doing this job. If you slip, while bare-handed, that wheel will remove flesh faster that it will solder. Please don't ask how I know this!!!

The wire wheel WILL leave all of the steel surfaces with a fairly pronounced brushed finish. To remove that finish, I stone everything, starting with 100, then 150, then 220, then 320, and finally 400 grit stones, well flooded with a mixture of varsol and motor oil. The finish that results from that is what you see in these photos. These barrels now have to go to Bill's house so that the dovetails, mortises, and slots can be milled for the front and rear sights, the scope bases, and the front sight "window hood". Before all of that, I'll have him level the assembly in the milling vises and mill the quarter rib and front sight ramp down to finished height.

One last thing. You'll notice that there are two counter-bored holes in the quarter rib. Through these are 8-40 fillister screws into holes that I've drilled and tapped into the top rib and the forend hanger. I've found that this is a great way to keep the rib in the proper position and tight to the monoblock, during the soldering operation. The rear hole will be hidden under the rear scope base. The front hole will be hidden under the rear sight.

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