Soldering Front Sight Blade

[ejcrist]

I was going through the parts bag of a new Chambers kit I recently ordered and noticed the front sight blade is in two pieces so I'm assuming it has to be soldered. This is my second kit; the first kit had a single front sight assembly already welded/brazed. Do these two components have to be silver soldered or will regular cold soldering work? I'm thinking they should be silver soldered but I've never done it and need to learn. Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks, Gene

[mongrel]

Never heard of a front sight arriving in two pieces. They do make a sight base, with a slot for a blade but no blade, for the benefit of someone who wants to use his/her own sight blade material (a flat of ivory or bone, maybe), but other than that your front sight ought to have arrived in one piece. Sounds to me like you got a defective unit and the parts separated during shipping. As with any man-made item, this may not be common but it's absolutely possible. You can solder the pieces together if you like but I'm sure Jim Chambers would be happy to make matters right by exchanging your sight for a new one, or simply sending you a new one free of charge. Contact him and inquire about that.

Soldering a blade into a base can be a little tricky, not so much because of what sort of solder to use but due to the need to get a good solder joint at the same time you're pressing the blade down into its slot AND keeping things squared up. With the silver blade and brass base found on most front sights you can use the silver solder and flux available at most hardware stores. Personally I think regular soft solder would be sufficient for this job but there's no doubt silver solder is the tougher material. You make sure both the slot in the sight base and the base of the sight blade are good and clean, then dab some flux into the slot and along the bottom edge of the blade. Heat each piece in turn just to the point that solder will flow into the base and along the edge of the sight. Then (this is the tricky part) you have to heat both pieces at the same time they're being pressed together. A steel spring clamp usually works all right -- clamp one arm of it into a vise, start the sight blade into the slotted base, then put them in the jaws of the clamp so that pressure is being exerted to force the blade into its slot once the solder is re-heated to flowing. Pay attention to how the pressure is being placed on the blade in particular, so that ideally as it's being forced down into the slot the blade isn't also being tweaked to one side or the other.

The trick to any soldering is to be patient, don't use an excess of solder (which will invariably and without fail blob and harden in the absolute hardest place to get it off or out of), and avoid overheating the flux and solder. Remove as much excess solder as possible, after the parts are seated together but before the solder hardens.

Personally, were it me, I'd just talk to Cahmbers about a new sight and be done with it. If you just received the kit you're a long, long way from any need to have the sights in place, and particularly if Jim or Barbie will replace the sight free of charge and cover the shipping, you'd be way ahead of the game. I've been building guns for nearly twenty years and can count on the fingers of one hand the times I needed to solder a front sight -- always involving cheap assemblies off CVA and similar guns that simply went to wobbling when they were tapped out of their original dovetails. Any more I just make sure I have a handful of new front sights in the proper bin and discard used ones that aren't 100% solid and still useable. The time and hassle involved in repairing a bad sight adds up to considerably more than a new front sight is worth.

[ejcrist]

Roger that Mongrel, and thanks for the info. I agree it's not worth the hassle to solder and easier just to replace. I'll give JC a call.

Gene

[mongrel]

I'll make it even easier for you -- Jim and Barbie are great folks and I'm sure they'll make this right, but in the event it somehow doesn't work out, let me know. I'll send you a front sight at no charge. Got plenty....