R1 repair

[MikieG]

Today I traded my 20 year old Ruger MKII stainless bull barrel pistol for a 1981 San Rafael R1 Super Magnum.
got home and started to teardown only to find one of the forearm screw bosses weld had cut loose.  It appeared that the weld only had two little spots where any penetration happened.
I have a friend who is a pro welder with a high freq wet tig welder. He is confident that he can set the heat to put the boss back onto the reciever tube.
So I am wondering  who has performed this repair?
And what things are specific to making this thing turn out? Will the blueing be destroyed?
Inquiring minds want to know.

[Zippy]

Been there done that. Lightly clean the bluing off of both pieces at the weld area only and wipe with alcohol to remove any oil or particulates. This is very important to getting a clean weld now jig the piece up with 5mm all thread and nuts, you want the break to match perfect that's why you do the prep work lightly. Once everything is jigged nice and tight it takes very little filler rod to make it right but you do not want it to pull due to only welding on the one side hence the all thread through both tabs and the nuts to back it up. Let it cool remove the jig  clean again to remove the acid that the weld creates reblue using Brownell  bluing. It's all in the prep sir.

[MikieG]

I knew someone here has ran into this problem before.
Seems like a pretty straight forward heliarc repair.
What was your heat setting? I sure would like to keep deformation to a minimum as this is within the compression cylinders piston stroke.

[Zippy]

Don't remember it's been a few years now. Once its jigged up you can grind a groove through the original weld to add filler rod...I think I did that also. Your welder will know better than I me I'm just a hack about an hour to jig 2 minutes to weld.

[MikieG]

I measured the gap on 3 R1's. I made an aluminum spacer. The two ears are held together by an allthread screw and sucked tight by a nut.
I have cleaned the old weld off the ear and prepped the surface. Everything is perfect.
The ear is .125 10ga and the tube is .9 12ga. Plenty of metal for heat to a guy that can tig weld soda pop cans together.
Tomorrow afternoon we will weld her up.
I have seen pics of ruined guns on the net where others have attempted this feat. Absolutely horrid.
This is a first shipment san rafael gun. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

[MikieG]

Ok folks. The weld went very well. The bluing was hardly disturbed! The rifle if back together with a fresh lube. Will be shooting the ole girl tomorrow.

[Zippy]

See easy peasy glad it worked out for you now put in some cups and lock tight the bolts the cups will help spread the load and the lock tight will help so you don't have to tighten them down so hard.

[MikieG]

I am planning to put in cups that actually extend into and touch the ears as well as a pillar for the front triggerguard screw.
The idea is exactly like we do on sniper rifles. Metal to metal contact. This way the fasteners will torque up to a specific value and stay there.