doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com hole in barrel

I welded a damascus barrel that had a hole very similar. Maybe not as large in diameter. I ran an argon purge through the barrel. I then placed the tip of the 3/32" diameter 70S3 filler wire over the hole. I used a 3/32" diameter tungston that I ground a slightly blunt point on, held it over the wire and hit the pedal for for what was probably no more than a second. It fuse perfectly and was nearly undetectable. It took very little polishing on either side. I was most concerned with the inside finish. You can't put a mandrel in because you can't get full penetration and not have purosity cause by the disimilar material of the mandrel (usually brass or aluminum) as you weld into it. The purge is the only way to have a perfect weld inside. The trick is to get fusion and not drop a large dimple into the ID of the barrel that would be very hard to polish. The deeper into the barrel the more difficult the polishing. I used a 3/8" diameter rod with some emory cloth to smooth out the dimple.

Bill G.

TIG or better laser weld it then have someone just lap/honen the barrel.
T

I posted back on the other forum suggesting he check into getting it welded. Supposedly, the hole is 3/4 the way down the barrels. I asked how badly the rest of the bores are but he hasn't responded yet.

I had a Scott with a hole about 1/2 the size of this one a few years ago. The hole was about 12 inches from the muzzle.
I shot it a fair amount and there were no problems. It did have a puff of smoke out the hole every time I shot it!

A wee dab of TIG or laser weld to plug a small hole that far from the breech would probably be just fine assuming there is sound metal surrounding the hole. But considering the corrosion was severe enough to completely penetrate the tube, there is a good chance you would be trying to weld paper thin rust. More information is needed.

A TIG weld, followed by a custom spin ground reamer to fit that portion of the bore, a little honing and off you go.

I buy surplus reamers for stuff like this, by the pound. Then setup a little spin fixture with a collett on a surface grinder table and spin grind the reamer down to size. Takes a half hour or so to do, but for a job like this, it's priceless.