Hi All:

I am restoring a "banged up" Winchester 190, and I need to solder the magazine tube hanger at the bottom front of the barrel.

I can solder on copper or brass, but never had to do a metal to metal soldering.

Are there any special techniques that I need to apply? ... Flux? Type of torche? Surface cleaning?

Thanks, Ridge

Brownell's has all the materials you need. The ribbon solder works well for flat surfaces, you can place a piece between to surfaces and just heat to the proper temp. There's a chalk that you can use to keep solder from staining blued surfaces. I think if you check Brownell's technotes there might be some good info there.

My experiences and observations tend to support them is to really clean the joint. New metal just machined or made will solder very easy because there's no rust or impurities to speak of in the weld area. Other end of the spectrum is old welds, old metals that have rust/corrision. These solder with great difficulty and usually weak/poor welds. It all centers around preparation of the weld area.

Might find it easier to clean each piece carefully, then tin the two contact areas seperately. There is no such thing as "too clean". Tinning is just getting the contact area "wet" with molten soldier, and quickly removing most of it, leaving just a thin silver coat.

Assembled, clamp and heat until molten...you'll see little beads form at the joint line, these you remove.

This will be about as strong a joint as you can make. Follow Brownell's recomendations for solder and flux....without the right flux, you'll get fustrated.

One thing that has worked well as a substitute has been a big fat #1 (soft) pencil. The area around the solder joint can be coated with that soft pencil, and whatever runs out of the joint tends to just bead up and not stick. The excess can be quickly removed by giving it a fast swipe with cotton (NOT some fake sythetic cotton).
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SOME of the silver soldiers sold locally will work well, it's their fluxes that you have to be carefull with...some will strip blue in a heat beat, run all over the place, and are aggressivly rust producing.

Am old-school...will buy round wire silver soldier. IF I want flat, will flatten the wire, then clean it well (crap gets embedded in it as you pound it, so you have to scrape it back to bright)....if I want fusion paste, will file the wire, collect the dust/shavings, and mix them with flux.

One thing that has worked well as a substitute has been a big fat #1 (soft) pencil. The area around the solder joint can be coated with that soft pencil, and whatever runs out of the joint tends to just bead up and not stick. The excess can be quickly removed by giving it a fast swipe with cotton (NOT some fake sythetic cotton).


All good advice!

I've cut out outlines of the piece to be attached from masking or duct tape and placed it on the area to be soldered. With a rich mix in a torch soot that area. Pull off the tape, flux and solder your joint. The soot won't allow any surplus solder to stick.

Great answers guys, and thanks for the input.

Feeling a little chagrin here, but here's what I ran into: The existing broken piece (of the magazine hanger) wouldn't loosen up upon heating.

I heated it with the torch until I could see the previous flux bubbling ... At that point I gripped it with channel locks, and "she" wouldn't come loose ... Fearing that I may be applying too much heat to the barrel, I stopped at that point, and the "old" broken magazine hanger is still in place.

Did I quit too soon?

I just didn't want to overheat the barrel.

From what I read at Brownells, I see that their silver solder tins at around 275 degrees, and I am sure that I had the metal heated up to almost twice that ... Comments?

Know this is kind of basic, but you did drive out the itty-bitty retaining pin, right?

Yes ribbonstone ... If you mean the retaining pin that goes thru the outside magazine tube ... If there is another, please inform.

Thanks, Ridge

Silver solder, or silver bearing solder? Silver solder, or silver brazing isn't at 275 F.
I imagine you could use Brownells HiTemp HiForce 44 solder.

Not sure Charley ... Just didn't want to take the temperature up too high for fear of barrel damage.