Another bolt handle
Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:36 pm
I made this handle for my heavy gun about fifteen years ago. My gun was pushing the weight limit the way I wanted it set up, so a nip here and a tuck there was in order. I lopped off a big piece of the factory handle . I set the bolt in a Kurt vise with some blocking to hold the stub straight up . My plan was to mill a round .250 diameter 1/2 inch long threaded stud so I could screw on the two new shiny aluminum handles I had just made. The Bridgeport mill has a Proto Trax NC system on it. All was going to plan until the the machine ignored a math error entry I had made. 
My .250 diameter stud was down to a useless .200.....shit. Now what!!!!??
EMERGENCY .....go to plan B...quick!!
I ran a .250 diameter ball end mill thru the center of the stub to a depth of .375. I got a 1/4-20 tool steel cap screw and cut off the allen head to the appropriate length. It fit snugly in the cut I had made in the stub. The plan was to weld the screw stud to what was left of the handle. I am a decent welder, but this was bordering on my ability to have it look good as well as be strong. The handle is silver soldered to the bolt body, so keeping it cool was of ut most importance. I wrapped the entire bolt in a big soaking wet rag to act as a heat sink. I set the amperage on our TIG welder down to 100 and applied heat and fill rod in tiny time and fill increments to avoid over heating and risking the silver solder melting. I had to fill both sides, too.
An hour later the job was done....no problems. After some light grinding of the over fill and some blend work it was ready for touch up blueing. Overall it came out looking pretty good for a repair job.
http://s766.photobucket.com/albums/xx302/seveno8/
My .250 diameter stud was down to a useless .200.....shit. Now what!!!!??
EMERGENCY .....go to plan B...quick!!
I ran a .250 diameter ball end mill thru the center of the stub to a depth of .375. I got a 1/4-20 tool steel cap screw and cut off the allen head to the appropriate length. It fit snugly in the cut I had made in the stub. The plan was to weld the screw stud to what was left of the handle. I am a decent welder, but this was bordering on my ability to have it look good as well as be strong. The handle is silver soldered to the bolt body, so keeping it cool was of ut most importance. I wrapped the entire bolt in a big soaking wet rag to act as a heat sink. I set the amperage on our TIG welder down to 100 and applied heat and fill rod in tiny time and fill increments to avoid over heating and risking the silver solder melting. I had to fill both sides, too.
An hour later the job was done....no problems. After some light grinding of the over fill and some blend work it was ready for touch up blueing. Overall it came out looking pretty good for a repair job.
http://s766.photobucket.com/albums/xx302/seveno8/
nice job just the same.
try selling that one to my boss! 
Thats the one good advantage of having your own shop, if you can cover up your oops no one will ever know. ;) the old saying just came to me, check twice cut once.
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