all welded up

[Jason]

Its starting to take shape. today I temped in the rails and fit the bolt, cut the reciever at the front were the grip stick latches, and after fitting the bolt I welded a nub to block the bolt out then started welding.

the welding went smoother than expected and eveything sure seems to fit except the top cover is a little tough to unlatch.

took a few pics hopfully this will work

[Jason]

almost forgot my secret weapon.

grandkids can be so much help

[salt6]

Sweet.


What setup did you use to do the weilding.



Steve

[Jason]

I just used a wire feed with fluxcore. for backer I ended up using 1.5 inch copper water line that I hammerd into a square shape for the reciever and it fit perfectly. next time ill make a cut in it so it is easier to remove. and for the booster area I removed about .5 of the pipe and closed the diamater a bit.

took it real slow weld,cool a bit, clean, weld,cool
cleaning went fast with a small angle grinder with 100 grit paper on it.

[TOM R]

that looks freakin awsome, want to weld mine? yes i am serious, i also like the pintle for the 1919

[Karbinator]

Man you started welding before the kit was outta that box dude !!
Just kidding. I'm impressed. Fluxcore is all I have at the moment.


Thumbs up

skip

[Jason]

karbinator for the rails I just used 8-32 bolts with the head ground down a bit so the bolt would clear. they were a very tight fit as I had to screw them into the reciever holes. next weekend I'll work on the gripstick and replace the bolts with rivets.
I ment to take pics of the welding process but after I got started the whole thing went so fast (time wise) the next thing I knew it was almost finished.

Tom I would love to help but I've only been welding for about 5 weeks. been practicing a whole lot and it seemed to work but I would rather screw up my own stuff. I would feel real bad if I messed up someone elses reciever. give me more time to practice then maybe

the pintle is a $15 heavy caster I found at menards. took the weel off and it was perfect.

[ak47dennis]

I just used a wire feed with fluxcore. for backer I ended up using 1.5 inch copper water line that I hammerd into a square shape for the reciever and it fit perfectly. next time ill make a cut in it so it is easier to remove. and for the booster area I removed about .5 of the pipe and closed the diamater a bit.

took it real slow weld,cool a bit, clean, weld,cool
cleaning went fast with a small angle grinder with 100 grit paper on it.

That looks good, your braver then I am to use a mig let alone fluxcore.
THE ONLY WAY I RE-WELD IS WITH A TIG. Your almost guaranteed 100 % fusion why do think TIG is used in the aero space industry (think of the extra profit the could net using faster MIG with spool) I cant tell you how many pretty MIG welds we have gone over with the tig and I would rate them maybe a 5/10 in penetration. The problem with mig for re-welds is it will add material without always fusing the two parts. When ex-rayed even the prettiest mig welds may look like Swiss cheese.

The reason you top cover may latch a little tight is your last section maybe a little to close. Just remove material from the rear latch area.

[Jason]

ak47dennis. do you think that it could be dangerous, or at worse will the welds start to crack due to poor fusion?

[ak47dennis]

Jason, I personally wouldn’t trust any welded firearm that wasn’t TIG welded (re-welds). Will yours be “more prone to cracking or more dangerous “only time will tell?? What you could do is have someone with a tig go over all your welds; this would insure you have no voids in you welds. I will say that in my opion the mg42 will be one of the more forgiving re-welds since the receiver never really bares the brunt of the force.

Sorry to be an alarmist but this is the one area of the build that I am most adamant on safety is top priority.

[Karbinator]

Jason,
just wear a steel face mask, and a lead vest when shooting, and you should be ok if it flys apart.

I test my project welds with a pien hammer, or slamming it against my anvil. However, I'm not referring to recievers, nor have I done one, so use some ingeniouity, and force some pressure on those areas somehow to see if you can force it to loosen.
Penetration (welding talk) is the heat Meld of the two parts you're connecting with the medium of the wire. I can't remember when the last time I held a MG42 reciever to know the thickness (guage) of metal, but you should of seen the reciever parts glowing at the conjunction. REddish orange? Tig sends that color(HEAT) further outward and there's more metal participating in the weld = penetration!

Anyhow, be safe, and devise a way to test your welds.

skip

[Intruder196]

In my own personal experience, I've noticed that using a MIG with solid wire and CO2/Argon Gas seems to produce lots of pits and voids and I was never able to get any sort of penetration whatsoever with this wire type.
I found using Flux Core wire did not produce voids in my welds. It was just a little messier cleaning up the splatter. And I did get the red glow between the cut sections as described above.

I discovered this when practicing welding up a Bren receiver. A couple times I had to cut it back apart with a dremel and that is how I noticed the absence of pits and voids in my welds.
Not so whenever I have had to undo a weld I did with the solid wire/gas setup. I would find the most enormous voids in what would look like a solid weld. I had other fitting problems with the Bren build and set it aside to work on the semi 42. And so for now the Bren is still cut apart.


I wish I had access to a TIG welder to learn how. My welding experience is ,so far, limited to acetylene (used to weld mufflers and tailpipes for a garage I worked at) and Mig. I am guessing they must be real expensive since the local welder supply store where I bought the Co2/argon gas bottle didnt carry them.

[TOM R]

I have a lincoln flux core wire welder, but had a friend mig the bren, the bren spacimg was simple i am just real unsure of the 42 spacing and don't like to do things 2 or 3 times

[ak47dennis]

The basic no frills Miller tig will set you back 1k. Not including the purchase of the tank, like I said this is a basic model doesn’t even have the high frequency setting for welding aluminum. Now my neighbor has the Miller Dynasty series, sweat...

But its money well spent, how can you put a price on your face if a weld lets lose.

[Jason]

before the kit arrived I spaced apart and welded togeather a whole pile of scrap, some of it about the same gauge as the 42 reciever. after a learning curve my later welds held when the metal bent.

knowing that the metal of the reciever is probably different than the stuff I tested, do you think that this was a fair durability test to make sure the temp and wire speed was correct

[ak47dennis]

Jason, That’s a question best left to a professional I will check with buddy who is a full time welder.

[ak47dennis]

In my own personal experience, I've noticed that using a MIG with solid wire and CO2/Argon Gas seems to produce lots of pits and voids and I was never able to get any sort of penetration whatsoever with this wire type.
I found using Flux Core wire did not produce voids in my welds. It was just a little messier cleaning up the splatter. And I did get the red glow between the cut sections as described above.

I discovered this when practicing welding up a Bren receiver. A couple times I had to cut it back apart with a dremel and that is how I noticed the absence of pits and voids in my welds.
Not so whenever I have had to undo a weld I did with the solid wire/gas setup. I would find the most enormous voids in what would look like a solid weld. I had other fitting problems with the Bren build and set it aside to work on the semi 42. And so for now the Bren is still cut apart.


I wish I had access to a TIG welder to learn how. My welding experience is ,so far, limited to acetylene (used to weld mufflers and tailpipes for a garage I worked at) and Mig. I am guessing they must be real expensive since the local welder supply store where I bought the Co2/argon gas bottle didnt carry them.

Pits or voids are referred to as porosity this is caused by a dirty contaminated weld. Or in the context of this discussion generally (voids) happen at the beginning and end of a mig weld.

[1919gunner]

Jason, your gun looks great! I wouls like to know, how did you deal with the cut ratchet plate? I'm assuming there were missing raised nubs that were cut? I am dealing with this on my allegheny reciever now. Even though this gun will only be a "dummy" I want it to look correct. I have 2 angola recievers to build working guns on. The allegheny reciever is only a test to check my set up abilities. Thanx Shawn

[ak47dennis]

1919 gunner depending how bad your ratchet plate was melted you may want to consider a new one from BRP.

[TOM R]

where are your pics gunner?