www.MG42.us

I'm finally getting up enough nerve to start welding up my 34.
It looks like some of you fellas welded your receiver w/ the pieces cut/milled square w/ each other giving you no gap with the flush seam. It can be done that way or does a v groove have to be put on those edges?

If you get the receiver fitted to all butt welds. Then yes you will need a slight V for better fusion. The 34 doesn't stress the receiver very much. So it's not overly imperative that it is 100% solid. 90% pluss of the stress is located in the front section where the cams are. There is some stress during recoil when the bolt bounces off of the rear but that is about it. You would want it solid enough not to fall apart when you pick it up or heaven forbid drop the poor girl.

Good luck, keep it as square and parallel as posible. This isn't a sheet metal gun. Not trying to discourage you, just letting you know what to watch for.

Regards,
Heli

2receivers wrote:I'm finally getting up enough nerve to start welding up my 34.
It looks like some of you fellas welded your receiver w/ the pieces cut/milled square w/ each other giving you no gap with the flush seam. It can be done that way or does a v groove have to be put on those edges?

Thanks Heli. If I drop that baby and damage it -----hari-kari is in my future

Heli-I would think that the 34 would have a twisting stress on it as the bolt locks,kind of like the old rotary engines.Would the center section have more torque on it compared to the rear,where the bolt is running fairly flat? ---bil

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As far as needeing a v-notch, I did not do that on mine. If you have good tig man he will penetrate as deep as possible and usually you will be left with a slightly raised weld area that you can blend out without much touchup to be done.
I was also worried about cracking or breaking mine, but so far I have put it the field and beat on it pretty good, and she's still holding strong! Laying it down with the bipod is probably the most pressure you can put on it.
Heck if it cracks or breaks you obvoisly know how to fix it at that point! Grip it and rip it-thats why I built mine, take it out and use it!!!!!! other wise you just have a museum pc.
take care all, I will be posting some pics soon of small alterations I made to make your rifle fire more consistently.
Tmannn34

TMANN-I was just reading all of your old posts-will the weld really take with no gap? in your build pics there was just a hairline-does welding expand the length at all? It seems that just a small bit of the bead in the seam would move it.I would like to see some pics,as you and heli used differant methods,and I want to build a 34 later this year,after the 42s.I want to gather as much info as possible first.Your 34 is a real beauty-very nice work! I look forward to your new pics.Thank you. ---bil

Maybee I can be a little more descriptive about the welds.
I should say it is heli-arc more than anything. There was almost no filer rod used, it was shall we say"fused" together.
There was no gap at all,it was clapmed tightly together longways, as well as side and top. As small areas were "tacked", then the clamps were progessively taken off.
This made it so mostly original material was just melted together in pools all along each seam on the outside only!
Got to get to work, see you all later!
Tmann34

Tmann, just curious. How long has it been since you welded you'rs up and how many rounds have you put through it. I want to finish mine, and like your system of barely using any filler.

In reply to above post---It has almost been since sept 06 when I finished my receiver. I have never shot live ammo out of her, and probably never will. It has approx 1200 blank rounds through it of various styles(308,8mm etc..) and varying powder charges.
All have worked well with upgrades to my blank feeding system and changing of the hole size in the end of my 2 pc blank firing system.
I am posting a thread in the build section of my work done for blank feeding etc... Should be up tonight or next couple of days,check it out when you get a moment.(will have pics and some details).
With a good tig man and some patience you should have a good rifle when done!! I have put mine through about as much torture as you can and it shows no signs of cracking,etc...
Good luck and keep us posted.
tmannn34