Ya' know, I quit posting here a while ago when it became obvious that "popularity", "post count", and "clique" ranked over actual experience and education.

The attacks on the weld on this thread made me feel like Silvio Dante on The Sopranos": [Linked Image]

Lemme ask y'all Michelangelo's of welding:

You're building a business and have a customer with a HUGE internet forum following of lovers and haters, who sends you a rail, barrel and action and asks you to weld the rail to the action. He doesn't want to pay for preheat/post weld heat treat, nor, made abundantly clear through countless posts, does he value aesthetics over function.

You do your research and find out the rail is 4142, pre-hardened to 28-32 HRC AND Manganese Phosphate finished. The data sheets say this material is weldable only in the annealed or normalized conditions and should not be welded following harden and temper operations...AND pre-heat and post-heat are recommended....

THEN, it gets better! You're to weld that 4142 to a 416SS action. 416 is martensitic and highly susceptible to ductility issues if mingled in the hot-shortness temperature range.


So, all y'all that want a weld that looks like Jesus welded the crack of dawn or a broken heart...tell me, what would you do?


I tell you what I'd do: I'd get some 312, hold the heat down, butter the weld just enough to stick, then check the hardness on the action and if OK send it off, no charge to the customer so he could post myriad sub MOA groups and brag on the rifle.

I've been following Shaen on the fora for a while and have seen ZERO complaints and UNANIMOUS praise for his work.

IMO he handled this perfectly, and to be castigated for that is unmitigated bull$h!t.

Nice job, Shaen.

When I get back CONUS I plan to send you some parts...




You can no more tell someone how to do something you've never done, than you can come back from somewhere you've never been...