Howdy.  I have a cast iron Ballard No.3 that I rescued from a gunshow.  It was probably about fair condition, I would guess, with a gunky barrel and heavily scarred wood, evenly browned with surface rust and light to moderate pitting.  It was, however, mechanically sound with a pretty decent trigger.  I had it rebarreled by Ballard while they were still in Cody with a nice Douglas I won at a match, so it shoots quite well.  The biggest problem now is that Bubba (or his Dad or Grandpa) tried to use a screwdriver or steel bar of some sort to turn the action.  The mortise is badly scarred along the top right edge, up close to the chamber.  It's too much to file out, I would think.  The action is evenly brown with light pitting, so there isn't any original finish to be preserved.  Is it possible to use welding to fill in along the  top edge of the mortise, then file it back to shape?  I was thinking about having it nickeled or even plated with silver, then upgrading the stock and forend with some carving by Treebone. Any suggestions as to who might be able to do the welding for me?  I've heard it's possible but tricky.  Thanks.

Like Marlinguy said there is a lot that can be done with little heat.  Have a look at some of the custom pistol work.  Most of those finishes are just paint of some sort, Hi Tec yes but still applied coatings.  Under something like that you can use plastic fillers or even lead like you used to fix rusty cars with.

Question is will any of them give the final look you want, Some are satin nickel looking others mostly matt black.  Google some of the custom handgun guys   

Boats

Yesterday, I spent a very enjoyable day working on an old Ballard tang sight. The sight is basically a Ballard vernier tang sight that someone long ago very skillfully combined with a windgage front to form a rear sight with both windage and elevation, unfortunately the sight has been used hard, treated harshly and shows its age. I had to make a new windage screw and nut for it which turned out to be a #4-40 thread. Now, after I put it back together it works perfectly and I’m very happy with it just the way it is. I suppose that it would be possible to try to do further work to “improve” the sight, it could be refinished and it has a small crack that could be welded, but I believe that discretion is the better part of valor so I’m going to leave it alone.

Bob

uscra112 wrote on Sep 20^th, 2008 at 12:07am:


Now that's interesting.  Cast steel, eh?  Someone I figured knew what he was talking about said it was cast iron.

The best way to weld cast iron is with a buzz box and nickel rod, but whoever does it had better be really good at it. It is nearly a lost art. I learned from an old instructor at Vo-Tech years ago. The trick is to heat the part to around 600 degrees as stated before, and then a very slow quench. Once the part is welded, you bury it in clean kitty litter and let it sit for 24 hours. As far as doing this on an old action, I have no idea what it would do to the rest of the case color hardened metal. If this is a cosmetic thing, maybe it's best left alone. Most people who weld these days are of the wire feed variety and really don't get that much work on a buzz box. I've welded diesel cylinder heads and cracked blocks that held together quite nicely

I don't think it is ever a good idea to use a stick welder on guns. Cast iron can be welded with a torch and cast iron rod with the right flux. I found out the hard way about using a tig torch on cast iron, it gets very hard and will not anneal. The cast iron rod comes in 1/4" square. It is a little hard to find now days because it isn't used much, same goes for the flux. When it is welded right you can file it and polish it just like the rest of the frame, because it is cast iron not another type filler metal. Have used this rod on Stevens tangs and after color case you can not see that it has been welded. 
  I just took in a nice Marlin Ballard a few days ago. some one put different wood and a 22 LR bull barrel on it.

If you are planning on having the action plated (silver, nickel) why not fill in the pits & imperfections with solder.  I would use a fairly hard silver solder; you can use a soft lead solder but the polishing will look different since lead is much softer than steel, the scratches (sanding/polishing) will be more pronounced in the softer material.

I really dislike restoring non factory plated guns;  never know what you find under the plating.   

Mike Hunter
Hunter Restorations
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Quote:

Sorry to have let this one drop for a while, but I've been pretty busy and haven't been able to do much in the shop the last couple of months due to family responsibilities and work.  

I have to say...that was a great idea.  Funny how we tend to complicate projects like these.  I used a steel punch to take down the high spots raised by Bubba's pry bar, then used a combination of Swiss pillar and diamond jewelers files to smooth the edges.  It looks great now.  I used a little cold blue and some Scotchbrite to blend the filed and sanded areas with the rest of the action.  

Now I can finish the polishing and see about having it plated.  I also need to see some stock options for No.3 .22s since I have a nice blank I won a while back and the wood is pretty chewed up.  Too bad it isn't a 3f with the pistol grip.