Repairing a broken shotgun receiver tang

[rickw55]

I recently got a Stevens Model 335 12 gauge shotgun.Well, I got most of it: the barrels, receiver, and a bunch of parts. When I got it home and took a closer look, I realized that the receiver tang was cracked.
Here are some pictures:

My question is: How can this be repaired?
My first thought is to silver-solder it with high-temperature silver solder. I'm confident of my ability to do this.However, is there a better way to do it? I know that the silver solder will leave a silvery line after the receiver is re-blued. That doesn't bother me. What I'm after, though, is a good, solid repair.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Rick W

[JMtoolman]

Find someone who is a good tig welder, and have him use copper plated iron rod to fill. You will see a very faint color mismatch when finished, but you will have to look hard to see it. The tooman.

[country gent]

If you can get a good idea of the material thru spark test or ither information a good welder could vee it out pre heat and tig weld with appropriate filler rod and when cleaned up it would show at all, though when reblued the weld may show slightly lighter, Darker or with a plum color. The tig will be localized heat and with the gas flux very few if any pits or slag inclusions to deal with. Where its at isn't a pressure bearing area other than the spring tension so it should be repairable through several ways. Gas weld, braze or silver solder keeping the heat localized will be harder. Arc weld risks over heat and slag inclusions. Wire weld (mig) could be done if the right fill wire can be found and then its a full lb or more of wire. The tig a single fill rod of the right filler can be purchased ( still way more than this will take) the gas flux makes for a clean weld, heat can be better controlled, amount of fill is easier controlled making clean up easier.

[Texas by God]

I would use AcraGlas dyed black.

[Iron Whittler]

Brownell's sells a 5% nickel rod for gas/tig welding. I blues beautifully and is very strong. Tig welding with this rod would do the job nicely.

[fast ronnie]

Tig welding with the proper rod is probably the strongest fix and should be almost invisible after bluing.

[Drm50]

I have never seen a nice job done with a stick welder on cast actions. I have done it with a torch
and a silver alloy rod. This rod was given to me years ago and I don't remember the name off it.
It looks like the dip stick out of a engine. I want to say Silfloss but could be wrong. It was used
in the instrument shop of a power plant. It did a nice job but wouldn't cold blue. I'm not skilled
in MIG-TIG and newer stuff but I have seen some very nicely done repairs done with them. I bought expensive cast rods for stick welder and never had ant luck with it on gun repairs. If I
had a job like that now I would be looking for a guy who was good at one of the newer welding
methods.

[country gent]

Tig with the right filler will be invisible and incredibly strong. A little pre heat on the area will greatly increase penetration and flow. The gas flux helps greatly reduce pits pocket and slag incursions in the weld. Done inside a box or shielded on the table to help maintain the gas in a pocket will also improve weld. I have seen pipe tig welded with the pipe purged on the inside with argon gas and the weld is smooth and clean a nice flowing bead on the inside also. A small weld shop that does tig welding probably would not charge much to do that if you brought it in ready to go ( cleaned, veed, Actually a U shaped notch is better as its easier to get the point and filler into, clamped if needed) and the filler rod needed. Done in this manner the weld should disappear when polished out and blued.

[rickw55]

Thanks to everyone who replied. TIG welding would certainly be stronger than silver-soldering.
I do know a couple of very good TIG welders, so I'll see if one of them can weld it for me.
Thanks,
Rick

[samari46]

Think the silver dip stick soldering rods has phosporus (can't spell it) and is called silphos or similar name. Have a tube somewhere in the garage. Wasn't cheap back then and am sure it isn't any cheaper now. Frank

[Gtek]

I think I would try internal practice with TIG in lower back corner, then double V top and bottom and no shock cooling.

[skeettx]

I love it when you talk this way

[2152hq]

Those are castings,,you can easily see the rough mould marks on the inside of the actions.
Cast iron, cast steel?,,of what quality or type I don't know.
But I have seen quite a number of the Stevens actions, both the early SxS actions like this one and the single shot rifle actions like the No.44, and the smaller ones like the Favorite & Crackshots with broken tangs.
The repairs attempted by welding were usually a disaster. A couple were successful only in that the two pieces were joined and seemed to hold. But nothing you'd want to put your name on.
What type of welding was used (farm repair stick rig or??) and the expertise of the welders is unkn to me other than a couple of the rifle projects. They didn't fair well with experienced welders* doing the work but that was years back.
*experience may not have been with this type of material.

If you don't have any experience welding this older cast stuff, ask someone who does for their advise.

I can tell you from experience that high temp silver solder (hard solder) or brazing will do a very nice job of repairing the cracked tangs on these.
Yes it will of course leave a yellow line of solder at the repair joint.
But with a carefully done set up and close fitting part to part fix, the joint line can be an absolute minimum hair line joint as it should be.
Solder and braze are not good strength 'fillers'. They are for making a strong joint. That's where the fitting comes in.
A lap joint helps on those tangs for strength and actually makes it easier to hold the pieces together in allaignment for the final soldering or brazing.

Where the crack and repair would be on that 335, a silver solder or braze joint would hardly show anyway once the safety was reinstalled.

[rickw55]

I understand the problems with welding cast iron from dealing with old tools and machinery.
One of the TIG welders I mentioned in my other post welded a small cast-iron lathe bed for me. I'm not sure what method he used, but he did an excellent job.There are no signs of cracking several years later.
I'll talk to him about welding the receiver tang.
Rick

[Cap'n Morgan]

TIG would probably be tour best option.

I once repaired a broken tang on a Husquarna shotgun using a CO2 welder. I first aligned the broken parts and gave it a short spot-weld to hold the parts together. Then I cut a deep 90 degree groove on the opposite side halfway through the tang. The groove was welded shut and the process repeated from the other side, creating a complete filled-out repair.

[Texas by God]

It's strange how the slotted tang doesn't match the finish of the frame. The new stock fit must be inletted correctly to keep strain from that part.

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[lefty o]

It's strange how the slotted tang doesn't match the finish of the frame. The new stock fit must be inletted correctly to keep strain from that part.

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you noticed the color difference too. id suspect someone has worked on that tang before.

[TCLouis]

Looking at the pictures I have one question . . .
Are you sure this is cracked/broken?

[Shopdog]

Look up Restorativewelding.com

I've Tig'd a metric ton of cast iron,steel,and cast aluminum.

[redhawk0]

It's strange how the slotted tang doesn't match the finish of the frame. The new stock fit must be inletted correctly to keep strain from that part.

I noticed it as well...but I contributed the color difference to having the safety installed covering this part. I can read the word "SAFE" right on the break so it seems that the finish that is covered vs. what is uncovered has a different patina.

rickw55....correct me if I'm wrong...you are the one that took it apart (I assume)

redhawk