Building up a front sight

[JeffinNZ]

Team.

The .310 Cadet I was given shoots 3 inches above POA at 50m on the 50 yard setting. In fact, on the 50 yard setting (the lowest it goes to) it is bang on at 100m.

The front sight, best I can establish, is soldered on. I don't want to remove the original sight or alter it in a way that will ruin it. Any ideas on adding some height?

[MtGun44]

Permanent or temp? Pile on some filled epoxy - here I would use JB Weld, but I have no
idea if it makes it to NZ. If not, there has to be some equivalent. Cure and file the sides
to make it shaped right and on the top for the correct height.

If you can't find filled epoxy, mix some lint from a clothes dryer with regular epoxy and use
that. Of course, maybe you just hang the clothes on the line and won't have dryer lint.

Bill

[Wally]

Is the front side a flat bladed type? I have successfully built up Ruger Blackhawk front sight blades using a strip of aluminum & epoxy... Quite easy to remove with no damage...

[JeffinNZ]

Sounds good guys. Will give it a try.

[David2011]

The Gougeon Bros. WEST Epoxy System has some fillers that might be helpful here. One is their regular milled glass fibers which are white in the package but clear when saturated with epoxy. The other product is their carbon fiber filler which turns the epoxy black.

Either can be used with most any epoxy except the fast curing stuff. If it cures in less than 15 minutes it probably won't wet out the filler very well and most fast epoxies never get really hard. I've seen 5 minute stay very flexible permanently. It doesn't matter if gluing model airplane parts together because that makes a thin film, usually over a relatively large area. If you build up something that has to be strong on its own like a front sight the slower epoxies will cure much harder.

Five minute is also less permanent in my experience. I bought an old radio controlled sailplane that had the radio tray installed with 5 minute. The 5 minute peeled off because it never soaked in before curing.

David

[MtGun44]

Just re-read my post, didn't like the way it sounded. The wife would ABSOLUTELY not let
a clothes dryer into our home for the first 30+ yrs we were married, she didn't like the
way the clothes came out. Recently added one, used for special occasions like 40 days and
40 nights of rain. Up until recently, dryer lint wasn't available without begging from
friends.

Bill