New front sight on Vaquero

[44man]

I got tired of the hard to see sight on my Vaquero so I broke it out and made a new one. It needed to be higher too so I made it out of tool steel a little thicker then the original. I had to mill the part that fit in the groove. I didn't want to silver solder again so I glued it in with Accra-glass. It has held for a lot of shots, all I have to do is keep from banging it on something.
I regulated it for my boolit, the Lyman and the Lee with 21.5 gr's of 296 and the Federal 150 primer.
I tried the Federal 155 today and it hits 5" low and 2-1/2" right.
I had 3 Lymans and 3 of my boolits left with the 150 primer so I shot them off hand at a beer can laying in the grass at 50 yd's. I shredded the can! :mrgreen:
Amazing how much difference the POI is between primers.

[targetshootr]

I like the old school profile. Is Accra glass anything like JB Weld? I've been thinking about using JB to hold a front sight on a Blackhawk.

[Bass Ackward]

Any particular logic for the shape?

[Lloyd Smale]

id be nervous that your going to wear that sharp pointy sight right in the eye one of these days when it flys off (and it will). I profiled a sight like that once on one of my vaqueros. It gives a real nice sight picture but everytime i pulled it from a holster i had leather fuzz on the blade from it cutting in the holster.

[44man]

I hate the shine from the rounded sight and can't find the top of it. By undercutting I get a great sight picture. I heard it was a common thing to do on the old Colts too. All of my silhouette guns had undercut sights.
Yes it is a pain for the holster but I only use a holster when hunting and I can ease it out by tilting the barrel.
I am just experimenting with the glue to see if it holds, there is not much of a groove in the barrel. I did it in case I didn't like the sight thickness so I could remove it easy. If it comes out I can silver solder it.
JB Weld should work much better on a ramp front for the BH. Much more glue area then what I have.
It is surprising how good it looks in the rear groove of the Vaquero. All I have to do is keep flat black paint on the rear of the sight and I blued the front undercut.

[S.R.Custom]

...Is Accra glass anything like JB Weld?

Nope. It's the same as this:

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=6119&familyName=Bondo+Fiberglass+Resin

The only difference is AccraGlass is the name they put on those tiny bottles (and charge more for) when you buy it from Brownells. Commonly used to bed rifle actions.

[nicholst55]

SuperMag - any idea what the equivalent of AcraGlas Gel is?

[Bass Ackward]

I hate the shine from the rounded sight and can't find the top of it. By undercutting I get a great sight picture. I heard it was a common thing to do on the old Colts too. All of my silhouette guns had undercut sights.


I just wanted to hear the logic. That was my guess.

Well one of them. I thought maybe you wore out a chainsaw blade or watched a rerun of Jaws or something. Hat coulda been on a little too tight at the time too. :grin:

[44man]

Accraglass is epoxy! Much stronger.
You can tell if you try and sand it, you just can't sand epoxy unless it has phenolic micro balloons for a filler.
Of all of the epoxy's, Accraglass is the strongest with it's slow cure time. It will take years of pounding from recoil lugs on heavy rifles. It is even stronger then the epoxy's I have made for the aircraft industry.
JB Weld is also a strong epoxy.
I would not use polyester or polystyrene resin on a gun.

[S.R.Custom]

Accraglass is epoxy! Much stronger.

You sure? I've never been able to find a MSDS on acraglas, so I can't say for sure myself. But I can say this, I've used the Bondo Fiberglas to bed rifles for years, and can't say that other than color --the Bondo is clear-- that I can tell a difference. You know, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...

But if you can dig up a MSDS on acraglas, I'd love to see it...



SuperMag - any idea what the equivalent of AcraGlas Gel is?

Acraglas gel I know in fact to be an epoxy. Which one is equivalent, I couldn't say.

[44man]

Yes, I am sure. It says epoxy right on the box. It will not "sugar" under the pounding of recoil.
There are thousands of different resins for every use you can think of. Same as all the different super glues. Each is formulated for a specific use and material.
I swear by Accraglass when I need strength. I use the liquid for glueing everything including broken stocks. I use a lot of the gell for bedding and I use Steel Bed for recoil lugs or anyplace I need super strength with a filler.
I usually bed with steel bed at the recoil lug and fill the rest with gel all at once, no need to do it seperately.
A rifle is worth more then a cheap resin. Get bore cleaner on some of the cheap stuff and it will ruin it.
I cracked the crankcase on an RC airplane engine in a crash, put Accraglass on it and flew for years until I sold it. No problems.

[targetshootr]

In this months Handloader there's a Vaquero on page 8 with the front blade done the same exact way.

[Frank V]

What about liquid steel? Frank

[EMC45]

I JBed some sight screws on my Marlin Camp 45 up front and the barrel whip/harmonics snatched the screws out of the holes!!!! No joke.

[MtGun44]

Epoxy formulations and fillers cause "epoxy" to be nearly meaningless
for comparison. I have built a composite aircraft and there are serious
differences in the structural and adhesive performance, temperature
and moisture reaction of various epoxy formulations. Then go to the various
fillers and you get another huge variation. Saying "epoxy" is just
as non-descriptive as saying "lead" in boolit casting. The alloy and
heat treat cause huge variation in performance. Epoxies are at least
as complex and variable, possibly even more.

Polyester resin of the ordinary 'boat and car' hardware store type is
much more brittle and weaker than most epoxies, plus it will not stick
to metals particularly well, unlike epoxies - if the surface is prepped
properly.

Bondo (polyester body putty) is talc (ground mica) mixed into polyester,
altho lightwt bondo apparently has some microballoons added. Both
are very, very weak compared to a high strength filled epoxy like
JB Weld or any of the aircraft structural epoxies with structural fillers
like glass or cotton flocking. IIRC Acraglass is filled with ground glass,
which is a pretty strong structural filler. Short fiber glass fluff is a
very strong filler.

Bill

[44man]

Exactly, there must be a million different formulations for every purpose under the sun. It is the reason I stick with Accraglass for gun work.
I have repaired hundreds of broken stocks with the thin resin without a filler and have yet to have one break again. Done right, the break is not visible and if it is in a high stress area, steel rods or long threaded rods are run into the wood also in areas hidden so they are not showing on the outside.
That front sight has almost no glue area but it has held for hundreds of heavy 335 and 347 gr boolit loads so far. I will keep shooting it as is to see what happens.
Super glues are the same in that there is one for every use. I even had some primer for it years ago when I was fixing TV's that allowed me to glue nylon and other plastics. Sadly, I can't find it anymore.
If only we had access to all of the glues and resins that factories have for the stuff nothing sticks to.
Ever try to glue false teeth? [smilie=1:

[S.R.Custom]

...I even had some primer for it years ago when I was fixing TV's that allowed me to glue nylon and other plastics.

If you ever get your hands on any of that stuff, let us know! :-D