Welding finger lever?

hackley69

I have a 1894 deluxe Winchester sporting rifle made in 1911that the finger lever is broken in the loop where the back of your hand would push against to reload. Can this be repaird? If not could a stright lever be bent to replace it?

Thanks

charliemeyer007

I think it could be fixed. Likely not a DIY project, for best results.

dcs shooters

Go to a welding shop and have them TIG weld it, then blue [;)]

rufe-snow

Not common place to be broken? Any chance somebody was beating on it? If that scenario is correct, possible there are additional problems internally. Over and above the broken lever.

mango tango

Probably expensive, I bet Turnbull could fix or make you one. If you weld, the welding material should be almost the same as the material that is being welded, otherwise it won't take the blue the same, that's why i'd go to Turnbull!

CapnMidnight

Darrel,
Where are you at? I have a gun smith friend that is a great welder, and does a lot of old gun restoration. He's located in southern Washington state, in the Columbia River gorge. He lives about 3 miles from me, if your interested I'll give you his phone number, he doesn't do the internet.
W.D.

Mobuck

Highly unlikely any current type of welding rod/filler will blue to match the original part. What do you expect the result to look like and/or perform. If you just want it fixed and make a shooter, then welding(preferably TIG)will probably be fine. If you want restoration quality appearance, then expect to pay some place like Turnbull some big bucks for their expertise.
Those levers don't usually "break" in that area so you might need to dig deeper for other issues.

azpowerwagon

3 1/2% nickel rod will weld great and when hot tank blued will match just fine. Most welders don't know what it is. It is expensive compared to other rod. Can be used with a gas setup or manually fed with TiG. Been using it for gun related work for 20+ years.

hackley69

Thanks for all the help

260

A+++ on nickel steel rods. blues beautifully

rhmc24

I do MIG welding with standard steel wire and it does blue differently with Turnbull's charcoal blue. I minimize the problem by dressing & polishing the weld & just before final polish I heat the welded area to a red heat, then do final polish.

I've welded several 1902 Colt & 1905 autos & nobody has noticed a difference altho I can see it because I know where to look. On one badly abused 1902 I did a number of welds but missed one for the heat treatment which was plainly visible.