Well in all honesty being a welder even the little plugs bothered me.. and I always wanted to know what Scandium TIG welded like, it welds beautiful.

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Nice job you did there. I'd probably never see the repair unless you told me.

EDIT...And welcome from the Ozarks of S/W Missouri

Good job, I too am not a big fan of the IL.

If I ever pick up an IL Smith, I would pay you to give it the same treatment.

DAY-UM, that looks a whole lot better than I expected it to look.


Class III

It looks great

I don't know what you welded,but the revolver look good.

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Life is short,live it fully.

bye-bye warranty.

Welcome to the forum!! Nice job you did there. I too will never have an S&W with an IL. Very sophisticated solution. We can only hope that some day Smith will reverse their stance on these things. There are many current models that I would love to buy if they were offered with the option of no lock.

Well done!

Best Regards, Les

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

Looks good to me. I won't buy one with a lock.

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Two Handguns every day

Quite an entrance for your first post.

You're among friends. Welcome aboard from Wyoming.

Bob

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

While I have welded many things over the years, none of them have ever been a firearm. I am not a Pro Welder (just an skilled amateur) and can say you did a HELL OF A JOB!!! It looks GREAT! Even though welding produces great amounts of heat that can destroy heat treating, where the I/L was is so far away from anything else I doubt any problems have been created. I would assume you did use some sort of heat sink dust for good measure though.......

I give you credit for trying!

Knowing that was the case, put a grin on my face as I nodded my helmet down. Smith and Wesson lost their rights to ever touch this revolver again as soon as the machinist put it in the fixture crooked, the rear sight notch and corresponding top strap groove were so far off as to cause 6"-8" of lateral shift on the target at 20 ft. I solved that by un-pining the front sight and machining off just the right amount on the side of the sight mount where it fits into the slot on the shroud. I then reinstalled the front sight with a precision fabricated shim with a hole to accept the pin, now it shoots to point of aim with my carry rounds. Next step was to dump its guts on the bench and fix the internal machining atrocities. The CNC programs were merged by a kindergarten programing student at best, leaving plenty to be desired. After about one hour of careful stoning the frame and all parts that touch it were smooth and operate with a slickness that any DAO would be expected to. Next and most rewarding step was to remove the finish in the weld zone inside and out around the two I.L. holes so the weld would be sound and free from pollution. I have to say, I really enjoyed lighting up the tig torch on a scandium frame 340. Scandium welds like a dream, and when I finished bench stoning down the weld to where the edges of the repair disappeared, I realized I had a keeper. I finished up the frame with some dirty sandblasting and rubbing it on the weld bench. The cylinder got scrubbed on the concrete shop floor. I then cleaned everything up like a surgeon and re-assembled the revolver with a few drops of oil. The trigger pull is absolutely stellar and I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum and thanks for that last, explanatory post. Very interesting and informative. And you sir are obviously a master welder and did a superb job on your revolver. Very impressive.

Dave

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RSVN '69-'71
PCSD (Ret)

The thought had crossed my mind to be honest. I am actually a welder and have welded a great many interesting and difficult things.

Seeing as that I have never had an issue with the lock and would foreseably loose the warranty; I've always convinced myself it wasn't worth my time.

But it came out nice and as I expected..

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Outstanding job! Looks great!

Absolutely unreal! If it was April 1st I woulda thought you were messing with us.
I have a nice Lincoln MIG welder I use for hobby stuff not work, and have been thinking of getting a Tig more so to just play with. I dont even think if I mastered it I would have the nuts to try and do what you did there. Nice job!! You could probably quit your day job and do these on a Island somewhere. You would have a waiting list.

A lot of nice feedback..I really thought more replies would be of the flamethrower variety. Thanks for the compliments and nice welcomes to the forum.

A "skilled" welcome to a not easily impressed forum. We had a Thread a few weeks ago about an Airweight with a cracked 'boss' off the frame down in the butt. The OP asked can this be welded? The vast consensus was that no one could successfully weld that. I kept my mouth shut because I am sure not welder enough to attempt it. But, in my years of engineering and then in gunsmithing, I have encountered at least three welders that I knew darn well could have and would have taken on the job with total satisfaction. I now know the fourth welder that is capable. Get your FFL and you could develop an ongoing clientele for that job. ....

Did you also fill the cut in the left side of the hammer slot ?

Nice job!!!

What did you use for filler material? Aluminum?
Did you use a heat sink?
Technical questions abound.
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I don't have Alzheimer's- My wife had me tested.

I do a lot of micro tig work on heat sensitive parts for my business, I omitted the heat past on this job for a couple reasons one being the on time of the arc pulse keeping the heat input to a minimum, and second the location on the frame is not a critically stressed area (relatively speaking) compared to welding say a cracked underlug, I wasn't so worried about the heat treat being adversely affected in this area. The material was 4043 tig wire, .015 thick/thin. The real trick in this puzzle is to keep the backside of thin material from becoming reactive while molten, similar problems arise on Titanium and Inconel that require you to get real creative with the gas envelope coverage. If you read up on Scandium it really lends itself well to welding as far as grain elongation in the heat effected zone..as long as you control all of the zone. the puddle was ultra clean..really white/mercury look I guess you could say superalloy for sure.

I do a lot of micro tig work on heat sensitive parts for my business, I omitted the heat paste on this job for a couple reasons one being the on time of the arc pulse keeping the heat input to a minimum, and second the location on the frame is not a critically stressed area (relatively speaking) compared to welding say a cracked underlug, I wasn't so worried about the heat treat being adversely affected in this area. The material was 4043 tig wire, .015 thick/thin. The real trick in this puzzle is to keep the backside of thin material from becoming reactive while molten, similar problems arise on Titanium and Inconel that require you to get real creative with the gas envelope coverage. If you read up on Scandium it really lends itself well to welding as far as grain elongation in the heat effected zone..as long as you control all of the zone. the puddle was ultra clean..really white/mercury look I guess you could say superalloy for sure.

I applaud your work on the lock hole, but the finish on the gun is, IMHO, terrible. Just a matter of taste I guess, but guns that look beat to hell have never appealed to me.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

I hated the I.L. more than I loved the finish, When I lit up the tig on the holes I was smiling at the trade I was getting. Monday I'm installing a titanium cylinder, and the finish on the frame is a work in progress. Possible the sandblast booth might get another visit to even out the looks. The leap into the unknown also allowed me to take other issues on that otherwise would not be possible while caring about the tender/weak finish. I always thought that the corner of the frame above the grip was too sharp sometimes leaving the web of the shooters hand raw when shooting it with a high or hurried grip, so I just rounded it to my liking, next I got to round off the sharp back edges of the trigger and polish it to perfection on the corners. My brother looked like he wanted to puke over what I had done, but nothing risked nothing gained. I now will have my cake and eat it too, the gun will fit me like no other off the shelf offering and I will never lament over scratches or a ding. I don't plan on any ceracote or the like, I will probably fiddle with the looks once I get the titanium cylinder in it, I'll post pics when its done.

Having played with some of the ceramic spray-on finishes like Ceracote, Duracote and KG Guncote. I think you would be just fine if you can finish removing all of the original finish. If you get it clean enough, and with the addition of the titanium cylinder, I think you could seal the frame with some sort of clear coat just to inhibit corrosion. Below is a photo of the 340SC I had that got the treatment. I removed the finish by hand before coating it with Titanium KG Guncote. I hear Ceracote is more durable overall, but it doesn't cure at all until it is heated.

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Dave Frost

I like all types of welding. When I proved what I could do the company gave me an open ticket to setup the most equipped modern welding shop.
I purchased all 500amp/100% duty cycle welding machines. That's 500amp, TIG, MIG, ARC WELDERS. I purchased two large acorn tables with all the accessories. Nothing was spared. I done very large fabrication, steel frames to small tig work. I'm retired now. I worked for one of the top ten engineering groups in the country.

That sounds interesting to me, so your saying that you just clear coated it? Is the titanium KG a clear coat I guess is what I'm asking? I left factory finish alone in the area near the barrel and blast shield so as not to leave the topstrap defenseless against flame cutting, how has your coating held up so far? Did you coat near the fire affected zone. Anyhow I just love getting into uncharted waters and this little endeavor just scratches my creative problem solving itch. I will post more pics as I go.

Thanks for all the feedback fellas.

Wow! I just blew up your picture and that finish looks awesome.. tonight I talked to a buddy of mine and he preps surfaces of different materials for anodizing in a blast booth that he has at his shop that is a lot cleaner than the one I initially started with, I think I'm going to take this over to him and use his blasting procedure to get the surface to look right, the impromptu blasting procedure I did was in a ****** booth with dirty sand. I had to start somewhere to get the surface finish off and after the blast and I had to do extensive cleaning of a surface before welding. But now after seeing your picture I know what direction I'm headed.

Ok, I get filling in the hole but what do you do about the gap next to the hammer where the flag lives? To me, that looks worse than the hole.

flag on a centennial???

Retired long time welder here, looks good!

Now that I'm retired (14 years) I have done nothing harder than welding up a couple metal brackets. So for that reason I found the best solution to that IL quandary is not to buy one with that device in it.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

+1
I have a couple machines but don't consider myself a welder any more than me having a guitar makes me a musician.
I agree on buying the hole-less models but not much choice other than "the plug" on the 2 models I have (M500 & Gov.)

If I were doing this on a 360 I would have run a couple micro tig passes on the slot to fill it in and then reshaped the weld to make it disappear, and I'm with ya that flag slot on those models bugs me too.

I agree, I received this 340 in a trade and when I first handled it looking it over initially I almost passed on the deal. Then outa nowhere the idea came to me of how I could tinker with it and I made the trade, I spun the in's and out's around in my head for a couple weeks till I got good and ticked at the whole I.L. mess and one night I just got down to business. Lol my brother thinks this is nuts.

No, I didn't clear coat it, just used the KG Guncote on it. It dries to the touch in about 30 minutes, so you can handle it carefully. Then, you put it in the oven, following directions. I coated the entire frame and barrel. The cylinder is the original titanium color. I've seen no flame-cutting issues, but I usually use .38 +P rather than .357 mag.

As with all finishes, it tends to wear a bit on the edges and corners, but it's actually done pretty well for a gun that get carried in a pocket or OWB holster most of the time. I'll look forward to seeing your results.

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Dave Frost

I'm sure you will be happy with the results on a properly prepped revolver. If it was me and I had a heating cabinet available that I could hang the parts in after being sprayed, I'd definitely go for the Ceracote. The test results on durability and anti-corrosive properties prove it to be better than just about every other options. Good luck with your project. Can't wait to see it.

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Dave Frost

From the picture it looks like you have had the hammer pivot pin fixed?

The hammer pivot has not been a issue, it changed color when I sand blasted it..

I had the pivot pin break on my 60 pro. The drilled the frame out to except the new pin and bead blasted it. Now if you look hard I can see where the pin is. Yours looks the same on the pic. Might just be the lighting.
You did a great job on you IL fix. My little bro has made his living Tig welding for the last 15 years, I appreciate nice looking work.

Fancy titled jobs or people with big bank accs impress me LEAST.

Only true craftsmen earn my respect and praise.

My hat is off to you michpatriot..

I not only admire the work, I applaud your desire to find all the things you can improve to your taste. Very nicely done, sir.

The next piece to the 340MPD ..hope the pic uploaded..

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michpatriot; looking good. I think this will come out nicely for you.

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Dave Frost