Closing screw holes on a shotgun receiver with a TIG welder

June 13, 2013 Bill Marr Gunsmithing 0

A Burnt Bronze Cerakoted Remington 870 Police, equipped with Vang Comp Systems ghost ring sights and Magpul furniture.
We wanted to replace the Scattergun Technologies’ Trak-Lock II ghost ring rear sight with a Vang Comp Systems rear sight on one of our Remington 870s.  In order to do that, the holes for the Scattergun Technologies sight needed to be plugged.  While plug screws would serve the purpose, the appearance would be less appealing then filling with metal.  In the past, we have silver soldered a short length of screw in place and shaped it to a smooth fit.   This time we will use a TIG welder without filler rod, using a screw shank to fill the void.  While we would use the same technique to close scope mount holes, we would be hesitant to subject a critical area of a firearm to the welding process.

We would like to thank Brownells for their continued support of our site and for providing us with the following items used in this article:

  1. 120 and 220 grit abrasive cloth
  2. File starter set
  3. Cerakote heat cure kit, Burnt Bronze

The following is presented for information purposes only and documents a technique we used for our specific application and should not be considered instructional advice.

These are the two holes we need to fill. The gun had previously been coated in Cerakote FDE. Using a piece of 120 grit abrasive cloth. the finish is removed from the work area.
These are the two holes we need to fill. The gun had previously been coated in Cerakote FDE. Using a piece of 120 grit abrasive cloth. the finish was removed from the area of work.
Two screws are inserted into the holes. Since the front hole passes through the receiver we take the time to make sure the screw isn't set too deep. The shanks of the screws are cleaned with a wire wheel to remove the screws finish.
Two screws are inserted into the holes. Since the front hole passes through the receiver, we take the time to make sure the screw isn’t set too deep. The shanks of the screws are cleaned with a wire wheel to remove the screws finish.
A quick trip to the tig welder. The bottoms of the screws are welded into the receiver by carefully running a "puddle" around the base of the screw. We don't use filler rod.
A quick trip to the TIG welder. The bottoms of the screws are welded into the receiver by carefully running a “puddle” around the base of the screw. We don’t use filler rod.
A file is used to begin shaping the area.
A file is used to begin shaping the area.
120 grit abrasive cloth, followed by 220, cleans up the file marks.
120 grit abrasive cloth, followed by 220, cleans up the file marks.
After the area is shaped, we refinished it with burnt bronze Cerakote... looks pretty good.
After the area is shaped, we refinished it with burnt bronze Cerakote… looks pretty good.
Here is our Burnt Bronze Remington 870 Police, now equipped with Vang Comp Systems ghost ring sights.
Here is our Burnt Bronze Remington 870 Police, now equipped with Vang Comp Systems ghost ring sights.

To see how we install Vang Comp Systems ghost ring sights, click here.

 

 

 

Related Articles