low temp soldering to stainless steel

[stringy]

Hi all, I am currently working on an old Sako vixen 222 which has EAW swing off scope mounts, the front one soldered to the barrel. The barrel is stuffed due to being carried in the rain for many years and not cleaned (rifle has not been used for 25 years because of the barrel). I'm looking to re-barrel in 204 ruger Benchmark stainless steel.

A couple of questions;
Has anyone had experience soldering a swing off mount to a stainless steel barrel?

Is there a sucesfull way to blacken stainless steel (tried several ways to paint the ss barrel on my 17rem Shillen many years ago with little sucess)

Cheers,
James

 

[clowdis]

You can solder it on with the high force 44 solder from Brownells. I don't like the flux they sell with it but normal paste flux will work well. I did a quarter rib on a stainless setup but I doubt that I'll ever do it again. The stainless just doesn't solder as well as carbon steel.

 

[stringy]

Did some trials today on 316SS plate; first I tried to solder clean plate and had minimal fusion, then, removed the oxide layer with emery cloth and excellent fusion, I'm using 97.5% tin/ 2.5% silver, low temperature solder with a 220 degree celcius melting point (high strength). Now I am happy to solder the mount to a SS barrel.

Also made some calls regarding the blackening/painting of a SS barrel and came up with an involved process requiring the coating to be set in an oven. Will just have to put up with a shiny barrel which is less of an issue these days!

What is the price of a benchmark 204 ruger barrel in the US, priced one today in OZ and am shocked!!!!!!!!!

James