My Walther woes: do any gunsmiths still weld?!

[amb]

My venerable Walther GSP has suffered the fault, common to its breed, of cracking the lower rails of its slide housing. (Apparently this happens with the recoil spring goes soft.) Worse, a new housing can't be had for love or money.

In my travels hiither and yon, I've talked to various folks who have seen GSPs that have been successfully repaired, but never by anyone who's both in the business and even in my hemisphere. (I'm in Massachusetts, USA.)

Can anyone recommend a gunsmith who's got a fine hand with a TIG welder? Being in the northeastern US would be a big plus, but I'm not really that picky anymore. (Everyone I've talked to so far either doesn't do work this involved or only works on 1911's. (Is that where the money is, then?))

Thanks for any guidance or enlightenment. The way this sport is, the people who can fix my GSP are probably down the street from me, but the one who gives me the phone number will be in Australia. :)

[Mike Taylor]

Did you try Earl's Repair for a bolt housing? He had some a few years ago when I needed to replace the cracked housing of my 1975 vintage GPS.

[Bill177]

As these are rails - is there a heavy load on them? If not - consider a jewler silver soldering the rails.

Silver soldering is not soft lead soldering and is practiced to a very fine degree of accuracy. Consider it a form of brazing requiring a very small torch - not just electric heat as is used for electronic repair.

Again - this may not be applicable in the case of the rails. There are also other types of solder used on firearms that can be found at gunsmith supply houses.

[Mike Taylor]

Now I can't speak for amb, but the crack in the 1975 vintage .22 GSP bolt housing ( I knew of three among my shooting buddies) appeared to be the result of a stress-raiser created during the machining of the housing. There was (is) an area of relatively small cross-section below the cut-out for the bolt cocking ears. This section would be subject to tensile impulses each time the bolt slammed back during firing. It would seem that the stress-raiser I mentioned earlier created stresses above the endurance limit of the steel. As a result of thousands of rounds being fired, the steel failed from fatigue; and a crack propagated from the stress-raiser. Ultimately, the crack completely penetrated the narrow section below the bolt ear cut-out.
I had the crack in my bolt-housing welded, but the repair lasted less than 500 rounds before it cracked again. I suspect a better welding job (technique, materials?) might have survived longer. I did consider brazing a reinforcing piece to the outside of the housing, below the cut-out, to bridge the crack. I figured that with a larger surface area in shear, the relatively softer brazing material (as compared to the steel of the housing) would withstand the stresses. I would have made the cross-section of the steel bridge larger than that of the failed portion of the bolt. But before I could try this, my Walther dealer located a new bolt housing (from Earl's). I noted that the machining in this newer bolt housing was altered to eliminate the stress-raiser present in the earlier housings.
So...if you can't find a really good welder, perhaps, as a last resort, you could try brazing (silver-soldering) a bridge across the crack.

[amb]

Thanks for the advice so far, posted and emailed; I've got some new folks to talk to.

I have visited Earl's, and they were unable to locate a new housing for me.

If anyone wants to share my pain, here are some pictures:
[url]http://www.offhand.org/amb/busted-gsp/[/url]

[amb]

Sorry, this one ought to be clickable:
http://www.offhand.org/amb/busted-gsp/

[Tom]

Hi,

I took a look at the picts, looks like welding may be your only solution if you want to use that top end. I have had 1911's welded in the past by Cylinder and Slide's Bill Lathurage and Les Baer. Both have done great work. You may want to talk to Jarvis and Clark, as both of these shops have done long slide conversions for years on .45's and 38's and they have much more recoil than a 22lr.

On a side note, I live in Mass also and tonight is gallery league night, there are 2 people I will talk to, one has an old GSP like yours that's now idle as he just bought a new pardini. The other person has been collecting Walthers for years and has plenty of parts. Both are in Mass so if they have anything for you, you don't have to worry about transfer.

Tom

[mitty]

Lou Lombardi has a guy that he uses for welding cracked High Standard frames. He did one for me a few years ago, remachined the welded area and had the frame reblued.

Sad to say, it did re-crack. I have a TIG welder myself and know that it can be tough to weld on contaminated material, so I'm guessing that there was too much oil in the metal, possibly not aggressive enough preparation or possibly it was just not do-able. I just shoot the gun with the crack and it works fine. If it finally dies, I will probably attempt another repair myself just to see if I can do it.

Lou is usually backlogged a couple of years but he might have some suggestions for you. http://www.falconmachining.com/

I'm guessing that Scott might have some suggestions too.

[scott shaffer]

I would try Steve Moore in jacksonville FL. He is superb on fine welding and machining and certainl has tons of pistol experience. he doe sno do Internet, but info can be found here. http://www.gunsnot.com/serv01.htm

[amb]

I spent an enjoyable morning at Earl's today talking about old Walthers, and confirming that he doesn't have a housing for me. He does, however, have housings for first-generation GPS-C's (one) and OSP's (many), and agrees with my theory about dead recoil springs being part of the problem.

So, I've got a new recoil spring kit (a huge difference from the old one) and a bunch of welders to call.

Again, thanks for the help and advice (here and in email), everyone.