Broken ejector guide pin repair

[Stan Hillis]

It seems the only ones I can afford need work, Jim!

SRH

[Mills]

You sound like me, Stan. If it needs work and is marked way down, those are the ones I buy

[Bill Graham]

I used a variation of this repair strategy and was able to repair both of my wife's 20ga ejector Sterly pins. Nerve wracking, but it worked.

[Stan Hillis]

Good deal, wh. Hope the repairs hold up as well as mine have.

SRH

[Bill Graham]

Thanks for your encouragement Stan, and thank you for posting your process.

Both of mine were broke. I tried to repair one at a time, locking the ejectors down but at different depths in the flats like you did. The pins weren't lining up well that way, so I set them psychically set up identically, and had them locked down in their "jig" at the same time. That way worked really well and they move freely.

I ended up prepping the holes freehand with a tiny Dremel bit in order to give the pins a little wiggle room to find just the right spot to sit in order to align well with their holes in the barrels. The extra room was filled with solder. I just couldn't get my cheap drill press set up well.

Lastly, since I ordered extra airplane bits (size 41), I cut one of them down to use as the pin material, like a gauge pin.

[Bill Graham]

Posting again so that others down the road might learn from my experience.

The tungsten coated drill bits did not hold. Solder doesn't want to stick, and they came apart when I shot it last weekend. They sure looked nice though.

So I repeated the repair with finish nails, like Stan used. To help them hold, I notched them in a couple spots below the surface of the ejector to create a dovetail of sorts for the solder to enter. Hoping that helps them hold. I'm having trouble with a few things on this 20ga ejector gun, and resolving this problem once and for all would be great.

[Stan Hillis]

Just to add a note concerning what W.H. posted above, my repair using finish nails is holding well .......... so far. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the update.

SRH

[Stan Hillis]

Just an update. The repair is still going strong six years later. Was reminded of this by another post recently.

[44whiskey]

good on you stan, a farmer has to be a man of many talents,thanks for sharing

[44whiskey]

how are guide pins fixed in place as built originally,silver soldier,welded,forged,brazed?

[Stan Hillis]

That is a good question, Fred, to which I have no answer. Maybe Frank can answer that. All I can say is that I've seen no evidence of any type of soldering or brazing on originals. Doesn't prove they weren't, though.