Is there a way to home harden a metal do it yourself style

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twinhairdryers

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
10
I have one of the near evil banned list Intratec Tec-22 Scorpions. These guns use a bolt from 10/22s, extractors, a few other parts. The gun itself is one of my most fun plinkers other than my PLR-16 and of course my AKs. It runs 30 round magazines of 22LR in about 15 seconds just in semi auto mode. The problem with the gun is the steel that Intratec used for the firing pin is junk, close to pot metal so every owner of these guns has a breaking of firing pin every 200 to 800 rounds or so. The replacement parts are nearly impossible to obtain and are 60.00 and are still the same junk metal.

Is there a way to home harden a metal do it yourself style? I've run into this on extractors for some guns like ARs. If I use a Colt or Bushmaster part, it lasts for several thousand rounds, some 1500 rounds in their cheap soft form.
 

bub

Single-Sixer
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Jul 28, 2007
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NE Ohio
twinhairdryers, I have absolutely no knowledge of the Tec-22, but you state that it takes a 10/22 bolt. If it takes a 10/22 bolt, can you use a 10/22 firing pin? I don't know if it would be more durable or not, but it might be worth a try. If it won't work, disregard except for my wish of good luck with the gun.

Bub
 

Quarterbore

Blackhawk
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Valley Forge PA
You can cetrainly harden them yourself too. I am browsing via my phone so I have very limited search capability but I can post some links later.

All you need is a propane cylinder and oil. The color depends on temps and I know with an AK ejector I heat them to cherry red, quench, then heat to a blue and quench.

The red gets the steel hard, the secomd blue heat removes some of the surface hardness to make the steel less brittle.
 

twinhairdryers

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
10
bub":3f1xjgaf said:
twinhairdryers, I have absolutely no knowledge of the Tec-22, but you state that it takes a 10/22 bolt. If it takes a 10/22 bolt, can you use a 10/22 firing pin? I don't know if it would be more durable or not, but it might be worth a try. If it won't work, disregard except for my wish of good luck with the gun.

Bub

Bub - yes, the Tec-22 takes a Ruger 10/22 bolt. The bolt itself is not the issue. It is a great part made by Ruger. The bad part is the firing pin that was uniquely designed for the Intratec Tec-22. The design is good, including the firing pin return spring, but the metal pin iteslf is cheap crap metal.
 

twinhairdryers

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
10
Quarterbore":2vuyr40f said:
You can cetrainly harden them yourself too. I am browsing via my phone so I have very limited search capability but I can post some links later.

All you need is a propane cylinder and oil. The color depends on temps and I know with an AK ejector I heat them to cherry red, quench, then heat to a blue and quench.

The red gets the steel hard, the secomd blue heat removes some of the surface hardness to make the steel less brittle.

heat treatments to try to "harden" some of your gun parts that you know may not be the best quality (like the Intratec firing pin, the Kel-Tec PLR-16 extractor, etc).
 

twinhairdryers

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
10
Quarterbore":tugidw18 said:
You can cetrainly harden them yourself too. I am browsing via my phone so I have very limited search capability but I can post some links later.

All you need is a propane cylinder and oil. The color depends on temps and I know with an AK ejector I heat them to cherry red, quench, then heat to a blue and quench.

The red gets the steel hard, the secomd blue heat removes some of the surface hardness to make the steel less brittle.

This is what I was guessing one might be able to do to attempt to strengthen steel parts. What do you do to finish them afterwards? Cold blue, or some paint or finish you have had good luck with? thanks for the ideas.

-Darin :lol:
 

Pinecone

Blackhawk
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Jan 29, 2007
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Location
Maine
twinhairdryers, Welcome to the best forum on the net! The 10-22 firing pin is relatively easy to make. As noted above, the propane torch/oil quench is a way to make small parts hard for most practical uses. Here is another way I have used on many parts over the years including many flat type firing pins and no hardening whatsoever is needed. Make the pin out of "Precision Ground Steel Stock". You can procure this stock from any Industrial Supply Company. You may have to have them special order it, but it comes in many different widths and thicknesses. If you use a "grinder" to shape it, keep it "cool" with a lot of water and do the grinding "slow! I usually use "files" for most of the shaping to preclude the steel loseing it natural hardness state it comes in. Since the middle eighties I have been dealing with a lot of "pot metal" parts and find it simpler to make most of my own parts given only the limitation of my equipment on hand. You can cold blue the parts with no problem utilizing whatever cold blue you prefer. On the torch/oil quench method, the parts will come out a beautiful blue for the most part (from the oil bath) and will usually not require further hardening....................................Dick :idea:
 

Quarterbore

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Sorry for the delay, I have been traveling for work and while I can browse via my Blackberry finding old posts is a bit of a PITA.

Here is a page that should be helpful. It is an old post (2005) and it was in the context of building AK-47s but the basics would apply to what you are trying to do here. Here is the link:

http://www.quarterbore.net/forums/showthread.php?t=522

I have photos here, but I never did post any text to go with the photos:

http://quarterbore.com/images/amdbuild6/

Over the years I have built lots of different guns :wink:
 

bub

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jul 28, 2007
Messages
245
Location
NE Ohio
twinhairdryers":1l6i8an9 said:
bub":1l6i8an9 said:
twinhairdryers, I have absolutely no knowledge of the Tec-22, but you state that it takes a 10/22 bolt. If it takes a 10/22 bolt, can you use a 10/22 firing pin? I don't know if it would be more durable or not, but it might be worth a try. If it won't work, disregard except for my wish of good luck with the gun.

Bub

Bub - yes, the Tec-22 takes a Ruger 10/22 bolt. The bolt itself is not the issue. It is a great part made by Ruger. The bad part is the firing pin that was uniquely designed for the Intratec Tec-22. The design is good, including the firing pin return spring, but the metal pin iteslf is cheap crap metal.

I was thinking that, with a 10/22 bolt, it might just take a 10/22 firing pin. Too bad it's a special part. Good luck.

Bub
 

btrumanj

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 29, 2005
Messages
490
Location
Louisville Ky
Tec 22, is this what y'all are talking about? My boys gave it to me some years back and the firing pin broke the second time I had it out shooting. Shot it quite a bit after replacing the pin with no problems. Been put away in a closet for a number of yrs. I had almost forgot I had it :)

Picture111.jpg
 

twinhairdryers

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
10
btrumanj":2t0dt63m said:
Tec 22, is this what y'all are talking about? My boys gave it to me some years back and the firing pin broke the second time I had it out shooting. Shot it quite a bit after replacing the pin with no problems. Been put away in a closet for a number of yrs. I had almost forgot I had it :)

Picture111.jpg

I put about 800 rounds of High velocity 22lr through it before it stopped working. Opened up the action (nice thing about these - push a button and completely disassemble the action) and two pieces of the firing pin fell out, lost the little spring. Can you harden the crap metal firing pin?
 

twinhairdryers

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
10
I tried to harden it using a solid bead dip from Brownells called a surface hardener. You heat the part, dip it in this magic dust, and reheat and cool quickly. I tried 3 dips in this process. I'll see if it work. If I can get 2000 rounds out of any firing pin, i'm a satisfied shopper no matter what the hardware platform it's on. I have metrics on how many rounds the first two factory parts lasted without any treatment.

If this makes a crap of a difference, I may try to harden up some of my other known softer parts like extractors on my PLR-16.
 

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