does anybody know of a company that can weld a section of rail back onto the rail after a section is removed

It’s never going to be done right. May as well resign yourself to buying a new rail.

Are you referring to a missing Mil-Std 1913 Picatinny rail section on a AR handguard, or is it a missing section of the handguard itself, like for a FSB cut-out.

what i'm doing is cutting the first half inch off of the rail , then i'll be cutting 4 3/4" off of the rail , then i need to attach the 1/2" piece back onto the rail

it will be for cosmetics only really.  there will be nothing that mounts or attaches to that first 1/2" of rail

this is a rail off a Q fix/sidechick so they're not really available in different lengths and kind of hard to come by

Got it. I don't know of a specific company. If it's 6061, any competent TIG welder should be able to weld it, but finding one that can make it look seamless is another story. Some people won't touch 7075, but there is a member here who can and may do it. The archives are down so I have no way of searching that thread, but it was within the last 3 or 4 months. @Tigwelder1971 might remember if you message him. I assume you plan on refinishing the whole chassis because that's going to be a tough blend cosmetically.

Not worth the cost/effort it would take to look right

yeah with the archives down it's hard to find some info

i'll message Tigwelder1971 , good call

i'm just going to refinish the rail and not the whole chassis.  i'll probably cerakote it with something close , it doesn't need to be exact.  this is actually a sidechick chassis that i'm working on and not a fix rifle , they take the same rail though

That juice is not worth the squeeze IMO.

It will always look hacked. Alignment will never match.


Definitely not something that I'd take on or want my name associated with.

this is the issue i'm running up against

i was hoping to find someone with better welding skills to take this on but i'm pretty determined to move forward with it myself if i have to.  it would be nice to find another rail to do it to just incase i f it up too bad

this was not the answer i was looking for

Figured so but I gotta be honest.

My OCD would never let me live that shit down.

i thought that cutting off a small part at the front to reattach would be doable since it wouldn't matter to the final product on needing to be perfectly straight or any rails needing to match up or have any "strength" to it.  it would just be for cosmetics. but that sounds like the issue , making it look seamless

That's exactly the issue.  I can't see it looking anything other than like ass (and pimply, gnarly, cottage cheese ass) when complete.

Just so we're clear, you want to chop 1/2" off the front of this, then another 4-1/2", and then put the first 1/2" back on?

I also don't see any way of doing it where you're bot going to chop at one of the (supposed) M-Lok gaps, and that's going to look like crao too.

Attached File

yes that is what i'm trying to do.  cutting the rail at those 2 spots will cut into 3 of the mlok slots , those 3 slots will match back up once the front piece is reattached.  

if i can pick up a spare rail i'm going to give it a shot , i'm trying to make this chassis work with a 12.5" barreled r700 action that i have.  

I've been reading this trying to figure out what your intent was with the scope rail/picatinny rail, but it sounds like you're shortening the handguard to better fit a short barrel?

I'm in agreement that welding would be difficult to make it look right.  Maybe a giant copper backing bar/insert inside the rail could keep things aligned?  I've never tried welding something like that.

You might have better luck cutting it to the length you want, then making an end cap of some sort that bolts onto the end to square it all up.

Or, if you could live with an underbite/overhang, you could cut off one more (or one less) slot on the top or bottom and leave it asymmetrical.  Im drawing a blank on which ones, but I'm pretty sure there's a couple rifle chassis configured like that from the factory.

I was thinking of something similar, On AR's, a birdsmouth cut like a STNGR or a angle cut like a JL Billet. I think rail mfg's intentionally make it difficult to alter them!

IMHO, this is the route I would go in your situation. The overbite won't look too bad, certainly MUCH BETTER than a chop & weld.

unfortunately with this rail there is no way to get a straight or "overbite" cut on the rail.  the top , bottom , and 2 slots on the sides are all at different starting/ending points.  it would have to be a double "birdsmouth" cut on the bottom and that would push mounting a bipod to far back for me.

i know what i'm trying to do isn't something that would normally be done.  believe me after looking it over and coming to the conclusion that sectioning out a piece would net the best looking finished product i started looking at other chassis for this build but the side chick ticked all the boxes so i'm sticking with it. i do understand why everyone is saying the juice just isn't worth the squeeze on something like this.  i can't imagine the number of hours i'll have into this project grinding/filing/frenching out the welds and then giving it a good "bodyworking" but it will be worth it in the end.  

if this thread doesn't get archived before i finish the project i'll post back with the results