I was wondering if anyone else has purchased a MG42 from Jim at Ice House recently? I seem to be having communications issues or whatever and am having some issues that I wouldnt mind having some other beltfed (hopefully MG42) people give advice or input on this.

There is a crack on the barrel shroud just behind the rear sight and just in front of the trunnion - is this crack something I need to be concerned with safety over? Or should I find a competent welder who can reweld this locally? Otherwise the gun is great and Jim was a great guy to deal with - I hope everything os OK with him .

UPDATE 19AUG23: several attempts to contact Jim at Ice House

UPDATE 21AUG23: I was finally able to get into contact with Jim and will be sending it back to him for a reweld. Will update with status for anyone interested in how this all turns out.

UPDATE 06OCT23: The gun was returned last week with the new welds/refinish and everything looks great. Amazing how these parts kits can come back to life like this.    


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Looks like the reweld in that area has come lose. I would return the gun to him and have him redo the weld. That's going to require a refinish as well.

Thanks, that is kind of what I was thinking.

Wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to who else may be able to do this work as until I am able to make contact with Jim I am pretty much at a loss as to how to proceed. It would be nice to be able to put at least a few rounds through this gun

Beautiful rifle.


I second that looks like poor weld penetration where it was likely rewelded.


Probably not a biggie if you want someone to fix it, sand blast that area and run a little hotter with the new weld then grind it down smooth.


I'd make the builder do it. Ifyou ever come my way I might be able to help as a private individual.

I would make sure whom ever repairs it does it with a Tig welder. The crack needs to be drilled at each end and a "V" groove ground into it prior to welding.

Why tig? I've been running reweld LMGs for a while I've done with mig. No issues here. Some have wall thicknesses down to 0.050 or up to 0.500.

It sucks but sometimes you just have to cut it apart and start again for the best result.

Thanks for all the replies so far - it makes me want to go learn how to weld just to fix this

Out of curiosity what is the opinion on whether this would require just rewelding the joint or cutting out the bond and doing it over? I can write code all day long but welding is like black magic to me and is fascinating

I'd probably machine out the bad spot if it is cracked and fill it new. If it is just a bad weld with no penetration you can probably get away with filling it back in.


Worst case, cut it, fixture it and reweld the entire section.

It can be done with MIG too. I have found that if you are using a welder guy of unknown ability on thin material its usually easier to find a higher skill TIG guy. That area of the MG42 is pretty thin and you don't want too much heat that can warp it or HAZ area get too brittle.

Thin material can be full thickness fusion welded (TIG) without additional clearance for a root pass.
The metal needs to be clean.


The existing welds don't look great either. I would re-flow them and the crack.

This is what you grind for root pass and build up.

Oh, DPM build huh!

That area looks ugly all over. It needs to have the finish removed to make sure there are not other issues around there and then rewelded. I would return it to the builder to fix, of course.

Correct sir~ Great guns..

I love the one I built. Very soft shooter. I've even run carbine matches with it which is a workout.

I'm derailing things now.

Update in OP - just sitting here feeling a bit pissed that I spent this much money on a dud as well as getting ripped of $500 on the never-delivered 308 parts. The gun community can be its own worst enemy sometimes, but whatever lesson learned. Avoid Ice House. Now on to figuring out how to straighten this mess up.

I would post it on Factbook if you are on that platform & he frequents the 1919 forum.
He should make it right and return your parts.


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