So I pulled my SIG 551 out of its safety case, cocked the hammer, inserted the bolt carrier assembly, snapped in the charging handle, and released the bolt hold open button. What should I get but plastic chunks flying all over the floor. Looking over my 551 I saw that the charging handle plastic grip was broken. Now what do I do? I searched the interweb and found this interesting page over at www.gunfactory.ch:
https://www.gunfactory.ch/langwaf/accstgw90mag.htm

They sell replacement grip handles! So, broken grip handles must be a known issue. I contacted Rolf and ordered a couple. They arrived yesterday. I began my repair.

Decided to glue the replacement grip handle in place with JB Weld MarineWeld


I removed the broken grip from the charging handle using a small vice. When clamped down, the handle shattered and fell off the charging handle stem. Interestingly, I needed to remove the remnants of the dried old glue that held the original grip in place. That's the coffee colored stuff shown below.


I mixed up a little JB Weld and got the new grip handle ready to glue.


I gooped up the charging handle stem with the glue and slid the new grip in place. I then used my vice to firmly hold the handle in place. I let everything sit for 24 hours.


This was my outcome. All looks OK, in my opinion.

Congratulations. You are the owner of the most expeinsive item SIG has ever sold. I think it´s value is around 8000$ per pound. A pound of an engraved Swiss P210L is only worth a fraction.

quote:

Originally posted by OTD:
Congratulations. You are the owner of the most expensive item SIG has ever sold. I think it´s value is around 8000$ per pound. A pound of an engraved Swiss P210L is only worth a fraction.

Daniel; Who designed this? I cannot believe the Swiss Army would put up with it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MG34_Dan,

quote:

Originally posted by MG34_Dan:

quote:

Originally posted by OTD:
Congratulations. You are the owner of the most expensive item SIG has ever sold. I think it´s value is around 8000$ per pound. A pound of an engraved Swiss P210L is only worth a fraction.

Daniel; Who designed this? I cannot believe the Swiss Army would put with it.

Agreed ... however, the handle is still useable, the plastic is just for comfort!

This happened to me also. That old brittle plastic shot everywhere. I didn't know what had happened at first.

I've priced a replacement but I'm not willing to pay that much for the same thing to happen again. I would think SAN would be using a different type of material for the new charging handles but I don't know that for sure.

I'm going with the buck naked look for the time being, but will probably get a replacement from the gunfactory also.

I'm surprised that some of the nicest rifles are plagued by shitty plastic parts, the Valmet RK71 and RK76 plastic stocks and butt plates are some crack prone items also. Just have to take the good with the bad...

Regrettable that this happened, but your repair appears to have turned out well.

I recall reading SIG 55X promotional material from the era and one of the features tauted was the nature of the plastic used in the rifles and that it was considered so high tech and proprietary that it was kept secret, although I don't recall if that applied to all the various plastic components or just some of them.

Undesirable to be sure...but I'd take a broken charging handle plastic cover over, say broken 55X plastic mags, of which I've had three crack.

The furniture is made of nylon 6 type material. Polymere type pistol frames are made of a similar material

quote:

Originally posted by MG34_Dan:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by OTD:
Congratulations. ....

Daniel; Who designed this? I cannot believe the Swiss Army would put up with it.

Dan, the knob is made of hard rubber, not plastic. It dissoves when its in contact with mineral oil type gun lubes. Silicone is recommnded to protect rubber parts. I learned it the hard way also.
I was probably cheaper to use a 5 cent part then additional machining on 600000 chargeing handles. Designer of the rifle was Mr. Bordbeck and his team.

I was under the impression that the rubber cocking handle cover is a press fit, does not require epoxy.

quote:

Originally posted by JoshNC:
I was under the impression that the rubber cocking handle cover is a press fit, does not require epoxy.

The replacements I got definitely were not press fit. Maybe the factory originals were press fit. But either way, there was dried glue present on the charging handle shaft under the broken handle. It is the coffee colored crap in my picture two above.

I hope you took some pictures of an appropriately sized spent casing pressed onto the charging handle for the heck of it.

quote:

Originally posted by Voshterkoff:
I hope you took some pictures of an appropriately sized spent casing pressed onto the charging handle for the heck of it.

If only I would have known, I would have. But, I didn't even think of it. Maybe next time.

I tend to like SikaFlex 221 for this as that's what auto manufacturers use to bond plastics to metal like a shift knob.

This is the first I’ve heard of one breaking. Good to know. Thanks for sharing that nugget!

I'd go naked, me. If it breaks again engrave that puppy and knock down the sharp bits!

I'm only half kidding

I'll be damned. I would have not foreseen that as a possibility. Good fix.