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Favorite Bedding Compound?

thunderboltthunderbolt Member Posts: 6,038 ✭✭✭
Ok, I suppose we all love Brownells accraglas.  But if you have to do a super cheap stock repair for a friend or brother-in-law short on cash what do you use?  J B Weld?  Super Glue?  Epoxy?  Tell your favorite cheapo repair
story. 





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    Ricci.WrightRicci.Wright Member Posts: 5,129 ✭✭✭✭
    I have never bedded a rifle but I just looked and the kit from Brownells is $27.00 plus shipping. I'm not trying to be a smart a** but how much cheaper can you get?? Go too cheap and you might end up with a ruined gun. My gunsmith uses Marinetex I think but that might be even more expensive. Good luck.
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    thunderboltthunderbolt Member Posts: 6,038 ✭✭✭
    I was looking for cheapo repair stories.  I've worked on guns for decades and usually use Accraglas for bedding.  Sometimes, if you're lucky you can buy a used replacement stock for less than $30, which beats accraglas cost plus shipping.  Sad to say, but a lot of my customers think $20 to $30 is an expensive gun repair.
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    Ricci.WrightRicci.Wright Member Posts: 5,129 ✭✭✭✭
    Brother you need new customers!!  It's funny, well tragic really, how little some folks think a good gunsmith's time is worth. 
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    navc130navc130 Member Posts: 1,202 ✭✭✭
    From what I have read over the years, probably any epoxy would work.  It can be thickened to not run.  For wood splits and cracks I use wood glue and have found it very strong.  JB Weld certainly has a good reputation.  Depends on the type of repair.  You specifically mentioned bedding compound which requires epoxy.  You can always glue in a new piece of wood and refit the recoil lug.  Cheap but labor intensive.
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    waltermoewaltermoe Member Posts: 1,924 ✭✭✭✭

    You just tell them that $20 to $30 to bed a rifle is the same as receiving a gift. I have glass bed a couple of stocks myself, if I were a gunsmith I would charged a lot more. I repaired a Winchester 61 couple of years ago, it had a small crack just behind the receiver. I used epoxy, you can’t tell it’s been repaired, even with a close up inspection.

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    buddybbuddyb Member Posts: 5,244 ✭✭✭✭
    First time I used Accraglass it worked so well I stopped looking for anything else.
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    thunderboltthunderbolt Member Posts: 6,038 ✭✭✭
    My cheapo repairs were done when I had to worry about feeding a wife and two kids and took any job that came through the door.  Doesn't happen so much now.  I did once hand file and make a part, I think a broken magazine release on a small .25 auto for around $10.  Looked up the part, grabbed a piece of steel and started filing.  I needed the cash and the practice at the time. Again, that was many years ago.  I wasn't looking for gunsmithing advice.  What I wanted to hear was a few tales of gun repairs on the cheap.  I was kidding about using Super Glue as a bedding compound, but folks never seem to get my jokes.  Anyway thanks for looking.  May your Accraglas never run out of date before you use it all up and may your Cerracote always be smooth.
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    dunbarboyzdunbarboyz Member Posts: 2,174 ✭✭✭✭
    PC7 epoxy paste.

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    MIKE WISKEYMIKE WISKEY Member, Moderator Posts: 9,972 ******
    here you go, about a buck  (4 pack $3.98)

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    nononsensenononsense Member Posts: 10,928 ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2020
    I finally remembered the occasion when a client brought me his brand new FN Winchester P R and suggested I remove the barreled action from the stock. I actually laughed when I saw what supposedly was used for bedding compound:
    HOT GLUE!
    Or maybe what would be called 'thermal set adhesive'.
    Apparently, they (whoever they are) used a glob of this concoction in the recoil lug area and just pushed the barreled action into place and let it set up.

    We tested both this original bedding against properly done Marine Tex bedding with MT winning that contest.

    After doing some looking around, I found an old article (decades ago) recounting a Worldwide shooting competition where some Kiwis had to re-bed their wood stocked rifles with flaked rosin and I think, acetone creating what used to be furniture glue. Evidently the change in weather from home to the competition site forced a change in the stocks which required a unique cure. 

    Best.
    ADDED: I found the article.
    The recent discussion on Fluxes reminded me of a rifle bedding trick learned from the Kiwis at the 1979 Palma Matches at Trentham (Upper Hutt), New Zealand

    Flake Rosin, dissolved in alcohol until it is a syrup, is handy substitute for epoxy bedding of actions to stocks, and has several advantages over epoxy. (Dissolved rosin, of course, is nothing more or less than old-time furniture glue.)

    It works very will, particularly with wood stocks. It will not fill large gaps like epoxy will, but works better than epoxy where a fairly close fit already exists.

    To use it, simply pour some dissolved resin into the area of the stock you want to bed, and assemble the barreled action to the stock. Wait overnight for it to thoroughly dry before disassembling or shooting the rifle.

    The advantages are:

    No release agent is required. To disassemble the rifle, simply hit the bottom of the barrel a good whack with the flat of your hand. Most Kiwi and Aussie shooters I knew did not disassemble their rifles between shoots, because doing so broke the bond between stock and rifle. They were essentially shooting "glue-ins", with the advantage that they were easily "unglued". (An alternative method of release is to put a large pin punch in the bottom of the front action screw hole and give it a tap with a hammer, on actions with a "blind" hole.)

    The resin is thin enough to easily penetrate wood some distance and strengthen the area under the bedding. It shrinks VERY little and fills every pore of the metal/wood it touches … producing a good bond unless the action is really highly polished.

    Each time the rifle is disassembled, a thin "paint" coat of rosin can be reapplied to the existing bedded area. It will "melt" the surface of the resin already in place, so the bedding doesn't get thicker …. it just re-adheres to the action as it dries.

    Available at real hardware stores as "flake resin" or "flake glue" (make sure you don't get some modern, compounded substance), this stuff is CHEAP. Enough for seventy-seven rifles will cost you a few bucks.

    The Kiwis/Aussies considered this one of their "accuracy secrets" for high-power competition. Maybe it will work for you …



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