Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing First DIY Bedding

I went with the Devcon Steel Putty. Bought the rest of the stuff at walmart. Here's a rundown of components:

1 Lb Devcon Steel Putty, $28.00
Johnson's pastewax, $4.00
Large popsicle sticks, $2.00
Small hobby sticks, $2.00
1.5 lb Modeling Clay, $5.00
Plastic bowls (for mixing), $1.50
Masking tape, onhand
Riggers tape, onhand



Total cost about $42.00. I have enough stuff to bed at least 3-4 more rifles.

I took the Dremel with cutting ball and hogged out some material for mechanical locks in the barrel pad, and tang area. I also opened up grooves along both sides of the receiver, below the shell of the stock in order to add a substantial amount of bedding compound, and create a full-length mechanical lock.

Here's a few pics.

Hogged-out stock:


Went to work with the masking tape, Taped off the front, sides, and bottom of the lug, then covering eveything I could see getting messy. I should have taped the receiver and barrel above the stock-line.

Used duct tape to build a dam ahead of the barrel pad. This also served to index the barrel in the middle of the channel.

Removed the trigger.

Packed modeling clay into all the orofices of the stock and receiver that don't want bedding material.

Gave the receiver, floorplate, and bolts a liberal coating of Johnson's paste wax.

Mixed up the putty and hardener with a putty knife, in a plastic bowl. Mixing ratio per instructions is 2.5:1 by volume, or 9:1 by weight, putty:hardener. This stuff is about the consistency of frosting. Easy to work with.

I put a lot of compound into the stock. Being careful to work it in well in all areas.

When I bolted the action into the stock, quite a bit of bedding was forced out. I skimmed the excess away with the hobby sticks.





I bedded the floorplate a couple days after the receiver. I routed out a good groove around the front and rear radius' of the inlet to allow a thick bead of bedding, similar to how I did the receiver.

Here's a couple finish pics. The modeling clay left some white residue here and there.

Not the purtiest bedding I've seen, but for a first-timer, I'm happy with the results. Everything fits and feels very tight.

Receiver bedding:





Floorplate bedding:
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v461/montanamarine/Bedding/Img_5998.jpg[/img]

A few more pics of the carnage here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v461/montanamarine/Bedding/

Haven't shot it since the bedding job, I will let it cure for a couple more days and test it.

Looks good Shane. Make sure you drill out the bolt holes enough so there is no contact between the stock and screws when the rifle is assembled. Looks like what you did will work, but sometimes you feel the resistance when you put the rifle together. I usuall use a 5/16" bit so there is no doubt.
Not bad for a first timer!!!

Yeah, there was a fair amount of flow into and around the bolts, I did open the bolt holes back up, used 5/16" bit. Bolts are free floating.

Cool-- The 5/16' always does the trick.

Be careful, you'll have guys dropping off rifles to be bedded...believe me...

Looks great! I have always wanted to try it, but have been too scared. I think I might try bedding a 22 rimfire bolt action, before trying it on one of my real guns. Thanks for the pics.

Looks just like you knew what you were doing.

Good job Shane.

I'm thinking about doing my 7-08.

It takes a certain "leap of faith" to take a Dremel and start carving up a perfectly good McMillan stock, and to have confidence you are not permanently glueing stuff together. But on a mechanical level, it's fairly easy to do.

I was hurrying to get the putty all worked in before it started setting up. But in reality I probably had the stock bolted in, 5 minutes after I started working the putty into the stock. You have a good 45 minutes working time with the stuff, so no need to rush things.

Most of the work was in the prep of the stock and barreled action, long before the putty was mixed. I spent a couple hours or maybe more dremeling the stock, cleaning off all the dust, removing trigger, taping, packing everything with clay, and coating things with paste wax. Mixing and applying the putty is only about 10 minutes work. After letting it set for about three hours to cure, the trimming, redrilling, cleanup, and reassembly was probably 30 minutes, would have been less if I'd used masking tape more liberally (hint).

How do you keep it from oozing down into the mag well area?

Thanks.

I packed it with clay. That's what that white stuff is in the pic. Packed it into the magwell inlet of the stock and receiver.

After about 2.5-3 hours when the stuff is starting to harden you take out all the clay, and trim off and excess flow with an exacto knife. The putty is soft enough to cut, but firm enough to keep it's shape. I then bolted the receiver back in for the cure to completely harden, but not sure that is really necessary.

Nice work... I hope you used the left-handed Devcon. I love bedding rifles, after about 3-4 more you'll have it down. I actually volunteer to do it for my friends now. ~JT

That looks good to me, but I'm not brave enough yet to try it. I need to go and watch Karnis when he does my 280 so I can learn how it's done.
Looks like you had a good helper there at the work bench with ya.

DT

Nice work, thanks for the write up.

So you pull the action from the stock, then trim all the areas where you don't want it? I thought when you bedded a rifle you had to keep the action held in place for 24 hours?

Thanks.

Another method I've used to keep the epoxy out of a magazine well is to stuff it with cotton balls, then make a cover for it with strong sticky tape like duct tape, then trim the edges. Still need to make sures there's release agent where needed. I've found that epoxy doesn't stick to duct tape, but I wouldn't take that to the bank without testing the specifics. One thing I learned the hard way is that kids' modeling clay is nasty, literally greasy kid stuff. It's difficult to get out of the nooks and crannies. Far better is the modeling clay sold in art stores. It has a better texture, and seems to pop out pretty easily when cleaning up after the job.

Paul

Couldn't a guy just use regular potters clay? Seems like it would work too, and it is easy to clean up.

Just asking a lot of questions because I have never bedded a rifle, and want to try it.

Thanks.

nice job, shane.
make sure you get that clay out of every steel crevice.
the steel will oxidize quickly in contact if it stays past a day ...

Nice job, bedding should not scare people to bad, unless you make a major goof and lock something in mechanically you can grind away and rebed until your happy.

My first try was on a throw done tupperware stock for a 700, I think I bedded that thing 4-5 times before I felt real good about it. Like most things we tend to make it harder than necessary.

Shane what it the combo on the stock, I love the colors.

Droptine, A guy needs a good helper, Jack is pretty good. Here's some pics of him:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v461/montanamarine/Jack/

fish280, I scrubbed it out with toothbrush, Kroil, and some Hoppe's #9 after.

varmintsinc, it's 50/25/25 light tan/grey/black.

The clay I used (Sculpey) was what I found at the walmart hobby/craft section. It seemed to work ok, and looks like it can be used over and over.

congrats you did a very fine job