Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Any ideas fixing this stock crack

This is the stock on my mossberg us44d. The crack is following a ring or swirl in the wood. I'm not for sure what to do. It hasn't grown, but I believe it is a matter of time before that piece separates. I do hunt and target practice with this .22.

Would a couple of small holes drilled down into the wood, then place pins in the holes and some wood glue pushed into the crack, then clamped down, work?

Thank You for any of your thoughts on this.

]Mossberg us44d[/url]

]Mossberg us44d crack[/url]

I have used these for your problem, could you open it up a little to get glue in it

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...r-pins/stock-repair-pin-kit-prod617.aspx

that small of a crack you can get way with one pin, pm me your address and Ill send you one

you are going to have to refinish the stock. I would remove the metalwork and use several toothpicks to slightly expand the crack. clean it out with laquer thinner or acetone blown in under pressure and let it thoroughly dry. mix up acraglass liquid and blow it in under pressure. remove the toothpicks and cover the area with wax paper. then wrap it up with strapping tape to apply the pressure to close the crack. wait a few days for the cure. remove everything and clean up the repair site and refinish the stock.

You can repair this without having to refinish the stock with the use of these pins, only thing you will see is a small brass spot on the stock. Remington used these on the BDL and ADL wood stocks to hold together the area between the trigger inlet and the magazine box

Do not expand the crack and do not use a pin! Both are Bubba jobs for such a simple crack.

Wash it with a little solvent from a syringe to remove oils and grease down in the crack. It will also darken the stuff in the crack.

Wax carefully up to the hole with simple paste wax.

Warm the stock area to about as hot as you can handle, but do not singe or scorch the wood.

Run a very small bead of slow-curing epoxy down the length of the crack and cover with saran wrap and smooth it out on both sides to reduce air leakage.

As the air in the wood cools it will draw epoxy down into the crack. Try to leave a little bit proud of the surface when you put it on.

After the epoxy cures clean up carefully and then use Formby's Furniture Refinisher to move some finish around level everything out. It should be quick, easy and permanent.

That works too

Yeah, but it does it without an ugly and totally useless pin...

What Sitka said. Pins of any type look like hell IMHO.

Leave it alone until it actually breaks, which will probably never happen and if it does actually break, then just glue it back with Acuglass colored to match the stock finish.

I've had success using a hypodermic needle and Elmers or similar professional wood glue thinned with water. You want it thin enough to inject but not too thin. Lightly camp between two leather/rubber pads. Practice first.

Remove trigger guard. Compress the crack with a clamp and pieces of leather to assure you don't mar the outside finish. This is to help assure that no small pieces of wood get into the crack during the next step.
In the area covered by the trigger guard drill a small hole, or several going out into the crack.
Remove the clamp and blow air into the hole/holes to clear the crack.
With a syringe filled with thinned epoxy force the epoxy into the holes until it comes out the crack. You may have to help it along with compressed air. If you don't have a syringe you can put epoxy into the hole/holes and force it into the crack with compressed air continuing until you have epoxy coming out of the outside of the crack.
Reapply clamp with pads. Wipe off excess.
No pins, no spreading the crack.

I have done it similar to dian's method. Art's method must work but I have not tried to get it to work backwards before. If you are going to use epoxy, get everything very warm- including the epoxy before hand. Heat makes epoxy thinner. I use a 3 hour epoxy now as I get it bulk and it works pretty good. Another product that I have used a lot is "Z-poxy". Only reason I don't use it now is I get 2 quarts of 3-hour epoxy for $35 ish and I use a lot of it. They also have what they call 8-minute epoxy but about twice as spendy as the 3 hour.

drip in some superglue(the thin stuff), clamp and wait 24 hrs. Sand and refinish. Done.

I will second Art's advice. Normally I don't like heating epoxy as it will degrade slightly, but for something like this it is a small price to pay for getting the epoxy right down into the bottom of the crack.

Two stock cracks I glued with superglue in moments of "inspiration". Both repairs failed. I'm not going for a third time. I have used fast set CA (superglue) in conjunction with epoxy as the main adhesive, but only in weird glue ups that defied clamping and in which the CA set up quickly with hand pressure thus allowing the epoxy to follow suit at its own pace.

NEVER heat epoxy ahead of time, let the wood warm it. It will kick off the accelerants (catalysts, technically) prematurely. Three-hour is not near long enough for my tastes in epoxy for these sorts of things.

My experience with CA glues has been the same, even when using the thickest and slowest curing formulas. The clamping trick with CA to hold while the real glue cures has saved me a ton of grief many times.

3- hour is the slowest stuff I have found. It also won't cure if the temperature is below 78°F I discovered (supplier told me after I called them).

Frequently when I use epoxy it is in the summer time and it is 100° when I go to use it anyway. I have never experienced a glue failure that I could attribute to heating.

I have mixed up a 2 oz cup and let it cure in total volume. It gets so hot that it melts the cup if I use plastic. It passes my compression tests when I use it as a coupon.

I work with composite resins on aircraft that take over 300°F to cure. I suspect that it depends on the chemistry of the matrix as to whether it can take heat.

The supplier is the one who suggested that I heat it since it can't be thinned. I have only been using this new epoxy since the first of the year and so far, so good. I will have to try the suggested method for fixing a crack.

I think what Art is saying is heating the stuff drops the pot life exponentially. That's what I'd say anyway. For example West Systems specs their extra slow hardener as:

Pot life at 72°F (22°C): 40 to 50 minutes
Pot life at 95°F (35°C): 15 to 20 minutes
Cure to a solid state at 72°F (22°C): 20 to 24 hours
Cure to a solid state at 95°F (35°C): 6 to 8 hours
Cure to maximum strength at 72°F: 4 to 9 days
Minimum recommended temperature: 70°F (21°C)

So if you use a fast to general purpose hardener your pot life approaches zip as you heat it.

All the room temp cure I've used will cure in a rational if not reasonable time down to about 65F, Acraglas Gel being really slow. Note that ultimate strength time really extends out when that cool. Yup, have melted cups with Hexcel for hand layups just for experience, made the point you need to be careful gluing foams with a micro balloon slurry.

I would use an epoxy specifically formulated for penetrating and gluing wood--WEST epoxy; no pins. If you carefully mask along the edges of the crack (Magic Mending tape works well), you will minimize cleanup, which should be done immediately, before cure is completed.

Resin and slow hardener, thoroughly mixed, is applied over and over, until the crack won't absorb any more. Sometimes it is possible to use a razor blade or toothpick to ever so slightly open the crack, without damaging the edge; this is removed once the crack will take no more epoxy.

Modest clamping pressure can be applied after allowing sufficient time for penetration, but before the epoxy begins to stiffen. If clamped too soon, it is possible to create a dry glue joint with insufficient glue.