Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Marine Tex vs JB Weld? (Devcon sucks)

I’ve used gallons of thickened West Systems for bedding and switched to grey MarineTex a few years ago for anything that didn’t need to be dyed or clear. I just find it less messy and no need to dye it black like I normally did for synthetics. Never was a big Accraglas fan, been so long since I’ve used any I can’t recall why though I’m sure I had a good reason.

The clean-up after Accraglass is always worse... it was what I used for a very long time and really liked it better when I got away from it.

My only complaint with Acraglass is the gel has too much fiber and will pull away from the action if you cut it off too soon. I mix half regular and half gel or just add my own thickeners to get the consistency I want. Accraglass is not as tough as some of the others but I have had no issues except for cold weather causing the hardening process to take weeks. If you want it tougher add steel or aluminum filings. I also add Kevlar and/or graphite powder and fibers if I have any and not much sanding will be involved.

Can RIT powdered clothing dye in black be used to darken JB weld, or other grayish epoxies?

Possibly, but may not be very light stable... especially when a little candle soot will give a very nice black, cheaply and easily, while making the epoxy stronger and harder.

You may find this interesting from the people who formulate and sell epoxy. West Systems They have a lot of helpful articles online. A little pigment goes a long way.

Personally I use artist acrylics which I have on hand for other purposes. It takes so little to color epoxy I don't worry about it.

Hey Art, any idea if powdered graphite would add any positive properties to the mix?

Graphite will make epoxy harder and stronger. It is just carbon in one of it's natural forms.

I have used plenty of Accraglas both liquid and gel, Marine Tex, and I use Brownells Steel Bed almost exclusively now. I just have better luck with it in the long run.

All these epoxies have a solid added to them to increase compressive strength and other characteristics. Stainless powder, iron powder, rock powder, silicon, aluminum, etc......
Used to be you could look at the MSDS and see but the new SDS’s seem to lack that detail.

Steelbed uses stainless in proportion to add good compressive strength.
Marine Tex was rock powder and or silicon depending on model. Resistance to corosion??
A lot of them use aluminum. Less compressive strength than steels.

3m makes a stainless epoxy. Might be good.

Steel bed is formulated for the job, the others are formulated for other jobs. They may or may not have the desired properties.

Does the same release agent work on all of these different epoxies? I am about to try my first recoil lug and was going to use Marine Tex.

I use Brownell's Accra Release with their steel bed. Works just fine.

I tried the heat gun (slowly) on the Devcon hardener I had left, and it did indeed make it closer to the original consistency. Good tip. But when this stuff is gone, I'm switching to MarineTex.

There are few manufacturers but many brands and formulas. Epoxies are used for an incredible array of tasks and many will do a fine job as bedding. There are far more important things to worry about during a bedding job.

An industry rep made a quip when addressing our shop once, to the effect that all the epoxy resins in this country come out of one spigot so to speak, that it's the proprietary hardeners that spell the difference in brands.

The only thing that has changed are a few ownership differences and a few new suppliers/brands.

What happens regularly is a large user specs out a particular formula and then sells some of it to keep down the cost for their use. Buying in bulk is cheaper...

Well I finally got the guts to bed the recoil lug on my Kimber Hunter this morning with Marinetex. Its all set up and I screwed in the 2 action screws hand tight just snugged down good.

My question is how many hours until I start to disassemble?

Should I just leave the action screws in until tomorrow morning as is?

Take the actions screws out after 4 to 5 hours and remove any excess material and then reassemble?

[align:center][/align]If your bedding was bad before, and it was bending your action, tightening the screws just allowed you to build bedding that bends your action. You need the screws loose, and some other way to loosely clamp the action in the stock. Surgical tubing works well. Too late too worry now. When it is set, check to see if it is ok. Very well may be fine.

Yeah I read some guys tighten screws some tape or use the tubing to attach the action. Guess I hope it is good. I just tightened them an hour ago. I did tape the barrel to center it in the stock and looks like there is no contact there.

Major fail... sorry to say...