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

So I'm officially done with Devcon Steel for rifle bedding. This is the 3rd container in a row where the hardening agent dried out before I used up half the kit. I'm not the only one online saying so either. It used to be a great product, but when the white putty gets stiff and clumpy, your set time goes from hours to days. And this is with the lid screwed on tight as possible and kept in the house. Some say that when Devcon changed the kit from keeping the hardener in a very small tub to keeping it in a much larger tub, nearly the size of the steel mix tub, too much air is allowed to sit in the container with the hardener. I had zero problems until 2014 or so, and my last few batches have come from different suppliers.

Moving on, between Marine Tex and JB, which is thicker? I've used JB before and really preferred the peanut butter thickness of Devcon, which is why I switched in the first place.

MarineTex is thicker immediately after mixing. If you let JB Weld set a few minutes, it thickens up. MarineTex is more picky about mixing ratios. I prefer MarineTex.

Is Acraglas Gel not up to the task?

My favorite is Steel Bed from Brownells. My second favorite is JB. For the money it cannot be beat.

Marine Tex

Give Probed 2000 a whirl, i bet you don't use anything else. Nothing matches it in ease of use and setup time.

Warming the hardener will take out the clumps but you need to allow it to cool before use..

I prefer gray MarineTex.

Good info here. Thanks guys....

I do around 30 bedding jobs per year with Acraglas Gel, no complaints.

I bed around 5 of my own rifle actions a year with devcon steel putty.
https://www.brownells.com/aspx/search/productdetail.aspx?sid=13899&pid=5808
I pay for a new jar every year and write the date on it.
They use Devcon at Boeing and are always careful about the date.


I do dozens of bolt handle threaded inserts per year with Bob Smith Industries BSI-201 Clear Quik-Cure Epoxy.
https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dindustrial&field-keywords=Bob+Smith+Industries+BSI-201+Clear+Quik-Cure+Epoxy
I store it upside down so it is ready to squirt out in one second.
It is 5 minute epoxy that gets into the grain of the wood AND bonds to metal.

Marine Tex and is hard to beat. I have a can that is over 20 years old along with the original activator jar, and it sill hardens fine. It has somelups in the can now so I only use it for bulk filling, up it still hardens fine. JB is good but I use it for small tings, like bedding rings.

I liked Dexter Hysol Epoxi Patch (aluminum filled)..............when I had a good supply.
Now buy the big tubes of JB at the auto store.
Only done 3 rifles so far, happy with the results.

Marine Tex...best in the biz.

I use this so I don't have to worry about it going bad after opening.

It looks like Hysol comes in 2.7oz.

https://www.amazon.com/Loctite-Hysol-Green-Structural-Adhesive/dp/B00VFP1LAM

That's not the aluminum filled.
Back in the lab, we got it labelled "Dexter Hysol".

Dunno if numbers or formula changed.........but not finding it so easy on the web (tube form).
See something that might be like it in tubs.

Loctite owns them now so maybe dropped it because they had their own version?

IIRC there was even a stainless steel filled version.

But in the lab we had clear, black and grey aluminum filled. Not the small tubes either.
With all the ISO crap and audits...........anything past exp date was dumped (in appropriate barrels of course).
Brand new never opened stuff...........so boss said log it in for disposal or take it home

Once somebody thought it a good idea to cure a bucket of other epoxy before disposal (less spill risk LOL)...........by placing it in oven.
Cured from the outside, inside went into burn mode.
Evac the building.

Yeah, that guy was an EE.

I too am a firm believer in MarineTex. I will confess though to bedding a couple Mausers with West System thickened with colloidal silica which have held up fine. Sometimes I wonder if we don't over think this stuff sometimes.

I think there is a lot to confidence... and that is built by success with a particular epoxy.

No acraglass???

I've use it for years, always works.

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...

Serious question - how do you collect candle soot to add to the epoxy? I've previously used black liquid dye.

Unrelated - one of these days I'm going to resurrect that old 'Photo Milling' thread you helped me with to show some stock building progress. If I ever find time between family, work and chores, that is.

Extremely basic process! Run a lit candle under a piece of metal (steel usually) close enough to impinge on the flames, but not close enough to hit the metal with the wick (it might leave some wax on the metal) until a thin layer has been built. Scrape it off with a knife edge into your epoxy and stir it in...

It takes very little to get epoxy very black.

Of course the proof is in how it shoots but it looks OK to me. I took it apart at 10 hours. Screws came out no problem. I had them sprayed and dipped in shoe polish. The action came out with just a little pulling. I taped the bottom of the lug, front, and sides and that tape stayed in the lug recess and didn't stay on the lug itself, but I removed it with a small screw driver. Clean up was minimal. I ended up with the Marine Tex excess from the lug bedding may 3/4" front and back of the lug. Hope to shoot it this weekend.

It is not something visible to the naked eye.

Stressing the action is surprisingly easy to do. I would rebed before wasting ammo/components.

Since I am not a gunsmith I take it you can stress and action by using the action screws but not by fastening the action to the stock using tape or surgical tubing? If I rebed I assume I need to try and remove most of the existing bedding? Could I remove some and then add to it? My plan is going to shoot it as is. If it doesn't shoot any better I will try and repeat the process. Not trying to make a bench gun just a 2" gun to a 1". Thanks for the pointers.

Tight is a relative term but it is very easy to flex an action with action screws. Putting a run-out indicator on a barrel while bedding shows it to be quite easy.

Taking off a small bit of bedding and just skim bedding is probably good enough. Action screws can be used as reference pins, just do not torque them.

There is much disagreement about taping the recoil lug. I can easily see how an action can move in the stock under recoil and have seen many obvious cases. That said, the idea of taping anything other than the bottom of the lug makes no sense.

With Deacon you have to go by their rules........but been using it for 45 years.......I go by the rules.

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