Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Best Glue/Epoxy for Stock Repair

I have a bolt action rifle stock with a crack in the wrist and would like to know what glues or epoxys would work best for the fix. I'd like to repair the stock, but who knows a crack at that location may render the stock firewood. Many thanks for your help.

I use Brownells Accuglass for all my stock work

Any of the two-component epoxy glues will bond wood so that the wood around the glue lie will break before the bond will fail. If you select a thin liquid type with a 30 min open time such as Devcon 2-Ton, it can be forced into the crack with a heat gun. It helps to open the crack as wide as possible. The hot air will make the epoxy run like water and it will fill the crack deeply. Since the epoxy is 100% solids it will not shrink as it cures and the repair will be permanent.

RAN

None of the above.

Use WEST (Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique) System epoxy, as it is formulated for maximum absorption into the wood. This is necessary to provide the strongest bond. Most gunsmithing epoxies are formulated to fill large and small gaps, not what you want for gluing wood to wood.
http://www.westsystem.com/ss/

My thanks to all, I appreciate the advice. And yes, I too would be better served loosing a half-lb. off my gut. That too is good advice!

I have changed over to a good quality air drying wood glue, easy to get way into cracks/breaks and cleans up w/water. When I put the finish over (generally satin spar polyurethane) it seals the surface and no worries about the underlying bond.-Muddy

I like epoxy for its gap-filling quality. Use a quality epoxy, there are differences in quality control, as in off-brand household epoxies. I avoid the quick set epoxies, in my experience they don't set up as completely. Particularly the five minute types.

If the crack in the wrist is structural, one approach is to drill through the wrist from inside the inletting deep enough to pass through the crack. Epoxy in a reinforcing rod, I like salvaged carbon arrow shaft. Sitka uses pieces of carbon fishing rod, seems he can pick up a lot of broken rods. For me it's busted arrow shafts. Any carbon tube is plenty strong, light weight, and when you insert it in a blind hole with epoxy the air gets out through the tube. Otherwise the air compresses and pushes back which is a PITA. Epoxy inside the tube adds nothing; the strength is all in the tube itself.

Ditto West System. You can get small repair kits from them that contain everything needed to fill two dozen stock cracks for just a couple bucks.

You might consider also epoxy/pinning. I would run one to three drill-bit holes through the stock as near perpendicular to the crack as I could manage.

For pins use slightly smaller diameter brass welding rod, and rough the brass-rod surface up for good epoxy grip. Epoxy in place. You can either leave the brass rod ends exposed flush to the stock, or counter sink a bit, and cover with colored epoxy. Brass doesn't rust, vs steel.

Pinning the crack will greatly reduce the possibility of the stock re-breaking just outside the epoxy bond.

las, sorry, but having tested pins of every kind we could think of, subjecting them to all kinds of stresses they add less than nothing to wood repairs, look ugly, and waste time.

Starting with a heated stock and using the tiniest bit I like to drill a hole at the opposite ends of a crack and inject a little bit of mixed epoxy.

Thanks again to all. Is there a recommended tool for injecting epoxy?

Plastic syringe. +1 on the forgetabout pinning.

A woodworker on another gun forum shared this tip and I will use it if I need to some day-
Drill a hole in the stock from the action inlet down through the wrist just slightly past the crack. The hole needs to be just slightly larger than the diameter of a wood dowel or other rod you will use later to put in the hole.
Cut a piece of rod approximately 12" long. Heat the stock at the crack area with a heat gun, and mix up some epoxy. Pour the epoxy in the hole and push the rod into the hole, creating a hydraulic ram and slowly push the rod into the hole until you see epoxy squeezing out of the crack on the outside of the stock. Measure the depth of the hole with a piece of wire or something skinny and cut off the dowel approximately 1/4" shorter. Cut a slot in the side of the dowel to allow epoxy to escape and put a small amount more epoxy in the hole and push the dowel into the hole until it is below the surface of the inlet. This should cause the epoxy to run out the top of the hole. Wipe up the excess epoxy quickly with alcohol or acetone and stand the stock up to let the remaining epoxy set up in the hole.

Apparently, you will need to use a slow setting epoxy to make this work properly. I use West Systems with 207 hardener, which is their medium set hardener. I've been using West Systems for all of my epoxy projects for a very long time and have always had good results with it. Other epoxy manufacturers have similar products and hardeners, just do a little research before using them and mix them exactly as the instructions detail. Art uses something different but I can't remember what manufacturer it is.

Bob

I hit the submit button before I was done, continued typing, and when I hit the submit button a second time I headed to bed... This morning I find I left out lots of pertinent stuff.

To start again... The dowel down into the wrist is a very good idea if the crack is big, the wrist weak, or the rifle a real recoiler. Otherwise it is overkill.

I turn my own dowels from very strong wood, usually walnut. The use of fishing rod sections is reserved for fore ends that need lightening.

After I apply the epoxy to heated wood I cover the crack with a little bit of saran wrap. The cooling wood will draw a bunch of epoxy well down into the crack. If the crack edges are waxed ahead of time clean-up is very easy.

Any good slow-cure epoxy will work fine... no one makes bad slow-cure epoxy that I am aware of. I have preferred Industrial Formulators G-1 and G-2 epoxies. I have used many others without issue.

Another subject is the action tang. Is it a acting like a wedge under recoil? Such actions require a tiny bit of relief at the back end to prevent that. Remington 700s and such are not in the category, but mausers are, for a couple examples.

Well dang, thought you used fishing rod pieces for that.

Good point on relieving behind the tang if necessary. Fixed a Browning BPS in 10 ga. with a chip out behind the tang. The gunsmith (used loosely) who did the original repair pinned it with fugly unstained light wood and didn't relieve behind the tang and so it was my turn. All I needed to do was glue the chip, fill the pin holes, and relieve the tang. I know who has it and the repair has been holding for years.

An old shotgun, guessing it's wood shrinkage with age ( ) but don't really know. Anyway I've seen quite a few old ones too tight in the rear.

Oh yeah, epoxy quality. Word was from a source I don't remember but seemed credible at the time is that out of date and batches of components that didn't quite meed specs gets sold off cheap and repackaged as brand X (China?). Never had a problem with name brand off-the-pegboard epoxy but interesting times with brand X. Fortunately where it didn't matter.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.... I figured if it was good for behind the recoil lug it would work elsewhere. Learn something new every once in a while.

Never had a pinned one come apart, so I guess the epoxy did the trick. Can't disagree about the looks, or time involved.

Besides a tight tang, another common cause of a split wrist is not having relief around the rear receiver screw.