doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com "Glassing" the head of a stock

I have a Philly Sterlingworth, and I want to re-enforce the head.
What is your favorite concoction for this task?
Thanks,
Bill

Clint Meier in Lee's Summit, MO, uses a technique involving soaking a kind of super glue into the weakened area of the head of the stock, instead of glass bedding. I have used traditional glass bedding and also have sent one or two stocks to Clint for strengthening using the described method. I have not noticed a problem with either approach.

Following with interest as well as I want to do the same to a boxlock stock. I was considering going the Goat-Tuff glue (cyanoacrylate) route based on what I had read here and elsewhere about it. Actual glassing sounds a little too involved for my first attempt.

The Parker site has an excellent bedding article. Brownells has Acraglas kits, but other epoxies can be used. Can someone cite the cynoacrylate posts? I have not read the ones recommending it's use as a bedding agent, only for crack repair and sealing the wood inside the inletting.

Regards
Ken

Dan May has a nice tutorial here, and uses cyanoacrylate
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/20576154

Glasbedding instructions here
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/17090409

For best results all the old oil needs to be removed from the head of the stock using an acetone bath or another technique

I have been adding a light sheet of fiberglass cloth by pushing it into the wet epoxy. Looks good so far.

bill

If I wasn't looking for a repair or gap filling, then maybe thicker materials that sit on surfaces aren't really needed. If you look at the cyanoacrylate option, there are good ultra thin products. If the wood is well cleaned, it can be carefully applied a little at a time and the grain will 'drink' it in. Multiple passes can be done until the grain won't take any more with a lesser worry about changing the inletting. I'd think a decent epoxy would be tougher though if needed. Best of luck with it.

What substance is used to stop the action body or lockplates sticking to the epoxy or cryanoacrylate ?

Some kits come with a Release Agent included, but Johnson's paste wax works as well.

I make a hobby of repairing old doubles to shooting condition. Many have stocks busted in the lock area.

This LC Smith had a chunk the size of an ice cube broken out from tumblers forward. It took many sessions over a week's time to reconstruct it. I inserted 5 dowl pins - 2, then 2, then one more - bonded by Acraglas to bond the broken out chunk to the stock. Then I routed out old wood putty that had been used as an old repair and filled with Acraglas. That was done one pocket at a time. The trigger plate, side locks and action were each fitted separately - bedding with Acraglas where needed. Then everything was assembled and adjustments made to get everything to fit as a unit.

If you blow up the area above the hammer screw you can see a zigzag of the crack. I didn't do any refinish work on the stock. It's an old gun and looks good (to me) as it is.

The problem with these old stocks is they are soaked with old finish and oils. Unless you can get down to dry wood, I don't know what will bond to it.