Glass bedding

[cowtownup]

There ya go... Good job Mozella...

[Philf]

The blue rubber bands they put on your arm for when they draw blood from you work good.
I have repaired a shot gun stock using several of them, and they will stretch tight and cling together.

[teredpse]

I ordered my pillars today. I will order the rest next week. I want to check a local hardware store first. This is the start of my re finnish of this stock.
Also the scope I will order next week. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180203/d19bfdf4a50cfba998a5ee1234f92aff.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180203/8cda4c95d9a8804b6e2af99706a1075e.jpg

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[teredpse]

No. No. No.

Hiring someone who is highly skilled/experiencedand who rightfully charges plenty of money for his time to do something which is easy, cheap, and requires nearly zero talent makes no sense. It's kind of like hiring your Doctor to mow your lawn. Do this kind of simple stuff yourself. Here's how I bed my actions and pillars in one easy step.

Enlarge the stock forearm so the barrel will free float and then wrap some masking tape around the barrel to set the forward elevation. Add or remove tape and use a piece of thin paper as a feeler gauge to get the barreled action sitting at the correct elevation. Then use a Dremel tool to remove stock material so that the bedding job isn't too thin. Be sure to enlarge the well for the recoil lug too. Leave a tiny undisturbed landing spot for the aft end of the tang which will control the elevation of the rear part of the action. When you're done and put the barreled action in place, it should rest on the tape wrapping at the forward end and the very aft part of the tang at the rear. Everything else should have clearance for the upcoming bedding material. I prefer Devcon 10110.

Measure the required length of the two (or three) pillars. Buy a 1/8" brass pipe nipple at your local hardware store and cut your pillars a little bit long. Chuck the pillars in a drill press or even an ordinary drill motor and use a file to square up the ends. Of course, if you have access to a lathe, use that.

Now buy two cap screws, the kind that takes an Allen wrench, with the proper thread to fit your action. Check the specialty boxes at your local hardware store. The OD of the screw head should be larger than the ID of your pillars but smaller than the OD of your pillars. In other words, you can use these screws to firmly mount the pillars to the action but the heads should be small enough so that they don't prevent you from dropping the action into the stock when it's time to do the bedding.

Wrap masking tape around the shank of the screws so they will just slip inside the pillars. This keeps the pillars centered up properly.

Use a Dremel tool to make some nicks on the outside of your pillars and scratch sand them with coarse sand paper for a better bond with the epoxy.

Wax everything except the pillars. Be sure to de-grease them at the last minute. Now, using your modified action screws, bolt the pillars to the action.

Drill out your stock to accept the pillars and put some gouges in those enlarged holes using a small cutter on your Dremel tool. The idea is to provide grip for the epoxy so the pillars can't pull out.

When you're all set to bed, start with a stick or screw driver dipped in the Devcon 10110 and goober up the inside of the pillar holes in the stock. Smear the Devcon on the action and pillars as well as the stock. In other words, coat both surfaces with a generous amount of bedding material.

Squish the action into place and keep pressing as the action slowly settles into the correct place. That will be when the end of the tang stops on the little undisturbed landing spot you left at the rear and when the several layers of tape on the barrel comes to rest on the forearm. At this point the action should be resting on those two hard points at the proper elevation.

I wrap the action and stock with plastic electrical tape stretched with a lot of tension to hold everything in place. Masking tape doesn't have enough stretch. Some folks use home made rubber bands cut from an inner tube. Bungee cord will work too. The idea is to secure the action to the stock so it won't move, but without using a big C clamp or other device which might stress the action. Remember, unlike some methods which use the action screws to pull the action into place, this "all at once" method can't use the action screws to hold things in place, so you'll need something elastic to do the job.

Clean up the mess including Devcon squeezed out around the lower end of the pillars. I buy bulk generic Q-tips for this job.

The next day, remove the temporary action screws and knock the barreled action loose. Clean up as necessary and then use a cylindrical end cutter on your Dremel tool to trim the lower end of the action screws to exactly the correct length. If you've measured carefully and made your pillars only a tiny bit too long, you should only need to remove .010" or so. Then bolt on the bottom metal, trigger guard, or what have you using regular action screws.

This one step method gives you an accurate, stress free (both mechanical and mental) bedding job.Do you remove material all the way to the tap at the end of the barrel?

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[teredpse]

So I want to ask whats the best drill bit to use. I will be using a drill press.

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[Mozella]

So I want to ask whats the best drill bit to use. I will be using a drill press.

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The best bit is a very sharp one. I've also used a Forstner bit to enlarge the holes for the pillars.

Earlier you said this: "Do you remove material all the way to the tap at the end of the barrel?"

I don't understand what you're asking.

And you also said this: "Do the pillars cone contoured to the action? " I think you made a typo, so this one I can guess at.

You are asking if the pillars COME contoured to the action, right? The answer is: Of course not. You make them yourself out of a pipe nipple.

[teredpse]

The question about removing material was do I remover material from the tip of the rifle to the recoil lug? I am not sure I need to bed the entire rifle. Action to the end of the stock that is free floating the barrel. I am thinking of bedding the pillars and the recoil lug.
Just nerves thats is all. I have ordered all my parts just need to get some bolts for the pillars. I will try and post some pics before and after
Then we can have a good laugh.
The worst is I will have to buy a new stock.

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[teredpse]

When.bedding donyou use micro balloons? I know you use the another product to bed. I will use the Wheeler kit.

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[clm2112]

Personally, I've never used micro balloons in the epoxy. Really, fillers like that reduce the density of the epoxy, but they also reduce the strength (all of that air.) For a bedding job, you don't need any fillers at all. All of the forces will be compression loads. No sheering or tension.

What I usually use is Brownells AcraGlas gel, with a brown dye added to make it less noticeable against the walnut stocks. Being more like peanut butter, I doesn't require a lot of masking and temporary dams made out of clay.

For a release agent, any grease or wax will do the job. Mold release wax is good (used to wax fiberglass layup molds), but even plain old Crisco vegetable shortening will work. Anything that prevents the epoxy from bonding to the metal parts.

I would also suggest doing the pillars yourself. It really isn't that hard to do. Just clamp the stock down, drill out the holes from the bottom metal side first, about 3/4 of the way into the stock. Then finish the holes from the action side of the stock so you don't chip-out the wood. Select a drill bit about 1/8th inch larger than the pillar. That way you can move them around a little to line up the action. The voids get filled in with epoxy.

[tobnpr]

When.bedding donyou use micro balloons? I know you use the another product to bed. I will use the Wheeler kit.

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Glass bubbles? Hell, NO!
That's for fairing compounds/easy sanding. If using epoxy resins/hardeners- you don't want to add anything other than high-density or metallic fillers. You need near zero shrinkage, and compressive strength.

[clm2112]

Oh, one other thought.. get yourself a pair of overly-long action screws. I use a pair of Chevy tall valve cover studs with wingnuts. The point being, that the stock length action screws can be a little tricky to use when bedding the action. When you first put the action into the epoxy and start to draw it up against the inlet of the stock, some of the epoxy will need to be squeezed out of the way. Having a few extra threads on the action screws makes it easier to get them started into the threaded holes in the action.

[teredpse]

Thanks. I have completely refinished my stock. Now just need to bed it. I will be bedding the pillars and the action all at once. Looks to be the best way. I have read alot on this and I am looking forward to getting it done. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180215/45fd850ae0e3310cda354b20d4838466.jpg

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[teredpse]

Well now I have to wait. Used the shoe wax. Let it dry completely. When I drilled the pillars they are not pretty but I hope the work. Will post pic in the morning.
Thank you all for the information.
Very helpful.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180217/ed0677aa318acc8a0c532b2b1b5727a5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180217/f7d5d58c20a8296709f769bf9f1b55e1.jpg

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[teredpse]

Well I did nit glue the action in. But not perfect. A little clean up and a lot of clay removal. That stuff is a pain. The shoe polish worked great. I have a little wobble from front to back the length of the rifle. I hope when I clean everything up it goes away.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180217/75f36dbdb40a84a1a51c7c3dc6b87e0e.jpg

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[tobnpr]

Why didn't you bed the stock before refinishing? The refinishing should have been last, for obvious reasons.
Stock edge cleanup...Q-tips dipped in denatured alcohol before the epoxy kicks...
You're going to need to tape up the top edge again before trying to trim that excess- and it's going to be very difficult to not
nick the newly refinished wood in the process.

But really, doesn't look bad for a first time- I don't see any major voids or bubbles. I can't tell for sure, but hopefully that's just a very thin skim of epoxy over the tops of the pillars ( hopefully you put release agent on the ends, and inside of the pillars). If there's any thickness to it, you didn't pull the action down tight enough with the electrical tape.
(I prefer surgical tubing wrapped / stretched down the action).

Any rocking means a do-over; you need to see if that's really going on.

[teredpse]

Yeah the bedding on top of the pillars is just a thin coat and comes right off I had them suckers pretty tight. I can do light sanding on the stock and restain and if I have to it's no big deal. I think my rocking I had some tape left over inside the lug I've got that remove now I'll clean it up and send another picture

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[teredpse]

I want to thank all of you. The hang up I had if the wabble was a small piece of clay. I might be picking clay out for the next year.
Scope is ordered and then to the range. Just might have to start to reload.
Fun project.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180218/912566dd013697cc29f351e66afc37fa.jpg

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[RustyShackle]

Looks good! I like your stock! I refinished a factory (piece of birch?) looked pretty similar to yours. I use that stock to test my ideas on, so it gets stripped and mutilated regularly.

[teredpse]

finished ready for the range.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180302/b74a28309812fc0af113b5f17955b8ed.jpg

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[jim_k]

That's one of the most gorgeous rifles I've ever seen, and now it's a full custom job. I'm betting it will shoot better than a $5,000 rifle from a big-name company. Congratulations.