Screwed up bedding job...should I redo?

bedded my 12BR over the weekend. the stock already had metal pillars so I relieved about 1/16th to 1/8th inch around the pillars and the entire bedding area. With the action sitting on the, now proud, pillars I taped the barrel at the tip of the stock so that there was no rocking of the barreled action. I stopped putting layers of tape as soon as all rocking was eliminated. I confirmed that the area under the tang was not contacting the stock. I used 1/4-28 bolts with the heads cut off to locate the action. After breaking the action from the cured epoxy (Devcon 10110) I was expecting to see two contact areas on each pillar where they were contacting the action. I did not. Those contact areas were there on the rear most pillar but the middle and front pillar looked to be recessed with respect to the epoxy, about .010 at the front one and a little less at the middle one. The reason for this, I determined, was that I didn't relieve the area under the barrel nut.

[IMG]http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps8d7911c5.jpg[/IMG]

I've since ground down that area so that when the action is screwed in there's no contact around the barrel nut. Do you think I should remove a layer of the cured epoxy and skim bed so as to achieve the proper contact with the pillars?

I think I would shoot it prior to removing the bedding. You never know.

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Originally Posted by old_dood

Do you think I should remove a layer of the cured epoxy and skim bed so as to achieve the proper contact with the pillars?

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No, why would you? The bedding material on top of the pillars is doing the same job as the pillars themselves. When pillars came back in vogue in the early '70s we poured them using Devcon F aluminum putty, rough bedded the action with the F then a final shim coat of F2.

At this point you only need open the screw holes to 5/16" for screw shank clearance, put it together and shoot it.

Bill

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Originally Posted by BillPa

No, why would you? The bedding material on top of the pillars is doing the same job as the pillars themselves. When pillars came back in vogue in the early '70s we poured them using Devcon F aluminum putty, rough bedded the action with the F then a final shim coat of F2.

At this point you only need open the screw holes to 5/16" for screw shank clearance, put it together and shoot it.

Bill

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do you mean you actually made the pillars out of aluminum putty? thanks for the advise. I really didn't want to do the job over again. This is the first Savage I've ever bedded. I'd previously only done Remingtons which didn't have a barrel nut for me to overlook.

The only question I would ask is are you sure that it was resting on the barrel nut, and not the bottom of the recoil lug? If you have clearance all around the recoil lug, with the exception of the rear of course, and barrel and nut are completely free floating, then the action should be properly supported and I wouldn't change a thing if I were you. Nice looking job BTW.

oh yes. I put tape around the edge and the front of the recoil lug. thanks for the compliment. Now if I could only get it to eject a case reliably....but that's another story.

You might have to experiment with the ejector spring and get some spring stock from brownells and cut one a coil longer to give it the pressure it needs to eject that case with authority.Not ridiculous tension but a little bit more to help.Before you fire it afterwards make sure you can push the ejector down flush with the bolt face or you will have big trouble ,meaning the bolt wont close or it may and after firing it will extrude the cases and ruin them.If it is too much remove a 1/2 coil at a time with the new spring.Maybe sharpshooter will chime in with his most expert advice.He knows his stuff.

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Originally Posted by jonbearman

Maybe sharpshooter will chime in with his most expert advice.He knows his stuff.

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since I posted that I received the kit from SSS. it now seems to eject reliably.

The job you did looks great! I would leave it alone. When your bedding an action what you wanting to do is remove any stress from the action, as it sits in the stock. (I feel that has been accomplished.) In one of my talks with a person that is regarded as great Benchrest gunsmith, (And works for one of the most noted company's.) he told me when their company does pillar bedding, (Most of there builds are glue in actions.) they cover the pillars. He told me that if he sees exposed pillars the first thing he does is sharpen a pencil to a needle like point, and pick on the pillars. If the pencil snags anywhere around the pillars, he recommends that the bedding job be corrected. He claims that this will cause problems. So with that said I think what you have will be fine.

Looks good to me. I would shoot it before I broke out the Dremel.

All mine look just like that and shoot great. Don't touch it, it looks just like it should.