bedding a tacticool

[Luke45]

never glass bedded a laminate stock before.

Questions: should I...

-1 Remove material around the tang to free float or should i just bed the tang?
-2 How much (thickness) stock material should i take off where the action contacts the stock?
-3 Bed in front of recoil lug and below or just behind?
-4 Will JB weld work?
-5 How much torque applied to action screws?
-6 Is pillar bedding worth it on laminate since it expands less than solid wood?
-7 best household release agent?

I've done quite a bit of stock and wood work, but am newer to bedding and want to do this one right.

Thanks in advance!

[jpdown]

I just finished pillar and glass bedding a tacticool for Savage 11 CF DBM with LV CBI barrel.

1. I put 4 layers of tape under the tang and under the barrel at the forend to float everything. Had to open up the barrel channel for the LV CBI barrel.

2. I did not need to remove stock material because I had plenty of room for bedding already. Only roughed up the bedding surface.

3. I put 2 layers of tape on front and sides of recoil lug and around barrrel nut. No tape on back of recoil lug. I also remove a little wood behind the recoil lug so that there is room for bedding material

4. I use Devcon Plastic Steel Epoxy from the local hardware store, but JB weld will also work.

5. My advide is to get some 3 inch 1/4" fine thread bolts and cut the heads off. Screw into action and put 2-layers of tape around bolts at the base of the action. This is so your action screws will will be centered in the stock holes. Push the action down into the bedding using the bolts attached to the action to guide into place. You want the action to set stress free while the bedding cures. Trying to tighten the action screw to pull the action down into the bedding may intoduce unwanted stress. Then you can just tap the bolts protruding through the stock to break the action free after the bedding has cured for 24 hours.

6. Pillars are not necessary if you are bedding the action and both action screw heads are going to tighten against metal (ex. CF DBM stock) and not wood (ex. front screw on woodk blind magazine stock).

7. Best household release agent in Kwiki Neutral shoe polish.

Also, if you are bedding a stock with DBM, make sure it is going to feed before you start bedding the action. The DBM for my .204 Ruger set too low in the tacticool stock and it would not feed. I had to deepen the DBM inletting and bed the front and rear of the metal DBM frame to replace the wood I removed. I also had to sand 1/4" of wood off the base of the stock around the trigger guard so that the bottom of the stock was flush with the top of the trigger guard. A lot more work than I had planned for a "drop-in" stock. This may not be an issue with a larger caliber (ex. .308).

After all that inletting and sanding, I re-painting the stock with Duracoat. Next step is some webbing paint and I'm done. The pictures below show the final results of the pillar/Devcon bedding job. Note I had to sand off a lot of wood around the trigger guard to get it flush with the bottom of the stock. So it has lost some of its "Tacticool" look.

[Luke45]

awesome, thanks for the info much appreciated!

[limige]

I cut the heads off a few fine thread bolts and wrapped them in tape and covered with release agent. They are used to align the holes only. You dont want to torque the action when bedding. Just push it down and wrap with masking tape. Electrical tape will stretch. I use a wrap of electrical then a wrap of masking tape to hold the action into the stock.

Have q tips and plastic knife handy for cleaning excess bedding compound.
Either remove the entire trigger assembly or coat the sear in release agent. Tape the box mag areas inside to help cleanup and trimming.
I only put two wraps of electrical tape on the tang.

[Londerko]

jpdown,
I ordered a blind mag Tacticool that should be showing up soon, I plan on glass bedding it exactly like you did.
My question is : if I don't necessarily want to install pillars, what if I replaced the plastic escution for the front action screw with a steel spacer and replaced the plastic trigger guard with a metal one? It would give my action screws the metal on metal contact I'm looking for. Any reason that wouldn't work?
-Leo

[jpdown]

That should work. You have metal to metal so it won't compress like plastic and wood. Glass bedding and pillar bedding are most likely redundant. But I already had the pillars and materials to add them.

[jpdown]

I finished bedding and webbing the tacticool stock shown above. I let the Duracoat cure for 24 hrs and then applied some Krylon silver webbing paint followed by black webbing paint. Adds texture and character to an otherwise dull black stock.

[BWB]

Trying to tighten the action screw to pull the action down into the bedding may intoduce unwanted stress.

If the bedding compound (whatever kind you choose) is soft and workable when setting the receiver in, how can unwanted stress be introduced? I'm fairly new to the bedding world also but that concept just doesn't make sense to me, just looking for some explaination :)

[limige]

Screw pressure pulls the stock to the action it creates stress. You want both the stock and action to be stress free during bedding so when you tighten the action neither one flexes at all.

[BWB]

Definitely not arguing, just trying to comprehend so please bear with me. If you tighten to a less inch/lb than using to secure the receiver post bedding, how would it cause anymore stress than taping? With the tape method, wouldn't tightening after cause some unwanted stress to since it wasn't bedded to the same specs? Am I just completely over thinking this?

Thanks guys!

[Luke45]

Heres the rifle, just got it finally put together today, had to take alot of material out of the barrel chanel but now its good to go all i have to do is bed it. The allumahyde/krylon web paintjob i did once again turned out nicely

[limige]

BWB ..what your describing would work if your pillar bedding.

If you are not bedding to pillars what are you contacting with?
When you install screws and its hitting the barrel and the tang on the tape you've used to float them then your warping the stock. The stock will start flexing before you feel pressure on the screw. Thats why screws work so well to hold things, they have great torque strength.

Tape has minimal pressure.

I'm sure some people feel fine doing what you describe but I wouldn't recommend it myself.
I think if your pillar bedding that is the exact method you want to use to insure contact on the pillars. In this case the screw pressure is absorbed by the pillar instead of the stock.

[BWB]

Makes sense - I guess I've never bedded a stock that didn't have pillars in it already. I really appreciate all the input and helping me understand the processes.

[Luke45]

Thanks guys! finished mine up today, turned out well

[limige]

Looks good!