My 12FV bedding project

[tenxal]

We had a discussion a bit ago about various ways to make/use pillars in accuracy bedding. Making pillars today, I thought some pics may be of interest.

This project needs a 1" o.d. pillar for the front. You'll see why a bit later.

A section of 1" o.d. aluminum for the pillar. Center drilled and put a 1/4" pilot hole through the piece. Now, a 5/16" bit enlarges that pilot hole.


A .562 O.D. counterbore with a 5/16 pilot is next. This establishes a recess for the action screw.

Like this.


I make them about .300 deep.


Cut a couple of grooves to hold the epoxy and roughened up the O.D. with some crocus cloth when it was in the chuck.


With a button headed bolt and a 5/16" hole, there is more contact between the pillar and the bottom of the bolt head than if a normal socket head bolt was used with a 1/4" hole. Plus, the larger I.D. of pillar provides adequate clearance so no part of the bolt shank might contact the I.D. of the pillar.



This sleeve is 5/16" O.D. and 1/4" I.D. I glue it in the pillar recess and the action guide screws go perfectly down the middle of the pillar.


I can add more pics as the process goes along, if there's any interest.

[tenxal]

Picking up where we left off...this is for a gun I'm prepping for our local Factory Class matches. Factory Class needs to have the stock barreled action, triggers can be changed or tuned and any optics. The stocks have to be a factory stock but can be bedded...no McMillans or Kelblys, etc. This is a Savage 12FV in 22-250 that comes with a cheese-ball injection molded stock. I found a N.I.B. replacement Savage laminated stock from the LV model but the problem was the action screw spacing. Without wading through the muck of the different models I'll just say that later Savages have a action screw C-C distance of 4.400 instead of the earlier 4.275 on the LV's....they moved the front action screw forward .125 to work with the center feed magazine on later models. No biggie to move it.

On the mill, I used a snug fitting pin gauge to locate the front and rear action screw holes correctly on the X axis:




Then zeroed the X feed and ran it to .125:


You can see how the 1" counter bore is offset to the front of the original action screw hole:


Down we go:


Result:


Fits well:


Held short for a good amount of bedding material between the pillar and action:


On to the rear action screw pillar. A .562 counter bore is perfect with the trigger guard cut:


Same 5/16" hole as the front pillar. Notched the rear pillar to clear the Savage trigger lash up:


Grooved for epoxy cavities, I also fairly make them rough on the O.D. for good epoxy grab:


Fitted a bit below the trigger guard cut. I'll epoxy bed the trigger guard as the last step:


Will fill the magazine cut with a stuffing block. I have a single shot adapter for the action that's 3D printed and follows the profile of the action...will epoxy it in the action and bed it like a single shot:


Also cut a channel in the top of the front pillar to hold some epoxy:

[Quikshft]

Necessity - the mother of invention. Nice work.

[Apollo117]

Thanks for documenting your project and sharing it. It's looking good. Please keep it coming.

[GrenGuy]

tenxal, You are doing some great work. But I can’t agree with having the bottom of an action setting on epoxy instead of the pillars. When I pillar and bed, I want metal to metal contact from the bottom of the action bolt head to the bottom of the action. The epoxy is just to keep the action centered on the pillars.

Just the way I do it...JMO

[tenxal]

But I can’t agree with having the bottom of an action setting on epoxy instead of the pillars. When I pillar and bed, I want metal to metal contact from the bottom of the action bolt head to the bottom of the action. The epoxy is just to keep the action centered on the pillars.

Having done it both ways, I've had the best results with a significant layer of bedding compound over the pillars. It's important to have the action in contact with just a single material (bedding compound).

The only time I go hard against the pillars is when the action screw goes into the bottom of the recoil lug...like some Sakos.

[hamiltonkiler]

Pretty skilled. Good work.


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[celltech]

You guys with mills make me jealous. Interesting take on the action/epoxy/pillar scheme. I have always pushed up the pillar until it contacted the action, but of course it never makes solid contact across its entire surface. I would have to think the compressive strength of epoxy is enough to provide a solid mount. I might try this next time I pillar something. Thanks!!!

[tenxal]

Made a stuffing block from a chunk of 1" aluminum square. Rough milled it and epoxied it in the magazine well. After the pillars are glued in, I'll fill the mag well with epoxy, let it cure and then do the final bedding with the single shot adapter epoxied in the action.

[GaCop]

Bravo! Excellent work.

[tenxal]

With the pillars epoxied in place, it was time to fill the mag well. Warmed up some Pro Bed in an old aluminum pot I used to etch cores in my bullet makin' days:



Then spooned it in to a bit over the top of the block. The camera caught some weird reflection of the stock color that makes it look like wood shavings...strange.



This is a single shot adapter that fits the factory cut out pretty well. It's 3D printed from black Delrin. Epoxied that in:



The bottom of it matches the action profile pretty well but it's really rough textured. After it dries, I'll fill the seams and dress the area down smooth so it matches the action diameter.



If you haven't tried Pro Bed yet, you should. Of all the stuff I've used over the decades, this is the best.