Cracked Stock

[Jim in Salt Lake]

I would stick with the slower cure epoxy you've got, that will give you plenty of working time to carefully get it down in the cracks. I've fixed a lot of cracked wood, mostly furniture, and saved the finish with the advice gnoahhh gave you. Once you've got the glue it, you've got all the time in the world to let it cure. The five minute glue doesn't give you much working time before it starts to set up. And I'd give it more than 24 hours to cure. When you clamp it, it's not necessary to clamp with high pressure, epoxy fills tiny gaps very well and will work better. Patience is the key with a repair like this. Plan out what you're going to do, work your plan, then let the glue cure for a couple of days without dinking with it. I'd only wipe off the initial squeeze out and you can scrape off any additional squeeze out with a sharp tool or scraper as gnoahhh said.

[gnoahhh]

An industry rep told me "most epoxy resin comes out of the same spigot, it's the proprietary hardeners that make the difference." General rule of thumb, the longer the set time the stronger the epoxy. 5-minute has its place, but not here IMO. Unless I'm working with West System Tropical grade, I unclamp in 5-10 hours but don't put stress on the joint for 24 hours (that gives me a head start on sanding- a moot point in the Krag situation).

You can use some of that bottled compressed air to blow epoxy down into the crack as well as blow flotsam and jetsam out. Don't be afraid to pry that crack open as far as you dare- it's more important to give yourself plenty of work space than to fret about making the crack a little worse.

[StockDoc]

Use a popsicle stick that has been cut with a scarf on one end, then use that to hold the crack open.

[psteinmayer]

Ok... I've made a couple small wooden wedges to hold the crack open. The most I could get the crack opened is to approximately 0.02 in., so I'm glad it's not too bad. I used an insulin syringe to inject acetone into the cracked areas, and used compressed air (from a computer cleaning can) to aid in the drying. I'm going to allow it to sit for 24 hours, and then repeat this.

I'm then going to carefully drill a small hole (about 0.1 in.) on each side of the stock from the magazine well rearward along the crack about 1/4 inch from the sides of the stock and 1 in. long. This will allow me to be able to inject epoxy into the cracked area which should spread throughout the crack. I'll clamp it and let it cure for a while.

After the epoxy cures for a few days, I'm going to drill two holes - between the trigger slot and each trigger guard screw, and epoxy a hard wood dowel in each hole, which should provide added strength to the repair. The dowels will be carefully measured so as to not touch the action in any way, so I don't violate any CMP rules.

I'll photo-document the entire repair and share with everyone as I go.

[gnoahhh]

Sounds like you're getting it licked. I wouldn't bother with the two dowels though. The bond of the epoxy repair will be stronger than the wood surrounding it, making the addition of dowels superfluous IMO. Good luck! Keep us posted.

[psteinmayer]

I figured that the extra lateral protection would be a good idea... but I agree it's unnecessary.

I went to a wood working store today and picked up some structural epoxy today with a 30-45 minute set time, and 36 hour cure. Also, on the advice of the people there, I will use denatured alcohol to clean out the crack. It evaporates very quickly, and will clean the wood. I was told that the acetone contains a small amount of oil, which could prevent it from cleaning all of the oil from the wood. Attached are a few pictures with the crack opened as wide as I can without damaging it further. As you can see, it's not very wide.

Crack 04 (800x648).jpg
Crack 05 (800x604).jpg
Crack 06 (800x614).jpg

[psteinmayer]

Ok, the repairs continue...

I drilled a 0.1 dia hole on each side from the magazine well back along the line of the crack. Each hole extends approximately 3/4 inch, but because of the angle, is not perfectly parallel to the side, but rather at a slight angle.

I injected epoxy into the holes until it oozed out of the majority of the cracked area... almost the entire length of the crack. I also used my popsicle stick to try to force epoxy into the rearward areas of the crack where there was less oozing. I scraped the excess epoxy off the sides and in the magazine well and trigger slot areas.

I then secured the crack with several tight rubber bands, and then propped the stock upright and placed a 4 pound divers weight over the cracked area for added pressure. I'll now let that cure for a few days.

Pictures are attached, including one of the epoxy and injector I used.
Crack 07.jpg
Crack 08.jpg
Crack 09.jpg
Crack 10.jpg
Epoxy 01.jpg

[M2Phil]

.Looks great! Straightforward repair, well thought out, using quality materials. Recipe for success.

[Jim in Salt Lake]

+1, looks good. Once you shoot it, let us know how you did!

[SgtSki]

Nice job. Were did you get the apoxy?