Glue for Rifle Stock Repair???

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Olle

...the way you made the cut doesn't really lend itself to good clamping. To get a strong joint with Titebond you need good wood-to-wood contact, and even if it looks like a nicely cut slip joint, there could be voids where the glue won't adhere well.

I made a tongue & groove join because it gives me maximum surface area; I don't want it tight because that would cause the glue/epoxy to be scraped off when I push it on. I have an easy slip join now, with no twist.

I'll be using the barrel itself as my 'jig', with a layer of masking tape on the barrel itself (to give me a little 'float' when done) covered by a single piece of waxed paper to keep the glue/epoxy/resin from sticking to anything.

We all use what we're most familiar with; with me, it's the polyester resin. I mix it with paint if I want to give it color; or with sawdust to make a filler for filling small holes. Occasionally I'll cut a piece of hardwood to make a patch and use the resin to 'glue' that in place (see pics below).

One other outstanding 'glue'/epoxy I've used is by DevCon ["2 Ton Epoxy']; it comes in a big syringe with two chambers, epoxy & hardener; you push the plunger in and it mixes as it comes out. Unfortunately, it has a short shelf life when opened...

(No, these plugs are not pretty...)

[Olle]

Originally Posted by postino

I made a tongue & groove join because it gives me maximum surface area; I don't want it tight because that would cause the glue/epoxy to be scraped off when I push it on. I have an easy slip join now, with no twist.

That's kind of what I thought. The only way to get a strong joint with wood glue (type Titebond) is to taper it slightly so the surfaces are wedged against each other as you tap it in. And no, I wouldn't want to cut such a joint either.

Like you said in a previous post, you'll need something that fills the joint, and it doesn't need to shrink either.

[sheepherder]

As noted in post # 13 above, I rubber-banded two pieces of Walnut scrap together and glued with Titebond III. It's 27 hours later (instructions say fully cured at 24 hrs) and time to test the join.

First pic below shows the pieces clamped in my mill vise. I pulled back as hard as I could with both hands/arms, and could not break the join. I could see the Walnut bend a bit, but it wouldn't break. This is great! The joins I envision making are non-load bearing joins, so this would work OK.

I still wondered how strong the join was, whether the wood would break, whether the wood fibers would rip out before the glue let go. So, I put a 12" Crescent wrench on the upper piece, and gave it a go. The glue join finally broke; no fibers ripped out; no wood breaking (second pic).

Still not a failure. I won't be yanking on these joins on the rifle. The only negative I had was when it came time to clean off the surfaces. The glue itself would not sand cleanly; it was semi-flexible and 'peeled' rather than sanded off. That could be a problem when sanding down the join or using it as filler.

After digging that DevCon 2-Ton Epoxy out, I decided to try that, just for S&G. I belt-sanded down the opposite ends of the scrap pieces and applied the DevCon the same as I did the Titebond III. I'll try my test again tomorrow after the epoxy has set up (third pic).

Curing conditions: In my house, 78º - 80º F for 24+ hours.