I really need some help deciding on this...

[Ridgerunner665]

Thanks again for the help guys...

I've decided to wait until after deer season is over to bed it though...I need to get the proper tools and make sure I have time to take my time and do it right, didn't have much luck finding any MarineTex locally anyway.

I have asked Santa for a better gun vise and a cordless Dremel with all the fixins for Christmas :mrgreen:

I'll do it sometime in January...

 

[barge]

Just thought I'd mention that if you get distracted or some how do not get a place or two coated with release agent, you can use a hair dyer to heat the action and barrel area to soften the bedding and aid in removal. I have had to do this once and have recieved calls with panic voice on other end that this has solved the problem. Once I have removed the action and barrel from the stock I will do some cleaning up of the bedding material and then replace the action and barrel back into the stock and let full cure to take place.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I've had to do some minor fitting to get the bottom metal to fit just right, almost got it where I want it though.

 

[Dr. Vette]

Here is a great thread on bedding. Ignore the photos on the first page, but the remaining pages will teach you a lot:

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthr ... =15&page=1

Also read this:

http://www.6mmbr.com/pillarbedding.html

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I found some MarineTex today...might get this done after all.

 

[Dr. Vette]

I don't think it has been mentioned in this thread but many prefer Devcon 10110.
I've used it for several rifles with excellent results.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I'm gonna use MarineTex...it comes highly recommended too.

I've been sanding on that stock most of the day....sand a little, put it together and check the fit (repeat as needed....500 times, LOL)...I may be being a bit overly cautious but thats better than messing it up I guess.

Its almost ready, just a littler more sanding under the tang...it "might" be curing tomorrow night, maybe.

And in regards to McMillans "custom drop in"...my arse!

I'm sure it would have worked as good or better than the factory stock, but when I started checking the fit before I started sanding....I noticed the fit was far from perfect...and I guess thats normal, it was a bit better than most factory stocks but it does truly need to be bedded. The action wasn't even making contact with the rear pillar (still ain't, but its getting there).

The barrel was making contact with the left front part of the stock, its free floated and centered in the channel with .025" clearance all around now.

I carefully Dremeled away some the area around the pillars so the action would make full contact with both pillars...about 1/16 of an inch I guess...didn't mess with the height of the pillars, just hogged out a bit around them... and I enlarged the recoil lug slot a bit so there was plenty of room for the epoxy to get on all sides of it, also about 1/16".

Oh well....its not bad...neat lil project...and nothing worth doing is ever easy.

 

[SJB358]

Sounds like a good day, I actually enjoying working with the stocks some... Especially nice ones!

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Gonna have to make some stock makers screws...Winchesters are threaded 1/4 x 32...can't seem to locate this thread anywhere.

So....I'm gonna use 1/4" aluminum rod and use the middle hole in the action (not in use) to thread the aluminum enough to do this job.

How did you guys go about this...and keep epoxy out of the screw holes?

 

[Oldtrader3]

You can buy the action screw threaded rods from Brownells or Midway. They sell the threaded posts with turnbuckles on the unthreaded end to help facilitate their use. If you are going to do many stocks, it would be a good investment to buy these. You can get by without a Dremel. Bedding material, depending on what you use, takes about 24 hours to cure hard and you can cut it easily with an exacto knife during this time to trim any overage that you may have.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Midway has stock makers screws...but what I need is the headless version...my buddy says I can get some 1/4 x 32 screws at Fastenal, he bought some there a while back....gonna head up there tomorrow and see what they have.

I could have got by without a Dremel, but I wouldn't really want to...made things much easier.

I ended up with a little bigger gap between the action and stock than I wanted...I wanted it about .010", but its closer to .015" or .020". And thats not the Dremels fault, I did that with sandpaper. The story is that the front of the action needed to come a tad to the left...I sanded the top left area of the stock only to find out that it was the midsection of the stock that needed to be sanded.

Its all good though, I didn't expect it to be perfect....being my first one and all...and .015-.020" isn't all bad, I think it will still look OK.

Its ready to be set in there and bedded...just waiting on those darn screws...hopefully tomorrow.

 

[Oldtrader3]

Fiberglass makes all inletting jobs equal!

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Its curing...Lord I hope it turns out OK..Don't really wanna do this again, not to a Winchester.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I guess you'll know in a few hours how good you did. lol

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Its gonna be a long night...

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I forgot to mention what I did for for those studs....I used 1/4" wooden dowel rod, and it worked like a charm. The rifle centered up perfectly over the pillars (I pulled a screw and checked a few minutes ago). Using wood for those studs is risky because they are a bit flexible and easily broken...but I ran out of options, and placed the rifle in the stock VERY CAREFULLY..it worked that time but I'd rather have metal studs if I ever do this again.

Now that I've cleaned up the outside it looks much better but there are a couple of spots that are gonna need some touch up. Where the barrel screws into the receiver (the "step") the epoxy didn't get pushed all the way to the top, its not much, maybe 1/8" right there in that little corner on both sides...not sure why that happened, I believe I used plenty of epoxy...and maybe another spot or 2 along the top that will need a little touch up.

All in all though...I think its gonna be good enough for now (provided it looks OK when I pop it out)...I'll do the touch ups later, after deer season is over.

I'm gonna pop it out in about 2 more hours...judging by checking the epoxy I had left, its cured enough to do it now but I'm gonna wait a lil bit longer...if the rifle comes out of the stock, I'm gonna call it a success, LOL.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I normally use modelling clay to fill the screw holes. I just form it to fully fill the gap and be the full diameter of the screw holes within the stock and in the bottom of the action where the threads are if I am bedding that area (depends on the action). Works great. I usually pop the action out after 8-10 hours, depending on how much epoxy is in the stock and has to cure.

While it is still soft, epoxy can be trimmed with an Exacto kniife or a Dremel, depending on mass. I use modelling clay to build a dam in front of the recoil lug and keep epoxy out of the barrel channel.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I filled all the other slots and holes with modeling clay...but since this is a square action I wanted to be able to put the screws in it and just barely snug them, it was the only way I could figure to be sure it was centered.

Thats why I needed the dowel rods...to keep the action screw holes clean while I set it down in the stock, and to be able to remove them once it was in there, and install the screws without getting epoxy all over them...in truth, it worked better than I expected. I figured I would get at least some epoxy on the screws as I put them in but I didn't...

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I bedded the first 2.5" inches of barrel (basically under the chamber)...some say do this, others say not to...I figured put it in there and try it...I can always grind it back out if it doesn't shoot right with it in there.

 

[Oldtrader3]

Only one of my rifles is free floating barrel and when I bedded it, I already had bedded the rear bedding spacer into the stock and used the guide chamfer machined in the action to locate and center that tube in the action. I shimmed the barrel on each side matching clearance, to center the barrel. Between the two centering points, the action was centered in the stock. I did not put any bedding material in the bottom of the recoil lug, enough of the epoxy was pushed down there by friction to fill the void without having non-compressable fluid issue under the recoil lug. This was an FN action which is also square. I do not own a round actioned rifle. All of my actions are all Winchesters or Mausers.

MidwayUSA has plain aluminum posts with threaded ends for bedding the Mauser action, I am surpised that they do not have them for Model 70 Winchesters.