Fixing a cracked stock

by Warhawk, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Saturday, August 11, 2012, 16:12 (4298 days ago)

I've got two cracked lever gun stocks. Both are cracked at the tang (shipping damage in both cases) and the damage is very similar on both. The crack does not go all the way through and is fairly difficult to spread apart at all.

I would like to use a syringe type injector to get down into the crack without having to open it up any more than necessary. I'm thinking about using Titebond III glue, but am not sure if it is thin enough to inject thru a needle?

Has anyone ever tried this method?

Other options are to try an epoxy like acraglas or Devcon 2, but again I would need to inject it through a needle.

The easiest method would be to use a superglue type product. Titebond makes these in thin, medium and thick viscosities. I think the thin would be fairly easy to get into the cracks, but I wonder how durable it would be?

I'm open to suggestions

This one is the worse of the two, you can see that it's cracked in three places.

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Fixing a cracked stock

by woody, Saturday, August 11, 2012, 16:51 (4298 days ago) @ Warhawk

Brownells sells a glue just for cracks in stocks. It is thin and works into a crack nicely. Can't remember the name right now I will look when I get home.

Fixing a cracked stock

by stock repair, Saturday, August 11, 2012, 22:18 (4298 days ago) @ Warhawk

remove stock from gun for access to interior, drill small diameter holes from head of stock inside tang or receiver mortise, and have holes deep enough to intersect cracks, use favorite full strength epoxy, apply glue into holes with close-fitting small hardwood dowel stock bought at local hardware store. pump glue into holes using dowel as plunger until glue oozes out of full length of crack and then leave dowel stuck in hole. firmly clamp up stock or use rubber bands if strong enough. wipe off excess and allow to fully cure several days. trim off protruding dowel with pocket knife, apply oil or finish to exposed dowel ends to seal.

Professional advice, there.....

by John Meeker, Sunday, August 12, 2012, 11:21 (4298 days ago) @ stock repair

When you go dowel shopping, your local hardware store/big box will have a good selection of 'twin-plunger tube' epoxies. The open working-to-cure time starts at five minutes, and up to 60 min. Labeled accordingly. The gives you an easy ten minutes of flow and jockey around time, and plent of clamp time. Set up the clamp pads and adjustments before you mix epoxy. Also, blue painter's tpe is a good way to mask off the stock grip, except for the cracks. Nothing like an undiscovered epoxy fingerprint cured where only a CSI investigator would love it.

When laying out the twin tracks from the push-tubes, keep them as equal as possible in volume. some brands are way stiffer in mix in one side, than the other. also, make more than you think you need, if you don't do this a lot. Goober it pretty good down in those holes, and I pump the dowek\l a bit to hydraulic the poxy into the smallest crack.

Even the simplest clamp with good pads, even improvised ones, warrants a good tight joing. You don't want a nice 1/8" epoxy fill where a nearly hairline crack was! ;~`)

Vinegar is a good clean up, on uncured goo, and I keep a wet rag of it handy, for those 'Oh S" moments, while working. Also, once the stuff has reached the pretty still, but plaiable stage, I carefully pare away and outflow form the crack, but do not pull, slice clean and parallel.

Anyway, if that all seems a little OCD, it's only because if something coulda gone wrong wrong in the process, I prolly had did it, or will, yet. Happy fixing. BTW, when ever-ever I ship lever guns, and I have anything to say about the packing, I like to remove the butt-stock. This appears fairly common damage, and for not being a gunsmith, I've fixed too many of them, for such breaks to be entirely random happenings.

Fixing a cracked stock

by Warhawk, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Sunday, August 12, 2012, 13:01 (4297 days ago) @ stock repair

I tried this method on the less damaged of the two stocks. I had to use a very small dowel and drilled two holes. Just to be on the safe side I'm not going to touch it until tomorrow morning, then we will see how it worked.

I rubbed candle wax on the finish adjacent to the crack, hopefully that will act as a release agent. Luckily I don't have much excess in that area, most of the excess is where it won't show when assembled.

Thank You!

Intentional?

by Rob Leahy ⌂ @, Prescott, Arizona, Sunday, August 12, 2012, 12:57 (4297 days ago) @ Warhawk

same on both? Separate or same package?

--
Of the Troops & For the Troops

Intentional?

by Warhawk, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Sunday, August 12, 2012, 13:06 (4297 days ago) @ Rob Leahy

I don't think so, but it is common to see broken stocks due to shipping damage. It's partly cause by poor packaging.

Imagine if you laid the rifle on it's side, with the barrel up on a log. Then you stomp on the receiver hard enough to crack the stock sideways. That's the type of break on both of these stocks, and I had Winchester 94XTR arrive with a badly broken stock a few years ago, same type of damage but that one broken completely in two.

It's easy to remove the butt stock on a Marlin to prevent this, and that's how I ship any lever guns these days.

OH yeah, I can imagine... seen it all, just about, with what

by Rob Leahy ⌂ @, Prescott, Arizona, Sunday, August 12, 2012, 15:07 (4297 days ago) @ Warhawk

can happens with shipping...30,000 shipped holsters and belts in just under 10 years...
my favorite is when they just rip the box open steal the contents and put a damaged in shipping report inside...

--
Of the Troops & For the Troops

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