doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What glue do you use?

I use a lot of CA glue in my shop, but not on gunstocks. Sets up so fast any mistake holding the job together becomes a major problem. Have settled on West Expoxys either the 5 minute or slow cure. Either one thickened to suit with West brand fillers. They have several, hard, real hard, fairing which is easy to sand. If thinner is desired warm it with a heat gun after it's applied.

Thing about the epoxy you can make a small test puddle off the job. Test it for hardness. Gets fairly firm go back to the job you can scrape off excess and run out before it sets up. Impossible with the CAs. Bedding jobs testing the trial puddle tells you when to pull the metal and let the formed epoxy set up.

Other epoxy probably just as good, whole lot of West is sold around here distributor has everything and West has lots of free use information. If I was buying 55 gallon drums may shop price, small quantity I use pay for the best.

Boats.

Wood will not always return to it's former state just by allowing humidity to return to the wood after de-oiling with acetone. Sometimes cracks will form, when drying from the acetone soak, that will not close up themselves. They must be glued and clamped to close them. I have one stock that was done thusly with CA and has held fine for some 8-10 years.

SRH

The problem with the de-oiling with acetone is the same one when trying to cure blanks by boiling them. It is a extreme action to the wood. Too much of the wood's natural oils can be removed. So it is not just pulling all the moisture out of the stock but also too much of the internal oils that can cause the problem. Some oil will remain in the stock and they will move towards the surface. But harsh treatment of wood can result in cracks or have internal stress cracks cause wood to twist. Given time it may get better but will never return to original condition. But if not then then adhesives help repair our problems. I like epoxy fro the extra working time and end strength. CA is fine for sealing cracks but I would not trust it to glue a part back onto the stock.

Well I've been running an experiment on a piece of wood with cyanoacrylate and haven't had time to check on it. It's not a stock but a cross piece of chair under frame. If it's successful I'll report back.

Regarding Gorilla glue - DON'T - it expands.

Jeremy