doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Butt stock cracked

Can you spread it? I bet you can at least a little. Looks like cross reinforcing should be pretty straight forward.

Should be able to spread it enough to fill it and get clamped. Should I wait and do the adhesive and a possible cross reinforcement at the same time or try to get it together and clamped first and do the reinforcement after? Thanks for all the help guys I really appreciate it.

I would to the reinforcement later. But that's just me.

Gary, the advice you got from John Farner was very good. As LetFly mentioned, we very recently had a discussion about stock repair and the various adhesives in the "Stock Repair, Yikes!" Thread.

BrentD is pretty stuck on CA (no pun intended), but it is far from the best choice for repairing cracked stocks. He keeps giving the same poor advice though, so perhaps he's been sniffing his CA. You can see there is something seriously wrong with him from the amount of time he spends here, and his tag-line which pertains to his pathetic one-man campaign to encourage others to stop financial donations to support this website. He hates the place, yet can't stay away. Weird.

For cracks that are internal and not visible on the outside of the stock, which sounds a lot like your project, I'd probably use a good epoxy. In clean sound wood and closely fitted joints, I find Titebond II wood glue to be hard to beat for strength and final appearance. Polyurethane glues such as Gorilla Glue are a good choice in wood that may still contain a bit of oil. It is quite strong, and expands to fill minor gaps. But it is messy due to the foam-out, and can stain the wood and cause problems during the final finishing.

You really do need to de-oil the head of your stock if you want good results with any adhesive. Stock de-oiling is a whole 'nuther subject that has also been covered extensively here... with varied opinions. I just want to advise you that many people will recommend long and repeated soaks in harsh organic solvents such as acetone or lacquer thinner. These solvents do have their place, but you should remember that long and/or repeated soaks in these solvents will absolutely damage the structure of your wood, which is composed primarily of cellulose and lignin. You have to walk a tightrope here, because leaving the oil in the wood will cause it to become punky and rotten, and being too aggressive with the de-oiling will damage and weaken the structure.

You can do the reinforcement either at the same time or after, either will work just fine. Get the oil out and you will have a good repair. For a break this bad you want a good strong epoxy. Titebond III works very well on oil laden wood but I would not use it on this type of repair. Best of luck with it.
Steve