What do you all like most for stock repairs?

I'm looking at one hairline crack and another large, split off 'chip' along the the grain. Currently planning to use acraglas, pending the input here.

Thanks.

I use several different glues depending on what I am trying to accomplish, the degree of difficulty in hiding the repair and the finish I will use. I really like G-flex for strength in a repair. If you are not using stain, tite-bond does a great job and is easy to hide. I use traditional and the gel form of acraglass, traditional is shiny when finished and can be an issue hiding it. The gel works well and is easy to hide. To get in a crack, I like to heat G-flex with a heat gun. You can do the same with acraglass but the work time is much shorter and heating it decrease your time even more. Show some pics when you finish up.

I do use two Adhesives both are Epoxy resin both from the same manufacturer, my first go to is one that has been around here in Britland for over sixty years and never had a failure this is Araldite standard slow set. It takes all the rush and angst out of a repair that requires Peces of wood fitting in as well as the main repair. Now in the last twenty years Araldite introduced a faster setting crystal clear version which I have found works well on small splits and cracks plus larger stock splinters.

Old School? Yes!

Here are the 'before' photos:

G-flex and hide the repair with pro-custom and some tint would be my call on a break like that.

Those SKB's crack badly if the stock bolt loosens. When the cracks and chips are back in place I would recommend cutting a groove across the grain on the inside just behind those radii of the stock Then epoxy a piece of all thread to help reinforce it in the future.

Steve, do you mean the chempak pro-custom gunstock oil finish for hiding the repair?

(https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/stock-work-finishing/wood-finishes/pro-custom-oil-gunstock-finish-prod5531.aspx?avs%7cManufacturer_1=CHEM-PAK)

Yes indeed, not usually my favorite finish but if you build it up so it is a top of the wood finish you can add color and hide your repairs very well with it. I have not found a better finish for hiding bad breaks, stock extensions etc. I have removed a leather cheek piece for a client, inlet a new piece of wood and hid the whole repair. Same for this Churchill, the client snapped it in half and I glued black in place, strengthened the repair with a carbon fiber rod then used pro-custom and tint to cover the repair.

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...ck-xxv.cfm?gun_id=102052054&cdn_bp=1

Can anyone compare Titebond II to Titebond III for gunstock repairs? I have both on hand and need to repair a small crack behind the top tang on a gun.

the titebond 3 dries darker and is more waterproof than titebond 2. I would imagine those qualities make t3 more suited for most stock repair work.

Found this on the web: colors of each dry

Thanks, Jim.

Stan, the color of wood glue on the surface should be totally irrelevant, because the last thing you want with any stock repair is glue on the surface. It will stain the wood and act like a wood sealer, and interfere with staining and final finish.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather not have to resort to some dark built-up finish to attempt to conceal a glue joint. Although I have also found that the choice of final finish does have an effect on the visibility of a repaired area. In other words, some finishes may make a repair joint stand out, while others make it far less visible.

I really like Titebond II for repairs in walnut, simply because it gives me the most invisible joint of anything I have tried. Even in rather dark Black Walnut, a Titebond II glue joint is not lighter than the wood on either side of the crack. With a good close fitting joint and correct clamping, the glue joint is often almost invisible, which is exactly what I want. Good epoxy and Titebond III are slightly stronger, but a sound split wood repair with Titebond II will in most cases be stronger than the surrounding wood, and that's good enough for me. Of course, that statement on strength of the joint will not apply to an end grain to end grain joint.

There are other times when Titebond II is not the best choice, such as when gluing stock wood that may have some oil contamination. In that event, I would likely choose a polyurethane glue. But I find that polyurethane glue is messy to use, and any foaming or squeeze out that is on the surface takes more sanding to remove so that it won't act like a sealer. The shelf life of polyurethane glue is pretty short too. I would be much more inclined to choose a good epoxy when the glue joint is not on the surface, such as when repairing a split or crack in the inletting, or when embedding some reinforcing pins, dowels, or tenons. Epoxy is always better for gap filling too, but of course, such repairs will be easy to detect. And if I have to mix some fine sawdust with epoxy to fill a gap, inclusion, or defect, I find that pine sawdust is often a better choice than walnut sawdust, because the walnut sawdust and epoxy mixture will typically be much darker than the surrounding walnut. Pine sawdust mixed with epoxy will often give a much closer color match on a walnut repair.

I have used my compressor to force glue into a crack plastic rap and surgical tubing to hold it till dry works great with odd shaped pieces

Great information. Very helpful.

Thank you, Keith.

I sure would like to see some pictures of a bad break repaired with Titebond II, then stained and hidden with an oil finish that is not built up. Easy to do on a crack that follows the grain but less so on cross grain breaks, lost wood that has been replaced, stock extensions etc.

What a great place this is for the exchange of information.

Use strips of bicycle wheel innertube to bind things up when gluing, Tremendous force can be applies to close cracks in ark ward shape situations and the like leaving no marks in the wood.. Easy to remove dried adhesive by stretching and it will fall off, using slow set Adhesive lets you wrap and re wrap until things strap up right. Use mono filament fishing line or dental floss to pill adhesive into and along cracks.

Old School again and as yet never found anything better.

skb...nice job fixing that churchill...

what about accraglas...does anybody use that anymore...

Keep up ed, and do a little leg work for yourself and read the whole thread from the beginning. In Steve's first post he said this ...........

Here's the update:

GFlex Epoxy arrived from Jamestown Distributors.
Applied just enough on both pieces to get a tiny bit of squeeze out (used a trimmed flux brush to apply). Didn't take a picture with the glue, but it's as expected.



Clamped up with strips of bicycle inner tube (c clamp just to keep the ends from unraveling.



I also clamped across the grain because I was having a little trouble getting this front gap to close completely. I started with a regular ratcheting clamp but then ultimately just added another extra right wrap of inner tube.





Left it overnight and took off the bands this morning. there was minimal epoxy on the surface, which I was able to remove with some steel wool.



In the right/wrong light, the crack is visible but I think it will be pretty easy to blend in.

Very Nice Work! Looks like you have it licked.

Will you bed the action next?

Yes Brent I am thinking I'll bed the action and, I was also thinking I could add some reinforcement, as Mark suggested, as a part of bedding the action.

I have bedded small bolts with nuts to make a "butterfly" type of locking device. Sometimes carefully filed to fit a special location. All thread is good, but something bigger is better - if it fits.

Either way, the gun looks like it will be ready to go for a long time to come.