gun stock void repair

[jims]

Attached are three photos of a gunstock blank with voids. Any ideas on a good repair, circular dowel of the same wood, inlet a piece, epoxy West? thanks

 

[GunnyGene]

About the only thing you can do is inlet a piece. I would not use epoxy however, because it will leave a glue line and not give if there are differences in expansion/contraction between the stock and the patch, and that could open up the glue line or cause cracking. I'd recommend using TiteBond II or III since it has some give in this situation. You're still going to have some problem with finishing without showing the line, however you can mix the titebond with a little fine sawdust to minimize that. I'd suggest you try this out on a scrap piece - inletted patch, glue, finish, etc. to get an idea of how it will look on the stock.

 

[GRAMPS 51]

Not to discourage you but I don't think it is worth the effort the bad spot in the wrist is in a bad place it would fail sometime down the road JMO I would start with a different blank

Gramps

 

[jims]

In all fairness the blank did not come from the shaper. I got it off of ebay and there were no visible problems, only when wood was removed. The stock was in the early stages, will finish out 95% or so.

I have plenty of time and can make it usable, probably will put an all thread rod in the wrist to beef it up. Worth the time to me to try.

 

[nekvermont]

I've just recently been seeing some table tops that the voids were filled with dyed epoxy. Some of the voids are filled with bright colored epoxy, blue, red, yellow, etc. They actually look interesting.

 

[mohavesam]

The problem appears to be the maker's mistake of placing a huge knot in the wrist area, let alone the buttstock area.
Clearly sub-standard work and materials. This will always be weak and prone to a dangerous break under any level of recoil.

The only safe remedy I'd attempt would be to use "machining-strength" epoxies and synthetic materials.

 

[Dave P.]

Do you have a wood stove?
The way the butt stock area looks with that diagonal crack, plus the
visible ( who knows what else is hiding ) I'd start over.
Really hard to polish a turd.
Maybe cut it up into hand gun sized blanks.
Dave

 

[jims]

The blank did not show any visible deficiencies before the shaping. It was a latent/hidden defect, did not know it was there until the wood removal revealed it.

As I already have my money invested in it I will try to salvage it. I won't have more money in it, only time and I have more of that than money anyways.

 

[rugerjunkie]

Looks to me like the grain is flowing through the wrist area the way it is supposed to. Id think with your all-thread idea to beef it up you'd be fine. The butt stock crack probably looks worse than it is im guessing.

 

[powder smoke]

If it was mine, I would have a do over. Throw it in the wood stove and salvage some heat from it! For all the work it will take you'll have a patched up stock. Makes no sense. ps

 

[woodsy]

I agree with powder smoke. After more than 40 years woodworking, including 20 professionally furniture making. Will burn really well, and that's all it's good for.

 

[powder smoke]

By the way I'm a wood smith also. most of my career I was a home builder.
Now it's all small stuff sometimes I'll take on a Kitchen! ps

 

[Achigan]

Save it for pistol grips and knife scales?

 

[turd]

Gorilla Glue. :mrgreen: