BEDDING THE STOCK AT THE BREECH:

Joe came into the shop the other day and said his breech area seems to be a little loose. To remedy this, the best solution was to bed the breech area with Acra-Glass epoxy.  This will fill any voids making the breech more solid and stronger. 

To start with the barrel and breech were removed from the stock.

Now I take masking tape and cover any exposed holes in the stock including the tang bolt and places you do not want the epoxy to get into. 

Next step is to epoxy the breech onto the hooked end of the barrel. This makes for a solid piece of metal to be clamped back into the stock when we are ready for that step later.  Once this done, the tang hole on the bottom of the tang is taped over and the flash hole in the barrel. 

While the epoxy is setting on the barrel and breech tang, bring out the Acra-Glass. I use the Green box. This makes a good hard epoxy when it has finally set.  

Open up the bottle of release agent. Using a special applicator (cotton swab) I painted the stock area surrounding the breech tang and barrel. This will make it easier to remove any excess epoxy later. 

By the time I've finished this, the epoxy on the barrel has set. Using my knife I cut off excess epoxy so I can have nice tight fit of the barrel to the Acra-Glass in the breech area.  Now I an paint release agent onto the breech tang and barrel.  I apply at least two coats to everything and allow it to fully dry between coats. 

After the second coats dry, I then use a toothpick and draw equal amounts of resin and hardener onto a piece of paper. (Use a different tooth pick for each one; do not want to contaminate each other.) Then I mixed the two compounds together by folding one into the other. Do not stir heavily, so as not to stir in any bubbles into the mixture. After a couple minutes, you then cut the end of the brown color tube and put just a pin head amount of color into your mixture. (A little goes a long ways.) Stir a little more till you have a good color thru out the mixture. 

Using the toothpick, pick up a small amount of epoxy and put into the breech area of the stock. 

Keep applying the epoxy until the area is full.

Now take the epoxied barrel and place it into the stock.  To help pull the barrel into the stock, use a clamp to draw it down.  At this point using an oily rag, wipe off the excess epoxy off the tang area and then apply a second clamp onto the tang.  Put the barrel pins into the barrel tenons down the length of the stock.

Now the barrel will sit for 12-14 hours in the clamps. 

After this time has elapsed, remove the clamps. Clean off any epoxy along the edges which may prevent the barrel from coming out. This is generally between the lock cavity and the top of the breech along the side of the barrel.  Now take the rifle upside down and gently tap the comb of the stock's butt onto the work bench whilst holding the barrel.        

Do this carefully and gently the barrel will come loose. 

With the barrel out, you can not remove the tape you applied over the tang hole in the wrist and the other pieces of tape you put onto the stock. In the process you will find a very thin blue film on the epoxy. Remove this material because it is the release agent you painted previously onto the barrel and the breech tang. 

Now the stock should look like this at this point.

Looking at the area where the breech hook interfaces with the stock, you will see this area is not solid and more release agent film here too. 

Before proceeding you need to remove the extra epoxy in the hook breech cavity. This area is needed in order to be able to pivot the hook breeched barrel out of the stock later.

Using my propane torch, I gently heat the barrel tang and pull the breech tang from the barrel. Once these are separated, they are both cleaned up by removing any remaining epoxy.\

Put the breech plug back into the stock and secure with the tang bolt. Next install the barrel into the breech and insert all the barrel pins.

Let the barrel set at least 36 hours before taking the gun out shooting.  This way you know the epoxy has fully set. 

Job is now COMPLETE!!

Hoot AL Rifle Shop

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