Best Glue/ Epoxy for Repairing Enfield wood

[enfieldshooter]

With thirty years experience as a stock maker and repairer in NZ I have only ever used 1 product. It is the West System 5:1 Epoxy. It is a gel for fibre glass and you mix a powder filler and pigment with it to match whatever you are gluing. They glue ocean going racing yachts together with it and I have never had it fail on me yet. To clean up the wood first use electrical contact cleaner as it leaves no residue behind. If some one has used PVA glue before you get there you will have a problem with any glue. I am usually the second guy to try and fix it and removing the previous attempt is the hardest part.

[ssj]

for decades barrels and actions have been bedded by target shooters in good quality epoxy. If you are realy paranoid get a aluminium powder based one, and if an utter nutter, steel based...but i dont use that.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The "stainless-steel" version of the Devcon epoxy range is superb for bedding jobs. The stuff is even used for repairing "oops" marks on milling-machine beds etc., (undercuts required, however) The aluminium powder variant is good for places that stay dry all of the time; it is not recommended for bedding hunting rifles.

As per Enfieldshooter's comment, there are several fibre-filled "2-part" adhesives used in boat-building. Back when I was working on fiberglass "pleasure-craft", we used a 2-part epoxy to bond the deck moulding to the hull moulding. The stuff was fairly slow to set and this allowed time to "tweak" the alignment of assemblies from 14 to 23ft long and apply a zillion sets of Vise-Grips to the gunwale flange where the glue was. The next part of the job was for two teams to start at the bow with enormous air-powered staple guns. These fired serious stainless-steel staples through the gunwale "flange" and held the two mouldings together. The stapled and glued flange was then trimmed with a diamond-loaded wheel to a standard width for the next stage; fitting the "bumper" rubber.

The protruding parts of the staple acted as anchors when the "bumper rubber" was subsequently "attached" (with MORE "glue") along the gunwale flange.

The usual caveats about CLEAN and DE-OILED surfaces apply with any adhesive.

[Peter Laidler]

Re thread 21. If the first fixer had done it properly with the correct wood PVA as specified by Simon in thread 19 you wouldn't have to do it again in my limited experience as an Armourer who has repaired a couple of stocks in his time. Wood glue is designed and formulated to glue wood!

But a confession first....... I did have to re-do one - once. Not because the glue failed but because the wood patch was too low to get the finished contour. Couldn't knock it out no matter how hard I tried so I had to undercut it all and start again, pegs an' all! Wood glue is for wood

[WarPig1976]

Wood glue is designed and formulated to glue wood!

You can lead a horse to water......

[Flying10uk]

Of the few stocks that I have, occasionally, had to glue one of the problems has been trying to remove the oil/grease from the wood before gluing. Is there a good way of removing the oil/grease from the area requiring gluing? I have seen a furniture restorer, on television, pour methylated spirit on a table top and then set fire to it which has drawn the oil/grease out of the wood but without damaging the surface in any way. I would be very reluctant to try this on a valuable gun stock and certainly wouldn't recommend any-one trying it. I have, however, tried this on some oily wood that wasn't of any great value and while it drew the oil out, the surface of the wood had taken on a somewhat cremated appearance, not at all how it was shown on T.V.. Obviously, if the wood is oily no glue is going to work well.

[Seaspriter]

West System 5:1 Epoxy

I can attest to the West Epoxy System. It is designed to get deep into the wood pores and hold under intense pressure and stress.

[Peter Laidler]

Oily wood...... I just dunk the whole thing in the tricho tank. Look at the Bren butts I showed in the Bren thread. They held more oil than the Torrey Canyon!

[Bruce_in_Oz]

"You can lead a horse to water...........

But can you lead a horticulture?

[WarPig1976]

But can you lead a horticulture?