Snakeoil
Well-Known Member
I acquired a nice original Winchester High Wall in .32-40. At the time, the rifle was so nice, my primary concern was the bore which looked great. Then, when I got the time to take a closer look, I found a small crack in the original forend. It was a Grrrrrrrr moment for sure. But I'm not one to cry over spilled milk and I've fixed wood boo-boos before. I glued the crack only to have it split open when I removed the clamp. There was over 100 years worth of oil in the wood and I was foolish to think that Titebond (which I've used to great success in the past) would stick. I cleaned the area with acetone, trying to not destroy the original finish. I thought I had it oil free and tried a JB Weld epoxy product that I've had great success with on ceramic repairs. It held for about a week. During that week I'd blended in the finish and was filling the slight valley left by the crack. The valley kept getting bigger. The epoxy was failing.
So, I reached out to our in-house expert on anything gun wood repair related, JW Fillipski. He said to use lacquer thinner and not to be shy with it. Then said that Acraglas was all he used to fix things like this. He then wished me luck and said he is glad it is not him who had to clean the old epoxy out of that crack.
Fortunately, the epoxy failure was 100% and with some dental tools and lacquer thinner, I was able to mine it all out of the crack. I flushed the area with lacquer thinner over and over. I packed whiting into the area and then injected lacquer thinner in thru the crack from the other side.
JW and I had a back and forth about Acraglass. I have West Systems epoxy here which is top shelf stuff. But all Jim could do was wish me luck. He ended that with "I've only been doing this for 50 years.". Okay... message received. Acraglas ordered from Brownells. It arrived today. So, here is a short pictorial blow by blow.
This is the forend crack after being thoroughly cleaned.
There is no dent or gouge indicating that it cracked from an impact. My guess is the wood dried out and it simply split. It was much less noticeable before I cleaned out the area. Picture a blued barrel behind it and it is not something that jumps out at you.
This is the stuff that Jim recommended. Another friend of mine uses this to glue barrel liners in.
It is mixed by volume, 4:1. They give you two small medical paper cups with measurements on them. I hate to waste stuff and I cut the minimum mix in half. They recommend 1 oz resin and 1/4 oz hardener. I did 1/2 and 1/8. The resin is crystal clear. Seeing the markings thru the cup is a challenge. Note that there is only 1/4 oz as the smallest graduation.
Included in the kit are two tube of dye, black and brown. 1 drop goes a long way. I used less than one drop. Instructions say to make it lighter than the wood. One drop made it almost the same as the wood. Too late. Live with it. Here is the mix. It's hard now. Needless to day, I did not use much for the crack.
Here is the crack, clamped and awaiting the chemical gods to work their magic. I left it proud so I could work it down flush and not have to fill the crack. That valley left behind when I made my first attempts made me take this route. Jim suggested a piece of electrical tape and it would come out flush. But there is so little room to work that I went with too much so I could take it down later.
Here is another view showing the little piece of wood I fit to the forend and then glued a riser so the clamp would grip at an angle to hold the crack closed. It's little tricks like this that you have to work out before you glue anything so the final product is what you want. I spent a good deal of time clamping the piece dry to see how the crack closed up. When you do it with your fingers, you are exerting force in mutiple directions which can give you a false sense of security that a clamp will do the same. IT WON'T!! It only puts force in one direction. So, you need to assure that the vector of that single force pushes things where you want them. I'm sure that Jim can speak volumes on this subject alone. By the way, there is Scotch tape between that wood spacer and the inside of the forend. Gluing the spacer to the forend would make for a bad day.
The Acraglass is hard. I have a 100 watt bulb helping speed up the process. Should be ready for the clamp to come off tomorrow. I'll then trim down the excess and start the blending process for the finish. I plan to shoot this rifle in out VT match this weekend.
DAMN!!!! Hit SUBMIT and then noticed that I left the D off of CRACKED in the title. I can't seem to edit the title. Grrrrrrrrrr.....
So, I reached out to our in-house expert on anything gun wood repair related, JW Fillipski. He said to use lacquer thinner and not to be shy with it. Then said that Acraglas was all he used to fix things like this. He then wished me luck and said he is glad it is not him who had to clean the old epoxy out of that crack.
Fortunately, the epoxy failure was 100% and with some dental tools and lacquer thinner, I was able to mine it all out of the crack. I flushed the area with lacquer thinner over and over. I packed whiting into the area and then injected lacquer thinner in thru the crack from the other side.
JW and I had a back and forth about Acraglass. I have West Systems epoxy here which is top shelf stuff. But all Jim could do was wish me luck. He ended that with "I've only been doing this for 50 years.". Okay... message received. Acraglas ordered from Brownells. It arrived today. So, here is a short pictorial blow by blow.
This is the forend crack after being thoroughly cleaned.
There is no dent or gouge indicating that it cracked from an impact. My guess is the wood dried out and it simply split. It was much less noticeable before I cleaned out the area. Picture a blued barrel behind it and it is not something that jumps out at you.
This is the stuff that Jim recommended. Another friend of mine uses this to glue barrel liners in.
It is mixed by volume, 4:1. They give you two small medical paper cups with measurements on them. I hate to waste stuff and I cut the minimum mix in half. They recommend 1 oz resin and 1/4 oz hardener. I did 1/2 and 1/8. The resin is crystal clear. Seeing the markings thru the cup is a challenge. Note that there is only 1/4 oz as the smallest graduation.
Included in the kit are two tube of dye, black and brown. 1 drop goes a long way. I used less than one drop. Instructions say to make it lighter than the wood. One drop made it almost the same as the wood. Too late. Live with it. Here is the mix. It's hard now. Needless to day, I did not use much for the crack.
Here is the crack, clamped and awaiting the chemical gods to work their magic. I left it proud so I could work it down flush and not have to fill the crack. That valley left behind when I made my first attempts made me take this route. Jim suggested a piece of electrical tape and it would come out flush. But there is so little room to work that I went with too much so I could take it down later.
Here is another view showing the little piece of wood I fit to the forend and then glued a riser so the clamp would grip at an angle to hold the crack closed. It's little tricks like this that you have to work out before you glue anything so the final product is what you want. I spent a good deal of time clamping the piece dry to see how the crack closed up. When you do it with your fingers, you are exerting force in mutiple directions which can give you a false sense of security that a clamp will do the same. IT WON'T!! It only puts force in one direction. So, you need to assure that the vector of that single force pushes things where you want them. I'm sure that Jim can speak volumes on this subject alone. By the way, there is Scotch tape between that wood spacer and the inside of the forend. Gluing the spacer to the forend would make for a bad day.
The Acraglass is hard. I have a 100 watt bulb helping speed up the process. Should be ready for the clamp to come off tomorrow. I'll then trim down the excess and start the blending process for the finish. I plan to shoot this rifle in out VT match this weekend.
DAMN!!!! Hit SUBMIT and then noticed that I left the D off of CRACKED in the title. I can't seem to edit the title. Grrrrrrrrrr.....
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