It sounds like it may be easier to work with. Is it?

Can it be dyed? Is it as strong as glass? and Can you add floc or steel?

Thanks

Marine-Tex is all that I use.

It's very easy to work with, it stays where you put it.

I use the gray, and it comes out rather dark "as-is". I've dyed it black with standard dry dye powder, but you don't really need to.

For floccing (sp ?), I just pull apart some fiberglass insulation and mix it in with it.

Great results!

Agree with Cold Bore. It also cures faster than Acra Gel and Acra Glas, it's a bit harder and seems more resistant to oils and solvents that occasionally find their way to the bedding.

So where do you get it?

Any marine and boat supply store.

Brownell's carries it as well.

I used it in the past when it was a better product. I find it to be very brittle now. They have added fillers that do nothing for the strength of the final product. I bought a box of it recently and will not again. There are a lot better products available.

[ 07-28-2003, 04:47: Message edited by: Customstox ]

What's the general consensus on MICROBED?

Rob

I've used Microbed on at least a half dozen stocks as it has worked very well for. Nice cosistency, stays put, doesn't run. The only complaint that I could think of would be its color(dark brown). You can make it darker, but you can't make it lighter.

Chic,
If you don't mind me asking, what products do you use instead of Marine Tex ??

Thanks,
Pat

Rancher,
I have been using GOOP Epoxy Mend, Microbed and I just bought a gallon of Acraglass Gel. The gallon should last me for a while. I use it mainly for making patterns. When I need bulk on the outside I use Bondo.

http://www.charm.net/~kmarsh/glasbed.html

I use from Brownell's:
1) Devcon [thick]
2) Devcon putty [very thick]
3) Accraglass [runny]
4) Accraglass gel [thick]

From the hardware store I use:
1) JB Auto Weld [thick]
2) Bondo general puropose fiber glass resin [runny]

For a release agent, I use Imperial sizing wax.

There are allot of ways to go about bedding a stock.
problem I have:
1) If I do it all at once, the glass my leak out of my dams or the stock may be hard to get off.
2) If I do it in sections, the inconstistency of tightening the action to the stock make changes in how the gun and stock flex.
3) Injection moulded synthetic stocks, the $50 kind and not the $200 glass laminated kind, do not stick to glass bedding.
4) Miltary stocks boiled in linseed oil do not stick that well either.
5) Even with release agent all over the barrel, if glass gets around it, it can't be scraped off without damaging the finish.
6) Dissasembling the stock from the actio after glass bedding can break the stock in half.

Tricks:
1) Sometimes in military stocks, I take the recoil lug out and fill with glass.
2) Rather than play dough, sometimes I dam up volumes with bubble wrap covered with another layer of plastic bag.

About MICROBED - I've been using it for 44 years. Works well.

Packaging has recently changed from two tubes of product to two cans. Is more difficult to measure with the new packaging. Used to, you could just squeeze out two strips of equal length and mix them. Now you have to dip the stuff out with something else, and it is difficult to get exactly equal volumes. Exactly equal volumes aren't 100% necessary, but I think the product is more consistent when mixed that way. It is also slightly more messy to use the new packaging, and there is more clean-up because you have to clean the measuring spoon that you dip the product out with.

Think I will try transferring it from cans into large plastic syringes that Brownell's also sells. Then I can squeeze out equal strips as if it was in the old tubes.

DEVCON - Devcon makes a series of products...Devcon aluminum, both putty and liquid; Devcon steel, both putty and liquid; and Devcon Tungsten. All work well, but I find the Devcon liquid forms easier to work with. The putty stays in place well, but sometimes requires a lot of pressure on the barreled action to squeeze it into place in the putty & stock.

Normally I use surgical rubber tubing wrapped around action and stock fore and aft (NOT barrel) to squeeze the barreled actions into stocks I am bedding, but with Devcon putty, I pretty much have to use the action screws.

I don't like doing that (once 40-some years ago I got Accraglass bedding into the screw holes and on the screws and darned near had to burn the stock off the action!). Actually, I got it out by heating a soldering iron red hot, then applying the iron to the heads of the action screws, but it was a PITA.

Devcon aluminum putty does make a nice bedding job, though, and very sturdy for "hi-power" rifle use in competition rifles.

ACCRAGLAS - both liquid and gel, seems to have a shorter shelf life than many other products. Advertised shelf life is 3-5 years, but I have found that if it sits on the shelf for more than a year, it is pretty much toast. The release agent dries out (it can be reconstituted) and the epoxy hardens to a solid, without any hardening agent being introduced. The cans of hardening agent stay all right and seem usable just about forever. This happens even with unopened packages. Not a reason to not use it, but a good reason to not buy more at a time than you will use in 6 months or so.

Instead of play-dough, I use Plasticene...a British product very similar to modelling clay except that it doesn't ever seem to dry out...I have been using and re-using the same 1 lb. package of plasticene for over 30 years now and still have at least 7/8 pound left.

AC

[ 07-29-2003, 00:27: Message edited by: Alberta Canuck ]

I use Marine Tex all the time for bedding.. and all sorts of stuff. Would take me a half hour to write down all the stuff I've repaired or made with it. Good stuff but not cheap. Great to have around though. Last time I used it was for what it's really made for.. repairing my boat. before that, a kerosene stove pipe.

Where can I get instructions for bedding a stock?