Since the passing away of Mel Smart at Acra Bond, has anyone taken over the operation. I sent several E-mails, but never received a reply. I really liked Mel's work, and would like to have a stock made up for my 375 Ackley. Hopefully someone can help me out with some information.

Mike,
There has been a change over, I called and talked with the new owner several weeks ago. can't remember the guys name, sorry.

I personally just bought 3 stocks from Robert over at WATTS WALNUT

He has some beautiful American Black Walnut Stock blanks at very resonable rates. On top of that he is very nice to deal with. I am very pleased with his blanks. I have two for two 404 Jeffery projects!

Rusty
We band of brothers!

[ 08-03-2003, 21:24: Message edited by: Rusty ]

Rod Rogers now runs AcraBond, he has changed things a bit, purchased new machinery, and is off and running.

http://www.acrabondlaminates.com/

I dropped a blank off with them and I had a very enjoyable talk with Rod who seems to be as good a hands on manager as he is an enthusiastic hunter.

I looked over the work in progress and gave my order which ended up being an upgrade from what I thought was available.

They had some Montana barreled actions there and I got to see them also.

The old crew is there and it's just that Rod is the boss now.

I had this Circassian walnut blank for about 25 years and to be frank had forgotten about it. Now that I have some M1999's on order what better use for a wood blank? That blank was at least a X on one side with a lot of color streaks thru the stock but the opposite side of the blank was not the same. Acrabond will take the second slice from one side and put it on the outside opposite it's mate thus getting it closer to a match on both sides.

All: we've been working diligently to accomplish the kinds of things Mel wanted to do, but never had the resources. Most of our geometries are now scanned, digitized, and solid-modeled. We can now do the Merlin, Lioness, Leopard, & Cheetah off the CNC machine. While the M1999 action is a high priority, the CNC database also contains a large number of other actions as well.

One bottleneck was the laminating press. We changed to a new design and have three new presses that do up five blanks at at time, each, every two hours. The old unit could only do one.

We've updated most of our wood machinery and added some new equipment. At the moment, we are overhauling the finishing room so that we can handle stock finishing in reasonable volume. Our AAA and up inventory is on the web.

Savage 99, if you are the gentleman from Connecticut, your blank came out very nice. It is IDENTICAL on both sides as only a 1/32 kerf line separated them.

Today, our turnaround times run about 12-14 weeks. After the finishing room is complete, I hope to get this down to 8-10.

Thanks, all, for you interest and patience.

Rod

Rod

Do you do regular un-laminated stocks? I'm interested in a CNC unfinished drop in. How is your English inventory and where are you located? I'm from Helena and my job takes me up to Kalispell on occasion and I'd like to drop in the next few months if you take walk in business. Thanks, Rob.

Hey Rod,
Is Charlie still checkering for you? He did nice work for no more than he was charging. Excellent for a man on a budget.

Dempsey: We've thought about non-laminated stocks. For finished stocks, matched to the rifle, we would probably pass on the job. Just too much chance of dissatisfaction when the stock inevitably warps. For a CNC unfinished, let's discuss. Our English stock is not overwhelming, but there are fair number of rough blanks. On Thursday, I'm beginning a major lamination run (hopefully a hundred or so) and we'll be focusing on English at first. Give the shop a call (406-253-9003) and we can talk about it.

Triggerguard1: Charlie does indeed do our checkering. Hope we don't wear him out. .