I've been planning to glass bed my Tikka T3, but I may have to give up on the idea. The problem is the design of the recoil lug. It is not rigidly attached to the action/barrel. Instead it's a separate block of aluminum that engages a slot in receiver (about 0.1 inch deep) and a recess in the stock (about 1 inch deep).

Therefore, if I hog out the stock where the lug fits, there will be nothing to guide it in or to hold it square when I set the action into the stock. It might even sink into the epoxy so far it doesn't even touch the receiver anymore.

I thought about epoxying the lug permanently to the receiver, but I doubt it would stand up to the recoil for long. Once the epoxy bond broke, I would have a mess of epoxy fragments between the lug and the receiver.

The only way I see to this right would be to weld the lug to the receiver. I doubt aluminum can be welded to stainless, so I'd probably have to have to have a new lug made from stainless, then welded. What a pain.

Any ideas?

I know this may sound ghetto, but if you can not weld it, how about JB Weld? The stuff is insanely strong once it cures and will adhere two unlike metals. Look into it if you have never heard of it/used it....

What about TEMPORALY securing the lug to the receiver (drop of superglue, hot melt cement, etc) and roughing up the part that mates to the stock and than bedding it (perminatly joining the lug to the stock)? Break the receiver/lug glue joint after the bedding compound hardens.

Tailgunner has it. We do this all the time, temp glue it to the action and prep it to bond into the stock permanently. Just make sure it is a good fit and glued in the correct place. We use super glue.

Forgot to mention, that with the exception of Partall, super glue will stick through any release agent I have tried. I don't consider PAM a release agent so I wouldn't know about it!

quote:

Originally posted by Nate:
I know this may sound ghetto, but if you can not weld it, how about JB Weld? The stuff is insanely strong once it cures and will adhere two unlike metals. Look into it if you have never heard of it/used it....

Thought of that, but I just don't think it will hold in the long run. Maybe if it was a .223, but it's a .308.

quote:

Originally posted by Ian Robertson:
Tailgunner has it. We do this all the time, temp glue it to the action and prep it to bond into the stock permanently. Just make sure it is a good fit and glued in the correct place. We use super glue.

Actually, I thought of that too, but didn't mention it in my original post cuz I wanted to see if anybody would think of it.

Ian, are you saying you have experience bedding Tikka's, or something else with a separate recoil lug? I'm afraid if I use too much super glue, I'll have a hard time separating the gun from the stock/lug. I'm afraid if I use too little, it'll pop off when I sink the action into the epoxy, especially if I have shift it forward or backward a bit to align the action screw holes. Ever have that happen? I plan to do the bedding with Marine-Tex, which I've never used before, so I don't know how stiff it is.

After super-gluing the lug to the slot in the receiver, there will still be some gaps in the "joint" that epoxy could find its way into. Do you recommend filling those gaps with anything? I was thinking about dripping some candle wax into it.

It is usually recommended that when bedding a normal recoil lug, some clearance be left at the bottom of the hole. In my case, would you recommend grinding a bit off the top of the lug after it is epoxied into the stock so it can't contact the bottom of the receiver?

You guys are great! Thanks for the help.

Finally, acetone will dissolve super glue, right?

Yes, acetone will remove super glue.

Make sure it is a good fit and about 1/4 of a drop of glue should do it. Dry fit everything before you mix the epoxy. If it creates a bit of clearance between the top of the lug and the action this is good. I have not done a T3 yet but used this on other actions. Good thing about super glue is that it really is not very strong. We use it for temporary jobs only but having said that it can really stick to some materials. When you pop the action out of the stock you will not even notice the stick of the super glue.