I just finished my first attempt at a bedding job.
The rifle was a Remington Seven, so it was very easy considering there is very little wood - metal contact so i didn't need to use any clay, just some tape.

A friend recently told me he adds some aluminuim powder, gained by shaving aluminuim with a fine file, to the mix, to give it added strength. Is there any need for this or does it give any advantages?

Also, on this, my first bedding job, I found the first time round that I needed more resin to create a bed for the first few inches of the barrel past the reciol lug, so I added some more resin on top of what is already there, set and hard.

The surface is plenty fough, so I can't see it haveing trouble bonding, and it's only a .222Rem so there aren't any recoil concerns.

This was a good rifle to learn on, I had already sanded the stock back in preparation for painting so I got next to nothing to lose.

Does anyone want to tell me if I'm doing the right things here?

Powdered stainless steel is much better in my opinion. I only use it for the recoil lug. I always bed in a minimum of two steps, often 3.

It's a lot easier to buy something like Devcon Aluminum Putty that already has everything in it. Devcon gives you the choice between bronze, aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, etc. HTH, Dutch.

I wouldn't worry about beefing up the glass on a 222, the epoxy itself is more than strong enough...On a big bore you might get some added strength, but not a heck of a lot...I use devcon and some other stuff that has metal in it..

As a beginner stay with Brownells Accugel or at least the 50-50 mixes....

I bed in one step..I use guides and do not tighten screws or put the gun together to cure, that creates binding..just push the gun down into the glass and let it settle..

I bed the tang, recoil lug, and about 2" under the barrel or chamber as a rule....If I want the barrel channal glassed then I put two layers of masking tape 2 inches in front of the chamber/barrel to the crown and do the complete gun at one time, push it in let it settle and wipe of the excess with sharpened popsicle sticks. when I remove the tape the barrel is free floated. If I do not want a free float then I omit the tape and just wax the barrel...

Good idea to tape the stock up with masking tape and then wax it good also...

I have a Model 70 Super Express in .458 Win. Mag. that was rebedded in Brownell's Steel-Bed going on ten years ago. This stuff has powdered stainless steel in it, and it's superb for use on hard-kicking rifles.

The gunsmith who did the bedding job for me used it instead of glass bedding with machined aluminum pillars simply because the steel crossbolts in the stock precluded the installation of pillers. So he enlarged the holes as much as possible and filled with bedding compound, bedded the receiver as well as under the triggerguard and flooplate hinge, and also bedded the barrel lug. After the Steel-Bed was set, he went in and actually machined away the excess material, redrilled the screw holes just enough so the screws didn't touch, and otherwise cleaned it all up.

That rifle shot well from the beginning, and when the screws are tight, they're really tight! No stock compression over the years, no cracking, no point-of-impact shifts--no problems of any kind. I've been really impressed with that material.......

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Express,
Ray said it right. The epoxy is good enough. In fact the metal shavings of any kind are just a waste of time and money. You are not producing a compound with the metal included, you have a matrix with metal particles imbedded in it. The metal will not add to the tensile strenght or shear resistance of the final product. The metal is simply there as a separate particle and it will break around the particles themselves. If anything, it may just induce small stress points in the matrix and break easier. If you want to use something like devcon and feel more comfortable with it go ahead but you are wasting your money.