Cracked Stock Repair

Freedom said:

Please tell us how you managed to crack the stock.
It would certainly be nice to learn from your mishap, so that anyone reading your thread could protect their rifle from the same situation.

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Sure thing. Here:
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/my-kibler-smr-build-log.166072/page-21#post-2396579(just keep in mind it's not a "how-to" thread)

Planning it out is key.

Doing several dry runs is a good idea too.

Saves from getting panicked as you work through the real assembly.


EXACTLY, and get rid of that carpenters hammer on the bench while you're at it.

Rich44 said:

...Thats right no hair dryer to speed things up.

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OK.

Freedom said:

Please tell us how you managed to crack the stock.
It would certainly be nice to learn from your mishap, so that anyone reading your thread could protect their rifle from the same situation.

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Look closely at the photo, when the pin was driven in it pressed through the bottom part of the wood, then caught the other side causing pressure on the stock from side to side…I’m not sure how or why other than that.

S.Kenton said:

Look closely at the photo, when the pin was driven in it pressed through the bottom part of the wood, then caught the other side causing pressure on the stock from side to side…I’m not sure how or why other than that.

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Also looks like there was a little bit of pressure from the lug… who knows..

S.Kenton said:

Look closely at the photo, when the pin was driven in it pressed through the bottom part of the wood, then caught the other side causing pressure on the stock from side to side…I’m not sure how or why other than that.
...
Also looks like there was a little bit of pressure from the lug

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I think you're seeing the drill marks. If you refer to my log entry about pinning the barrel lugs you know that I drilled them through the stock and without the guide, which at that point had broken. I stopped the drill from going through the other side. That's why you see the wood darkened and "burnished" on one side and not the other. The other tenon slots look like that, too, though this one is more prominent, and may indicate your theory is at least partially correct: some offset from straight that did indeed result in some assymetric pressure on the sides of the tenon slot. Not from the pin being driven in, but simply by being there and not perfectly aligned.

Comfortably_Numb said:

Wasting my time giving advice that is ignored doesn't help either.

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You guys that get all bent out of shape because your advice wasn't taken have pretty fragile egos.

besides I prefer Swiss Chard

wiscoaster said:

You guys that get all bent out of shape because your advice wasn't taken have pretty fragile egos.

besides I prefer Swiss Chard

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You break your gun.

You ask for help.

People who know what the hell they're talking about offer advice to help you.

You reject the advice and help while not saying THANK YOU for the advice and help.

Then you say those of us that offered advice and help have fragile egos.

Just doesn't add up.

I was going to offer my two cents about the crack but this thread has turned into a circle........
so i won't offer any advice like the good advice already given.
and i won't say to check the barrel channel for too tight a fit forcing the crack .

deerstalkert said:

I was going to offer my two cents about the crack but this thread has turned into a circle........
so i won't offer any advice like the good advice already given.
and i won't say to check the barrel channel for too tight a fit forcing the crack .

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Yet another way that web could have separated.

And something to check out.

Hatman/2nd line said:

I'd use Titebond in that crack, use the bag idea from Oldwood and smear glue into the crack, make sure you get it in the crack thoroughly. Put the barrel back in with the bag on it, wiping off excess glue in the channel first, tape around the whole affair. If the bag gets glued to the channel should be easy to clean it out or maybe you could smear some release agent on it just to help, Titebond allows stains.

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I would fix like Hatman suggested, only thing is I would use my air compressor with a small tip to blow the glue deep in the crack.

Titebond if applied correctly will be stronger than the surrounding wood.

deerstalkert said:

...,
and i won't say to check the barrel channel for too tight a fit forcing the crack .

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Say it anyway, because it's already being considered as a possible cause, and I agree with checking it for that, and oh, by the way, as I always say to advice offered in good spirit and intent (read my posts) :

THANK YOU

Seeing that crack gives me chest pain and heartache.
I hope OP is able to fix it with all the advice presented.
Best of luck.

Comfortably_Numb said:

Wasting my time giving advice that is ignored doesn't help either.

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#3 on DuckDuckGo ... apparently somebody is paying attention to your advice. You have more eyes on your content than you realized. I think you should be more gracious providing it. For their benefit, if not mine.

Wiscoaster............Sorry if I lost ya there on the mention of glue. I sorta screw up in explaination sometimes by assuming folks know what glue is. The Glue I use most on stock wood , powder horn plugs , sliding wood patch box replacments , decorative inlays , and metal patch box installs , basicly any metal going to get engraved , is Epoxie. Before Epoxie glue became a household word bought from Dollar stores , we had Cascophine powder from a paper canister , to be mixed with water.. In other words , it was hide glue made from animal hide gel , a biproduct of tanning animal hides. This glue was invented most likely around 1400 to 1600 AD in Europe. It was a common product they repaired most any wood work in Europe , an eventually America. Before Epoxie , I tried most of the other water based wood glues , but all have draw backs , I won't go into for gunstock work. Dollar Store epoxie is cheap , and accepts dye products the same as the expensive Acraglas does . Cheap epoxie does anything for me that the expensive stuff did in the early 1950's. It's a beautiful thing when you can install a wood patch for instance to fix a knlt hole in a valuable gunstock , and because of stained epoxie glue , the fix is near invisible. Epoxie glue sands off flush with no dimple effect as seen using wood fillers as well. This is enough for this diatribe......Sorry if I bored you........oldwood

oldwood said:

.....Sorry if I bored you........oldwood

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No, not at all, actually an interesting and educational post. Thanks!! It's something new to me. I'm going to look into it. It sounds like a more "natural" way to deal with the problem.

Rich44 said:

Thats right no hair dryer to speed things up.

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Quite so.
But, though I don't know about TiteBond, many epoxies become runnier when heated mildly, which helps the stuff to run into the crack and all the irregularities in the fracture surfaces. So warm the stock up gently just before you run the adhesive on to it, as well as doing all the other things advised.
Clamp the repair really well, as advised, and inspect carefully before it's too late to make sure everything's perfectly aligned. Then lay the thing aside for a whole week. Resist all temptations to fiddle with it.
That's just my two penn'orth from experience (part bitter). Feel free to shoot me down if you disagree.
Mechanically, I don't think trying to reinforce the repair with more epoxy, with or without paper, will make any significant difference. The strongest bit of the repair will always be the fracture surface to fracture surface bond.

appalichian hunter said:

Don't know if this would be possible after gluing it perhaps a one layer of fiberglass material over top of the crack, in the barrel channel, just thinking outside the box here. Actually, find this thread helpful, as I am thinking of a Kibler build in the near future, learning a lot as to what to do and not what to do. Once home from Wyoming in October will spend time digesting Jims videos and referencing posts such as this, before I make the jump. Always been one to spend more time studying and re-searching a project before doing it especially with a rifle like these kits.

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I agree with a layer of fiberglass .You can remove some wood to compensate for the fiberglass if needed it will not need to be much wood removed but the glass will add a lot of strength

just a splash coat of epoxy down the barrel channel will reinforce the stock.
search for dave_person. i believe he does this.
i just repaired the worst piece of junk unmentionable shotgun for a friend. bolt action 2 3/4 chamber he had been shooting 3 inch in.
forearm split almost to the magazine well. putting the barreled action in would spread that crack to 3/32". mixed up some 2 part and heated it to where it ran. sprinkled in some aluminum powder, gave it a stir and poured it into the crack from inside the barrel channel.
i had spreaders to hold open the crack. once poured i removed the spreaders and banded the forearm to close the crack.
scraped the excess when cured and used birchwood casey aluminum black on the exposed crack filler. knocked it back with 0000 steel wool and it looks like a mineral line in the wood.
a 100.00 fix on a 15.00 gun. educated my friend on the difference in 12 gauge ammo and gave the tomato stake back with the warning that if i ever got my hands on it again it was going into the river!