Thanks!! Some helpful and informative posts about reinforcing the crack repair. Much appreciated for the detail!! 
Cracked Stock Repair
- Thread starter wiscoaster
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2021
- Messages
- 572
- Reaction score
- 1,047
Just amazing how the longer a thread gets to be of "How to Fix It" turns south with people wanting to do one step better. What started off with simple advice on fixing with the very strong likelihood of being undetectable and plenty strong enough has gone to titanium reinforced concrete. Guess when you go to a public forum you get the full gamma of answers.
Reminds me of when I was in 3rd grade I wanted to answer so bad a question the teacher had, what was the color of different peoples skin. Well the teacher kept asking others till when she finally asked me, and I notice I was the only one with my hand up then. That was because it hit me all the colors that I knew had been picked.
Did not know what to answer, so I just picked a color ( green ) that had not been said. That got a good laugh from everybody.
Kind of like this thread.
Reminds me of when I was in 3rd grade I wanted to answer so bad a question the teacher had, what was the color of different peoples skin. Well the teacher kept asking others till when she finally asked me, and I notice I was the only one with my hand up then. That was because it hit me all the colors that I knew had been picked.
Did not know what to answer, so I just picked a color ( green ) that had not been said. That got a good laugh from everybody.
Kind of like this thread.
64Springer
75 Cal.
I would hold off on any repair until congress is finished with their investigations.
Wood glue is good, and epoxy may be great.
But there may be even better stuff out there. Somewhere. In a galaxy. Far far away.
If them aliens can make an object go from 0 mph to Mach 5 in just under two seconds, you just know their adhesives are some next level chit.
Wood glue is good, and epoxy may be great.
But there may be even better stuff out there. Somewhere. In a galaxy. Far far away.
If them aliens can make an object go from 0 mph to Mach 5 in just under two seconds, you just know their adhesives are some next level chit.
Last edited:
Does five minutes meet your criteria? Good enough for here and now?
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/my-kibler-smr-build-log.166072/page-22#post-2397539
- Joined
- May 6, 2014
- Messages
- 17,458
- Reaction score
- 16,519
Wiscoaster,
A modern good glue or epoxy is all you need to do the repair, so let me begin with that.
I like to study the older ways of fixing things that could have been used for such repairs in the period. Sometimes I use all period materials and sometimes I sort of blend modern and older methods. So let's look at that crack again:
Besides making and inletting a Nose Cap to go along with hot hide gluing the crack, they could have used hot hide glue with two or three "Dutchman's" or wood butterfly shaped keys and going perpendicular to the crack with the narrow middle of them directly over the crack and from the inside of the stock channel. In a case like this, it almost takes two people to use them. One to hand squeeze the crack shut and the other to scratch/scribe around the outline of the dutchman keys. Once the barrel channel is inletted for them and after filling the crack with hot hide glue, the Dutchman's would keep the forearm tightly together with no need of anything else to clamp it. Then once the hide glue cured, they would chisel/file/scrape off the excess wood inside and outside the forearm. The Dutchman's could also have been made out of bone in the period.
Now I realize this would be a LOT of additional work when because of modern glues it is not needed and the thin section of wood between the barrel channel and ramrod groove does not leave much room for the Dutchman's.
What I've done in the past is cut out butterfly shaped key areas like this perpendicular to the crack and only where it shows on the inside and AFTER I glued them up with modern glue/epoxy. Then fill them with accra glas gel barely to the top of the cut outs and use the plastic bag wrapped or mold released barrel to push the accra glas further up the curved sides and fill in the upper sections of the cut outs.
Gus
A modern good glue or epoxy is all you need to do the repair, so let me begin with that.
I like to study the older ways of fixing things that could have been used for such repairs in the period. Sometimes I use all period materials and sometimes I sort of blend modern and older methods. So let's look at that crack again:
Besides making and inletting a Nose Cap to go along with hot hide gluing the crack, they could have used hot hide glue with two or three "Dutchman's" or wood butterfly shaped keys and going perpendicular to the crack with the narrow middle of them directly over the crack and from the inside of the stock channel. In a case like this, it almost takes two people to use them. One to hand squeeze the crack shut and the other to scratch/scribe around the outline of the dutchman keys. Once the barrel channel is inletted for them and after filling the crack with hot hide glue, the Dutchman's would keep the forearm tightly together with no need of anything else to clamp it. Then once the hide glue cured, they would chisel/file/scrape off the excess wood inside and outside the forearm. The Dutchman's could also have been made out of bone in the period.
Now I realize this would be a LOT of additional work when because of modern glues it is not needed and the thin section of wood between the barrel channel and ramrod groove does not leave much room for the Dutchman's.
What I've done in the past is cut out butterfly shaped key areas like this perpendicular to the crack and only where it shows on the inside and AFTER I glued them up with modern glue/epoxy. Then fill them with accra glas gel barely to the top of the cut outs and use the plastic bag wrapped or mold released barrel to push the accra glas further up the curved sides and fill in the upper sections of the cut outs.
Gus
Thanks!! Very interesting detail. I'm learning a lot here. A nose cap is not in the cards. I wish it were a part of the kit gun, but it's not. It's beyond me to make one.
Probably not correct for the gun, though easy enough to make with sheet brass and some solder, or purchase from a place like TOW.
If it was brass and not iron I might be tempted to try it. Being iron mounted was one of my two primary criteria for buying this particular kit. The other being the set trigger.
brushyspoons
36 Cl.
You can make a nose cap out of 22 ga. mild steel sheet and some silver solder, you should be able to find the stuff at any hardware or home improvement store. The only tools I used were some tin snips, a bench vise, needle nose pliers, a propane torch, and a file or two.
I don't like nose caps either. I think they're more decorative than functional but that's just me trying to get an argument going
.
Them aliens may be able to go pretty fast but they still crashed when they got here.
64Springer
75 Cal.
Too bad our government treats us like children.
I want to see them.
I want to see them.
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2020
- Messages
- 7,533
- Reaction score
- 21,155
- Location
- On the Border in Idaho looking at BC
i have always felt the Govt. treats us like cattle. milk us dry.
64Springer
75 Cal.
My mistake. One out steel is doable, but more of a challenge.
Gadd's!
Why haven't ya just used Tightbond 2 and have it fixed already?
Wow,,?
77 posts and it's about pins and dovetails? Tightbond will last till your dead,, just do what was first said, glue it, wrap/clamp, wipe off the excess with a damp cloth.
It's easier than making cheese
Because I'd never have learned about Starbond, which is a whole heck of a lot easier than making cheese, and a whole lot faster, too. I can tell you, it was awfully tempting to just do as you suggested - except I'd have used Titebond III - and not tell anybody, and just get on with it, again as you suggested, and not have to deal with responding to unhelpful comments, such as yours, but then that's not in the spirit in which I do things, and even more important, I wouldn't have learned anything.
I am a super glue fan, if you can press the crack closed with hand pressure, I would fil the crack with super glue and hold it closed until the glues sets up, usually about 5 minutes for a good set. Next, I would soak the barrel channel with as much superglue as it will hold to harden the wood around the crack. The crack starts above the pin and angles down, I bought the kit second hand and found the crack when I removed the barrel from the stock, easy fix so it didn't bother me.
Do the above fix with the barrel out and put your pressure low on the forestock, near the ramrod groove, and close to the crack.
If you don't have enough hands, perhaps a few spring clamps will close the crack while you glue, minimal pressure and won't deform anything.
I have posted this before; a 3" crack in a walnut SMR, superglued, held together by hand with the inside of the barrel channel turned to concrete after the fix with superglue.
Do the above fix with the barrel out and put your pressure low on the forestock, near the ramrod groove, and close to the crack.
If you don't have enough hands, perhaps a few spring clamps will close the crack while you glue, minimal pressure and won't deform anything.
I have posted this before; a 3" crack in a walnut SMR, superglued, held together by hand with the inside of the barrel channel turned to concrete after the fix with superglue.
Last edited:
Thanks!!
In spite of what the naysayers will say, superglue will case harden wood, put a drop on a pile of sawdust and see what happens.
