Epoxy

[Tinker2]

Why is it You do not like Acra-Gel?

“Why is it You do not like Acra-Gel?”

Maybe I should rephrase that; I won’t/don’t use it.
I don’t care for its looks, when adding color to it; it is opaque, muddy if you will.
I don’t care for the fact that it is on the malleable side of epoxy.
When I add color, I like to have a translucent color sometimes, can’t do that with Acra-Gel
Sometimes I want/need runny. Can’t do that with Acra-Gel.
Because people pay me to do that type of thing, I need to be the best I can.


Now the rest of the story, Acra-Gel.

When someone wants to glass bed their own gun, at home, by them self, it is what I would
recommend to them to use. Acra-Gel does a good job as bedding, it is easy to use.
The fact that it is not runny is a big plus if you’re doing it at home on the kitchen table.
It is more forgiving for first timers and it can easily do a good job.



William Alexander

 

[Tinker2]

For stains I use powdered stains, mostly carbon black.
That may be why I have not had trouble.

Many of the powdered stains are inert or "earth based,"for a lack of a better term and will not affect many epoxy compounds.

BTW, when I mix very, very fine sawdust into clear epoxy, I also mix the two parts thoroughly before adding the sawdust. I've seen sawdust "suck up" some of the catalyst and cause problems, if not.

Gus

“I've seen sawdust "suck up" some of the catalyst and cause problems”

That can make sense to me.

Why would you add very fine sawdust to the clear epoxy?

If you are doing it to fill a void on the outside of a stock, are you staining
the sawdust before you mix it with the epoxy?



Thanks
William Alexander

 

[Artificer]

I don’t care for the fact that it is on the malleable side of epoxy.

Your description of it being towards the malleable side of epoxies is spot on. I have long described it as "having some "give" to it" and too much "give" for high end bedding jobs.

That is exactly the reason I used it to repair the shattered wrist on my Brown Bess Carbine, but used two threaded brass rods that went around the tang screw on each side and went forward and behind the shattered wrist, to give the repair strength. The Accra-Glas Gel was to fill up space around and provide a "little give" around the threaded brass rods.

Now the rest of the story, Acra-Gel.

When someone wants to glass bed their own gun, at home, by them self, it is what I would
recommend to them to use. Acra-Gel does a good job as bedding, it is easy to use.
The fact that it is not runny is a big plus if you’re doing it at home on the kitchen table.
It is more forgiving for first timers and it can easily do a good job.



William Alexander

Very much agree. Also, because it is more malleable, if a novice doesn't properly fill voids with clay and/or ensure there are no edges/reverse tapered spots that would keep an action or something similar "locked" to the wood with the Gel, that "give" can/may save the day to get the object out of glass with the object only scraping some of the surface of the Accra-Glas Gel, rather than shattering the stock to get it out.

One of the very first successful two part epoxy "bedding" compounds was Micro-Bed. Marine Armorers were the first to use it on NM "unmentionable" rifles in 1958. It hasn't been made in a while and if anyone finds an unused kit, I would not recommend using it as it would most likely be long past the shelf life.

Accra Glas was developed as a slightly tougher version of Micro-Bed sometime in the 1960's. However, because it is so "sloppy," they came out with the Gel type so more home users could use it successfully.

After Micro Bed, Marine Armorers went to using Fenwal/Fenwall 2 part epoxy bedding kits, because it was tougher than Micro-Bed and was also tougher than Accra Glas Gel. However, it had to be mixed so carefully and so long and it always left so many air bubble voids; that we dropped it around 1974 when we began using Bisonite. GOOD RIDDANCE to the Fenwal/Fenwall, BTW.

I won't go further as we found and used ever better Epoxy Bedding compounds, but they don't usually apply to ML guns.

Gus