Cracked Stock

**gnoahhh** · 04-05-2015, 01:27

Fret not, it can be fixed. If it is a recent development oil may not have infiltrated the whole depth and length of the crack. Pry it open as far as you dare and blow it out with compressed air. Use a syringe and inject acetone and blow it out again. Do whatever you need to do to keep the acetone off of the surrounding finish- mask right up to the crack and use plastic wrap on the rest of the wood to absolutely keep the acetone off. After the acetone evaporates out (a few minutes) use the same syringe to inject clear un-thickened epoxy down in as far as you can get it. Another trick is to warm the wood first as that promotes the epoxy to wick into the depths. Un-pry the wood (let it spring shut), carefully wipe away any squeeze out, clamp the crack tightly shut with whatever means is at your disposal. (Heavy duty rubber bands such as one can fashion from bicycle inner tubes work great.) Clean away the squeeze out that clamping will induce. Let cure overnight. Remove clamp. If any squeeze out of hardened epoxy has manifested itself (and it probably will), carefully knock it back with a razor sharp tool of your choosing, and lightly, lightly dodge it with 320-600x paper (re-masking the repair area at this point is a good idea). Remove masking tape, slather it up with linseed oil, and I'll bet your friends will never know it's there. It'll stay shut longer than you will be around to care about it.

**psteinmayer** · 04-05-2015, 04:40

There is definitely oil in the crack, so I'll need to clean it out... but this advice is exactly what I was hoping for. The crack may have been there for a little while, but this is the first I have noticed it! Either way, I'll get it fixed. As I said on another forum, I intend on continuing to shoot this Krag for a long time to come.

**jon_norstog** · 04-05-2015, 06:39

Good luck there, P. No way should you get a new stock if this one was treating you right at the range. I can't add anything to Gnoahh's advice, except maybe Gorilla Glue as an option as opposed to epoxy.

jn

**gnoahhh** · 04-06-2015, 07:47

I frown on Gorilla Glue, especially in an instance like this. Too difficult to get it worked down into the depths of the crack, plus it depends on water moisture for curing and I wouldn't infuse water down in there either.

**madsenshooter** · 04-06-2015, 08:52

No Gorrilla Glue! It expands as it dries. Best to drill down from inside the receiver and pump epoxy out. One of my 92/96 rifles has similar cracks that I've been keeping an eye on. I'll have to stabilize them eventually.

**StockDoc** · 04-06-2015, 09:56

Acra Glas and Dental picks to work it down into the crack. I suggest using Brake cleaner (aerosol) to clean out the crack, Or solvent in a airbrush to clean out the crack. Let it dry overnight, then apply epoxy.

**dave** · 04-06-2015, 10:29

I doubt any of the methods mentioned to clean oil out of crack will be enough if it is soaked into the wood. And if it is the epoxy will not stick. Acra Glass is an epoxy

**gnoahhh** · 04-06-2015, 01:18

Maybe, maybe not. Nothing beats a try but a failure. Actually I've been kind of amazed at how well epoxy will bond to some rather spurious wood. I glued a bunch of cracks in an oil soaked Mauser stock 15 years ago and they're still holding tight. Ditto the tang cracks in a couple of hundred year old oil soaked Savage M1899 stocks. My experience with epoxy came mainly in the marine industry- I can't tell you how many 50 gallon drums of the stuff I went through- and some pretty shady looking old teak bonded quite well on numerous occasions. The oil probably hasn't soaked so far down into the depths of this gentleman's crack (geez, that didn't sound right!) so as to obviate a decent bond.

**psteinmayer** · 04-06-2015, 02:57

The oil is most likely just near the edge. I'd imagine that its from my wiping the stock down when I clean it. Hopefully, it's not too deep. I picked up some acetone today, as well as a couple cans of compressed air to help dry it out. I have some auto-mix epoxy with a 20 minute set/24 hour cure. If there is a better epoxy to use.... please let me know. I'll work on it this weekend!

**Jim in Salt Lake** · 04-06-2015, 04:24

I would stick with the slower cure epoxy you've got, that will give you plenty of working time to carefully get it down in the cracks. I've fixed a lot of cracked wood, mostly furniture, and saved the finish with the advice gnoahhh gave you. Once you've got the glue it, you've got all the time in the world to let it cure. The five minute glue doesn't give you much working time before it starts to set up. And I'd give it more than 24 hours to cure. When you clamp it, it's not necessary to clamp with high pressure, epoxy fills tiny gaps very well and will work better. Patience is the key with a repair like this. Plan out what you're going to do, work your plan, then let the glue cure for a couple of days without dinking with it. I'd only wipe off the initial squeeze out and you can scrape off any additional squeeze out with a sharp tool or scraper as gnoahhh said.

**gnoahhh** · 04-07-2015, 05:44

An industry rep told me "most epoxy resin comes out of the same spigot, it's the proprietary hardeners that make the difference." General rule of thumb, the longer the set time the stronger the epoxy. 5-minute has its place, but not here IMO. Unless I'm working with West System Tropical grade, I unclamp in 5-10 hours but don't put stress on the joint for 24 hours (that gives me a head start on sanding- a moot point in the Krag situation).

You can use some of that bottled compressed air to blow epoxy down into the crack as well as blow flotsam and jetsam out. Don't be afraid to pry that crack open as far as you dare- it's more important to give yourself plenty of work space than to fret about making the crack a little worse.

**StockDoc** · 04-07-2015, 08:42

Use a popsicle stick that has been cut with a scarf on one end, then use that to hold the crack open.

**psteinmayer** · 04-07-2015, 02:45

Ok... I've made a couple small wooden wedges to hold the crack open. The most I could get the crack opened is to approximately 0.02 in., so I'm glad it's not too bad. I used an insulin syringe to inject acetone into the cracked areas, and used compressed air (from a computer cleaning can) to aid in the drying. I'm going to allow it to sit for 24 hours, and then repeat this.

I'm then going to carefully drill a small hole (about 0.1 in.) on each side of the stock from the magazine well rearward along the crack about 1/4 inch from the sides of the stock and 1 in. long. This will allow me to be able to inject epoxy into the cracked area which should spread throughout the crack. I'll clamp it and let it cure for a while.

After the epoxy cures for a few days, I'm going to drill two holes - between the trigger slot and each trigger guard screw, and epoxy a hard wood dowel in each hole, which should provide added strength to the repair. The dowels will be carefully measured so as to not touch the action in any way, so I don't violate any CMP rules.

I'll photo-document the entire repair and share with everyone as I go.

**gnoahhh** · 04-08-2015, 08:17

Sounds like you're getting it licked. I wouldn't bother with the two dowels though. The bond of the epoxy repair will be stronger than the wood surrounding it, making the addition of dowels superfluous IMO. Good luck! Keep us posted.

Cracked Stock

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