Release agent for glass bedding??

Thin is what appealed to me about wax. Crucially it must be buffed after being applied. In the past I had used a carnuba wax, but that can had long ago dried up so I tried the paste wax. My fears of a "glue-in" were completely unfounded. Only one layer was enough for the Devcon Aluminum Putty to not stick to the action.

With only 4 bedding jobs ever I'm far from being a qualified bedding expert, but with almost 50 years of designing, building, and repairing mechanical equipment ranging from farm implements to optical equipment and more importantly studying and analyzing why 'this' design succeeded when 'that' design failed, coupled with an Engineering education, I like to think that my experience matters.

In one of the replies they said to thin the blue release agent using alcohol . I have some extra so I think that I will try thinning it and applying it to a barrel in an easy to clean spot to see how it coats it then see how it works to release bedding material

I confess that I did not read the entire 5 pages of responses although I did read the first page completely.

Paste wax by name or the fact that it's neutral in color has always worked for me on individual projects when I'm bedding 1 or 2 rifles a week. Let it dry then buff lightly with a paper towel or even some highly technological cloth if you think that's required.

When we were building a dozen or more rifles a week we used:

Parfilm Ultra 4

https://www.westcoastplastics.com/HTML/PD-Epoxy-Parfilm-4.php

After over a thousand rifle and a period of years, we never suffered a failure, at all, ever.

I wonder if that is what the Brownell's release agent 'really' is? This is a much more economical alternative ($12 per can vs. $32 per can.) The website does state "Two can minimum order" but that's still $24 vs $32. Thanks Sable Tireur!

I thinned the blue release agent with alcohol and applied it with a cotton swab it went on thin and even , dried well . I applied 3 coats it was still thin then I mixed up some bedding material and put the two together and let it set up . Then I separated the two without any problems ended up with a nice smooth surface on the bedding . The barrel metal cleaned up easily with a paper towel and alcohol . The wax also worked well almost as easy to clean up I suspect that if you wanted you could leave the wax on .

I've debated using the wax on blued rifles instead of oil. For anti-rust, not lubrication. Although..... I do use this stuff on all sorts of things that aren't M/C chains: https://www.maximausa.com/product/chain-wax/ Like door hinges, hood hinges, gate hinges, exterior latches, etc., etc., etc.
Suspect that it would NOT be a good bolt action firing pin lubricant.

I have a bedding question. When you put the barreled action back in the stock, is it best to fully tighten the screws, or do you just snug them up a little?

What would be the best thing to fill up the little compartments on this stock? I want to stiffen the forend on my boat paddle stock, and bed, and float the barrel.

Seems like there would be an article or series of articles already that would address your questions, but the search function doesn't seem to find much of anything.

Overkill338 said:

I have a bedding question. When you put the barreled action back in the stock, is it best to fully tighten the screws, or do you just snug them up a little?

What would be the best thing to fill up the little compartments on this stock? I want to stiffen the forend on my boat paddle stock, and bed, and float the barrel.

Click to expand...

ntsqd said:

Seems like there would be an article or series of articles already that would address your questions, but the search function doesn't seem to find much of anything.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I tried it too. No dice

Overkill338 said:

I have a bedding question. When you put the barreled action back in the stock, is it best to fully tighten the screws, or do you just snug them up a little?

What would be the best thing to fill up the little compartments on this stock? I want to stiffen the forend on my boat paddle stock, and bed, and float the barrel.

Click to expand...

To stiffen these flimsy Tupperware stocks is not all that easy. Best solution I have found is to replace them with a quality stock, even a B&C or Boyds is a huge improvement. You can however take a long shaft drill, drill two holes from the top of the forearm to just before the recoil lug, insert two carbon arrow shafts. Devcon these in place, filling the voids. This will add a fair amount of weight but it will stiffen the forearm up a whole bunch. I tried filling the voids with light open cell foam and then Bedding the full channel and a number of other solutions. Anything that preserves the lighter weight doesn't really stiffen the stock much.

Dean2 said:

To stiffen these flimsy Tupperware stocks is not all that easy. Best solution I have found is to replace them with a quality stock, even a B&C or Boyds is a huge improvement. You can however take a long shaft drill, drill two holes from the top of the forearm to just before the recoil lug, insert two carbon arrow shafts. Devcon these in place, filling the voids. This will add a fair amount of weight but it will stiffen the forearm up a whole bunch. I tried filling the voids with light open cell foam and then Bedding the full channel and a number of other solutions. Anything that preserves the lighter weight doesn't really stiffen the stock much.

Click to expand...

I used to have a Hogue stock on this rifle before I sold it to my uncle. Thinking about getting a Hogue with the full block. I like the feel, and it makes a .300 feel like a 308.

Overkill338 said:

I have a bedding question. When you put the barreled action back in the stock, is it best to fully tighten the screws, or do you just snug them up a little?

What would be the best thing to fill up the little compartments on this stock? I want to stiffen the forend on my boat paddle stock, and bed, and float the barrel.

Click to expand...

I would not tighten them up at all. If you put to much pressure you can warp the action and that would defeat the purpose of glass bedding. I would either just get it snug. Another way I like to do it is to used studs and just use rubber bands to hold the action in place or tape. That way you are sure not to over tighten it.

As for filling the forarm, I plan on just using Epoxy in mine.

To hold the action into the stock while the glass-bedding sets up, the thing to do is wrap surgical tubing (that round, rubber tubing you get to do 'home exercises with from PT) around the action and stock to hold everything snug. I'm always afraid if I put the action screws in, one of them is going to get epoxied in place and never come back out. Just takes a bit of 'oozing' and, "Houston, we have a problem."

This last job I pillar bedded. I set the pillars first as they set the height of the action in the stock. For that I tightened the action screws without the bottom metal in place. So they were tight to the bottom of the action and I clamped the action into the stock while the pillar epoxy was setting up.

Then I relieved around the pillars to bed the recoil lug etc.