Repairing gun stocks without refinishing?

[BogWalker]

I've got several recent purchases that have cracked stocks. I'm wanting to repair them, but just about every repair guide calls for stripping and refinishing the stock due to the oils in the finish messing with the glues.

I'm rather against refinishing older firearms.

I've heard that some cyanoacrylic glues can be used for repair without stripping the stock. Any experience with this? Is this method compatible with the use of dowel rods/brass pins?

 

[hrearden]

Never had a problem with Titebond Liquid Hide in the dark brown bottle or Hot Stuff or Acraglass. Hot Stuff sets faster than super glue while the other 2 will take several hours. Whether or not this is possible to do properly will depend on the type and degree of repair it is.

 

[halfmileharry]

I have a couple of old guns I've repaired the stocks on with TiteBond II. I carefully separated the wood, put a generous amount of the glue in the crack, squeezed together, wiped off excess glue, and clamped overnight. They're holding fine.
I've used this glue to make a boat transom with sandwiched 1" marine plywood. I've been running an old 90 inline 6 Merc for 5 years with no transom stress showing at all.

 

[BogWalker]

Just the answers I was hoping to hear. I had never heard of TiteBond, but it sounds like good stuff.

Thanks for the answers. Glad I'm not going to have to strip the finish of these.

 

[calcot7]

You might also try using a hypodermic needle or compressed air to inject the crack with the glue before clamping to ensure total glue infiltration.

 

[DougO]

Titebond is great, use it all the time at work to repair wooden items as well as when we make shelves etc. You will find it just about anywhere.

 

[Savage99]

Just make sure not to clamp too hard and push all of the glue back out of the joint you are trying to repair. Been there, done that.

 

[Hoosier8]

I've got several recent purchases that have cracked stocks. I'm wanting to repair them, but just about every repair guide calls for stripping and refinishing the stock due to the oils in the finish messing with the glues.

I'm rather against refinishing older firearms.

I've heard that some cyanoacrylic glues can be used for repair without stripping the stock. Any experience with this? Is this method compatible with the use of dowel rods/brass pins?

Don't use glue, use epoxy.

I repaired a cracked stock without refinishing the stock. It had a stress crack that could not be closed by clamping so I used a sliver of wood to fill the opening of the crack but the important thing was to drill a long hole behind the crack and epoxy in a dowel rod to support the stock from cracking more.

Drill behind the crack and along the back of the opening if you can. The hole creates a large area for stress to disperse and the dowel creates a strong bond. Acraglass is the epoxy of choice. Use a slightly smaller dowel wrapped in fiberglass and epoxy that into the hole.

By using the epoxy/dowel method it will as strong or stronger than the original. If you still have a crack you can then fill it with a colored filler to match the stock.