Gunny USMC is a gunstock repair guru this is what he said about glues recently:
For repairs I us Acraglas or Devcon Clear 2 Ton epoxy with 30 minute set time.
Gun stocks are subjected to heavy and violent recoil. Wood glue and some epoxies don’t hold up. The fast set epoxies dry to hard and are just a little to brittle for stock repairs.
You are correct that wood glue is not for filling gaps. This is because wood glue sticks to things very good, but it doesn’t stick to itself very well. Wood glue is just bad Ju Ju when it comes to stock repairs.
Epoxy sticks to surfaces very well, but will also stick to itself. As long as the gap or void is not to big, on filler is needed. But when filling areas such as when glass bedding a fiberglass flex is needed to add strength to it.
Acraglas and Devcon are impervious to oils and solvents once they have cured, wood gules are not. And we all know that gun stocks get exposed to oils and solvents all the time.
Old military stocks are pretty much soaked with oil, some more the others. It’s important to clean the oil from the repair area so that the epoxy will adhere. As time goes by the oil will work it’s way back into the area and the epoxy will hold. With wood glue, the oil will start to break down it’s hold on the wood.
I’m doing a repair right now that wood glue was used on. I will end up spending more time removing the old glue then it will take me to do the repair itself.
On wood working project, other then stocks, that have gaps, epoxies work great. I have a 9” Cypress bowl blank that has a large crack that runs across it. I’m using epoxy to fill the crack before I turn it.
CA glue dries to brittle for stock repairs, but is great for wood working projects. Sanding dust can be added into cracks and voids and then a thin CA glue used to make it solid. I prefer Star Bond CA glues.
I hope that this answers your questions.
Bull
