Glass Bedding Question

I

Idlechater

New member
I am glass bedding my M77 Tang Safety Ruger. The instructions that came with the kit show that you are to relieve the wood around the hole for the lug bolt. I assume this is so no fiberglass will get into the hole.

The problem that I have is that on the M77, the bolt hole is cut at an angle and goes directly into the lug. Thus, there is no way to cut wood around this hole to keep the fiberglass from covering the hole. How have you experts handled this before?

Also, the threaded hole in the lug will fill with fiberglass when I put it into the fiberglass filled lug cut-out in the stock. How have you kept this hole clean of fiberglass?

Thanks.
 
glass bedding

Dear Sir:
I see what you're saying and it is difficult to keep the compound out of the screw holes. Now, as to the bolt "lug" you shouldn't try to bed the bolt handle! If you're talking about a hole in the action plug it with clay or plastic wood which can be removed later.
What I do about the screw holes is to put an inletting screw up through the stock and slide the action down and immediately put the screw in - be sure to use release agent on everything.
Frankly, and there will certainly be differences in opinion here, I only glass bed the recoil lug of the action area! Once this is secure (this screw goes in at an angle so just be careful not to load this area too full of compound - you can always refine that later) I find that seldom, if good walnut, or laminations, are used the rear tang seldom bothers you. However, if yo just use a sparing amount around the rear hole that's O.K.
I hope this helps - Ruger 77s' surely need a bedding job in the recoil lug area!
Harry B.:)
 
Harry:

I appreciate your response.

I am not referring to a "bolt lug". I am referring to the protrusion on the underside of the action that is intended to keep the action from moving front to back. I think this is the "recoil lug".

In the M77, there is a bolt (think of a machine threaded screw) that comes from the underside of the stock, through the stock and into this lug. Thus, the hole is essentially at the bottom of the stock cut out where the recoil lug fits. Thus, if you put any fiberglass into the lug cut out, you will cover this hole.

Now, it would be possible for me to plug this hole, and the one in the lug where the machine screw attacheds the action to the stock. In doing so, however, I will not be able to ensure that the action is fitting into the stock the same as it will when all of the action screws are tightened.

Alternatively, I could put release agent in the threaded hole in the recoil lug, plug the action screw hole, fill with fiberglass, set the action in the stock, turn the stock over briefly, remove the putty in the hole, insert and tighten the action screw, and then turn the stock and action back over and allow it all to set. The bedding kit I bought allows you to thicken the fiberglass, so maybe I can get it thick enough that it would not run at all when turned upside down to put the action screw in. My concern in doing it this way is that there will be fiberglass in the screw hole in the lug. When I put the screw in it, I am worried that the release agent will get scraped off while tightening the screw - resulting in it being fiberglassed into the threaded hole. UGH!!!!

I'm sure someone has done an older M77 before... Help!
 
The recoil lug needs to be bedded. You make the slot a bit bigger so there's room for the bedding and the lug. No need for release agent inside the action screw holes. The screw will keep the bedding material out. Release agent on the screw though. Any part that isn't in the threaded hole.
 
T O'Heir:

I appreciate the reply. So you do not believe that I have to worry that fiberglass will be pressed into the threaded hole in the recoil lug when I first press the action into the stock. You feel that when the action screw is threaded into the lug, it will displace all of the fiberglass and will not result in the action screw being locked into the hole in the lug. Am I corrrect?

The instructions indicate that I am not to fully tighten the action screw, thus there will still be a chance of fiberglass remaining in the end of the hole, and then when I do go to fully tighten the screw, it will be blocked by the fiberglass "plug". Is this a concern?
 
Gotcha! Two things are normally done here: First, the simple solution. Check the threads on the stock screw (the machine screw that goes into the recoil lug). It should be a common thread, but may well be the fine thread rather than the standard coarse thread (UNF instead of UNC). If you don't have a thread gauge, call Ruger and ask what it is? Next, find a good hardware that has such things in its small drawers, and get a bolt with the same thread pitch, but an inch longer than the stock screw you have now. Take a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel and cut the head off. If you are ambitious and are using one of the thick Dremel cutoff wheels, you can also put a screwdriver slot where the head was. If not, you are going to turn this screw with pliers.

Screw the headless wonder into the recoil lug. Apply your release agent to the action and to the headless screw and to the original stock screw. Take about a quarter of a teaspoon of modeling clay and roll it out into a thin string. Pack the clay string around the headless screw where it enters the recoil lug.

Take a piece of wax paper and wrap it around the screw a couple of times to form a straw. Pull the straw off and put it in the screw hole. Apply your bedding around it. Put the the action into the stock by starting the headless screw into the straw and just pushing down. Pull the straw out from the bottom so it stays just ahead of the clay. Chase it into the hole with the headless screw, and push the action into place in the bedding. Slip a couple of large rubber bands over the barrel and around the stock to hold the two in place. Stretching and tying a piece of 1/4" rubber surgical tubing around the two is a common technique. You may be able to get a few feet from your pharmacist or your doctor. Brownells carries it for this purpose, if I recall correctly? Strips of rubber exercise bands from Walmart will work, too.

Unscrew the headless screw without moving the action in the stock (the rubber should take care of this). Run your original stock screw up in and tighten it finger tight only. Wait out the set time for release, and pull the action and clean up the bedding. Trim it and let it harden per instructions.

You only really need to open the stock hole if you are going to put a pillar in. This is just an aluminum or stainless sleeve that goes around the screw to act as both a tubular washer and spacer. The pillar is epoxied in place in the wood. The bottom end of it is flush with the stock exterior, and the top sticks up as much as needed to raise the barrel clear of the barrel channel in the stock so the barrel floats when the recoil lug rests on the pillar. When you tighten the stock screw the pillar is what is squeezed between the screw and recoil lug so you aren't compressing wood, which isn't stable over the long haul. The bedding is applied after the pillar is in place or at the same time so the bedding is what glues the pillar in place.

If you are willing to compress wood, but still want the extra space to float the barrel, put a washer of the right thickness (try the fit without bedding) over the straw before insterting the headless screw.

My assumption in all the above is that you have inletted the stock to give the bedding room and something to grab, as well as making room for washers and whatnot. You can get most of the squeezed clay out when you pull the action from the bedding, but if you don't it won't hurt anything. The rubber bands will squish it out.

Nick
 
Uncle Nick:

PERFECT!!!!!

Excellent explaination and one that I will be able to accomplish...

I definately appreciate it...
 
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