This one is going to test me

Ranger I hope you didn’t notice the 3D spacer

Do you think the color is pretty close to original? I wish I would have used it on the last stock I did

Nice job! In this case you had a lot of gluing surface. May be the problem with your other forearm is there is nothing to glue on? The two wood surface you try to glue are not matching any more or are to brittle or the "wall” is to thin? The color is very nice. Is it a filler or a stain your are using to color the wood?

It is a filler that Art sells but it also is a stain all in one. I couldn’t find much info on it so I ordered the filler so I could try it. He also sells a stain in the same color. This is nice for filling the pores.

Being new to the A5 world i'm seeing more of this sort of problem on the stocks, especially the forearm. How common is this? Perhaps a difficult question to answer. I imagine the action has alot to do with it. I've been wanting to take one out but i'm a little reluctant to say the least.

Very common

Go and shoot your Auto-5. Every once in a while at the range, retract the barrel a little and tighten the magazine cap.

Also, Randy Wakeman advises shooters to float their barrels. By this he means that the wood should not contact the barrel at any point. Insert a dollar bill between the barrel and forearm and slide it down towards the receiver. Any point at which resistance is felt should be lightly sanded.

Thanks for the tips. I really want to take this out and shoot it.

I am at a crossroads. The stock has been soaking for 24 hours and the gorilla glue is still in the joint.

I am not sure how to proceed. I am thinking about epoxying the crack and fiberglassing the inside for reinforcement.

I’m not an expert like Biz. But Art told me last year that he doesn’t like Gorilla Glue. If I remember correctly, it’s because it expands the joint. He uses Superglue. I was surprised.

You are correct he does use super glue. I used it on a different stock and it does work. I still think Titebond is the best. If anything I learned something and I hope others will from this. Now to figure out a fix

Unfortunately I am not an expert. I am just a simple small business owner that, among other challenges I face, want to make sure that I don’t have to deal with claims because of failed product. Therefore, I make sure to control all the parameters that will lead to a perfect glued laminated panel. The only reason I can think of a wood joint expanding using polyurethane it is because no pressure is applied on the pieces of wood being glued.

Regarding Justin’s forearm, the discussion of the failed joint has been on the type of glue. I believe the focus should be on the wood surface preparation prior to the gluing. Someone, can easily imagine that the two pieces of wood that were part of the forearm that have been rubbing together for several years have now little surface contact left between them or at the best, loose wood fiber. It might help to try to "square" the two pieces to be glued. Or simply the damage is such that the forearm can not be salvaged. I hope to learn me to from this forearm adventure.


Here are some pics to illustrate my observation.


Two glued pieces of walnut, the left is glued with poly, the right with P.V.A. glue "Titebond III"




The same glued pieces after being sanded, you can’t see the glue line and the joint glued with the polyurethane did not expand.




The top two pieces show before gluing and the bottom pieces show what two pieces from a forearm that have been cracked and rubbing together may look like.

Great post Marc. I think you are right about not enough surface area. I was able to get the glue out and that seam has very poor contact. In the process I ruined the other joint as well. I did a lot of research today and for gap filling wood that is edge glued they say the best is JB weld or Titebond Quick and Thick. May try the JB Weld with a little walnut sawdust mixed in.

I have repaired some pretty gnarly-bad cracks---all with TiteBond, and have yet to have a failure--knock on wood. (See what I did there?....)

I am certain some of the cracks I fixed had developed in some cases decades earlier, and had ample exposure to oils, dirt, snow, etc. I cannot say for sure if my success ( so far) has been due to my preparation or choice of glue. I am really leaning towards what Biz said--preparation is the key. My logic would be the best glue made can only be good IF it can stick to what you want to fix!

Prep was good, trust me. I was struggling with clamping until I tried your tourniquet style with a piece of round stock. While I was cleaning out the failed glue it’s obvious there’s not enough material to have good contact. Imagine trying to glue the long edge of two boards that have been ripped at a 60 degree angle. I think it would have been fine had I not squeezed to tight with my rope. That allowed the top to squeeze together blowing out the side.

I should have glued all three cracks at the same time. But that’s a lot going on at once.