Severely cracked wrist, better to break it all the way?

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  • tallen702

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 3, 2012
    5,102
    In the boonies of MoCo
    I have a recent acquisition that came with a wrist that is nearly snapped in two. It's literally hanging on by less than 1/4" of solid wood on the left side. It's cracked all the way through to the center hollow of the wrist (it's an Anson & Deeley style box-lock). just ahead of the rear screw that holds the trigger plate and guard to the tang. It'll be difficult to get into from the outside without breaking the wrist completely, and virtually impossible to drill and pin accurately without going in through the outside as well.

    I have some brass 3/32 stock repair pins on their way along with acraglas for repairs. I feel like it would actually be better just to break the stock the whole way through and join the two halves back together again so I have easy access to pin and epoxy the compromised area instead of trying to work around it.

    It's a pre-WWII French SxS for what it's worth, so nothing insane value-wise.

    Any thoughts?
     

    dannyp

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 30, 2018
    1,464
    my brother had a 10 ga sxs that broke exactly like that , gunsmith did the same thing , finished it off , pinned and expoxied it . my great nephew still shoots it with 3 1/2 full power loads thirty years later . you can see the expoxy line but it is a solid repair .
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    I went back and looked at the pictures in the other thread. Without having the parts in hand.
    I wouldn't break it off and here's why. First off any checkering that is alignment now, will not be when done. Or at the very least broke out some on either side of the crack. You don't want to have to make up for loss of wood.

    What I would try to do, is insert the repair nails through the in- letting that's already done at the top tang and then from below the trigger guard so you cant see them when done. Snip them off with end cutters then make the excess of with a dremel or small files.

    Make a clamp arrangement that draws the crack together till its just a hairline, drill and flood with glass the screw in the nails with a battery operated drill. You can use a tap handle too if yo have one small enough or.... and old school hand turned drill.

    You can also grind the front of the nails to a point and then just run them in, but rarely if ever at all will they draw a crack together so its hard to see.
    You have to clamp it together first.

    Another way to do it is to get some hardwood dowels, drill right through the damaged area, make them off and then re-checker with a veiner or very small sharp chisel to match. A checkering file will do it as well. Just be careful to not don't blow out/chip the side wall of the stock when drilling through.

    Use black dye in the acra, its best for hiding cracks. I like to use the gel. Something else that comes in handy for making repair nails is to go to a hobby shop that has R/c airplanes etc. Look for very small steel rods that are used to control the flaps rudder etc.

    To get glue, epoxy, glass etc all the way through a hole make sure to have a relief at the end. Use a small dowel to force epoxy all the way through the repair like a hydraulic piston, then insert the repair screw.
    Make sure to select the right bit and practice on scrap so another crack doesn't develop. I would also dry run/practice the clamping rigging before starting.
    Sometime you can blow acra glas or glue into a crack with a few well directed blasts from an air compressor then clamp. (good for non load bearing unobtrusive repairs) Make sure to irrigate the area with a solvent to get oil out of there. Hot boiling water works too.

    Good luck -have fun, nothing like doing it yourself and winding up with a nice job.
     

    tallen702

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 3, 2012
    5,102
    In the boonies of MoCo
    Thanks for the advice Doco,

    The conundrum seems to have resolved itself though. The pressure of the rear of the trigger plate and the top of the tang is all that was holding it together. The moment I released that tension to get the stock out, it popped in two. The good news is that dry-fitting back together makes the break invisible when pressure is applied. I'm going to build a jig to apply even pressure from the front to the butt along the longitudinal axis to ensure that any gap is minimized if not invisible.

    The repair pins I have coming from Brownell's are fluted to allow the epoxy to flow and grab hold as well as to make sure air can escape as the pins are pushed in place. I'll need to figure out the best way to figure out exactly where to drill on both halves so the stock lines up properly with the pins inserted. I think if I drill a blind hole for each pin on one half, and then put a dowel almost flush with marking compound on the exposed end in the holes, I can then push the two halves together and get a proper mark on the other half so I know exactly where to drill.

    I'm going to have to draw some oil out of the wrist to make sure the epoxy bonds to the wood. It's soaked pretty well from years of use and handling.
     

    slsc98

    Ultimate Member
    May 24, 2012
    6,746
    Escaped MD-stan to WNC Smokies
    Faced with a rifle stock that had a hairline crack in the forearm and which I couldn’t “finish off” I remember obtaining and using an epoxy that was chemically designed to “wick” as deeply as possible into cracked wood ... it was so long ago I can’t remember if I got if from Brownells or a cabinetmakers supply but, I’d inquire of Brownells were I you as, I do remember IT REALLY WORKED!
     

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