butt plate repair
 

What is the best epoxy to use to fill in a 3/8 x 1/4 chunk on the butt plate toe ?
kurt

Acra-glass I've heard.





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And epoxy will do really. Color it black.

Acriglass is a thin 24 hr epoxy. Which can be tricky to work with if you are needing to repair a large missing piece vs just glue two pieces together.

A faster acting gel epoxy may serve you better depending on what is needing to be done.

I have always used J&B for buttplates. It is pretty thick and a grey color that can be blended with epoxy pigment powder to match the color. It seems to match the texture of the old plates pretty well. If you want it really thick and nonslumping, blend in some microspheres that the boat builders use to make nonrunning epoxy glues.

Cold Spring (Frank Srebro) posted a thread with photos on repairing a butt plate with a broken missing piece. If you search on here you should find it.

I have used Acraglas Gel, dyed black, to fill a chunk missing from a Lefever butt plate. After shaping and finishing, the repair is undetectable. The colors blended perfectly. The gel gives you a bit more time to work with it. Good Luck!

I used black epoxy to repair a chunk missing from a recoil pad base plate. Ordered it already black from Amazon I think.

Actually Mike it was in the Spring/Summer Fox Newsletter. I use Acraglas liquid, dyed black, and with pieces of small brads (nails) to tie the repair into the broken section of the buttplate.

One other thing I didn't mention was that I have done several chipped off heel and toe sections. I carefully waxed the wood right up to the butt plate, then wrapped several layers of wide masking tape around the bottom or top of the stock as needed. Keep it perfectly level on the stock and use enough layers to form a relatively stiff form. Then fill the form to the proper level, using a tooth pick or similar to completely fill it. When dry, romove the tape and put masking tape around the stock wood for protection. Then sand the toe or heel to shape and sand/polish the new section (or the whole thing if needed) with progressively finer paper, down to 1200 or so. A final polish and a coat of TruOil if desired, and you should have a restored original.