wood fillers

I am plugging away on my first longriffle and need to fix wood inperfections. This rifle was an old project from another owner.It needed a great deal of tender care. I myself am no expert at woodwork. I need to get a little help on what fillers to use for chips, screwups and fine voids around a few inlays. In the past I have used things such as super glue and wood particles from sanding. Bedding compound has also worked. Today I saw what is called plastic neutral wood filler. It can be stained according to lable. Any suggestions on what to use.

Tanks

I have found that Plastic Wood will not hold up for long and do not use it anymore.

I would NOT use plastic wood filler under any circumstance! It may be able to be stained, but will not match your stock. Best bet, maybe shave some slivers from the barrel channel and try to place them to cover the bad spots. Or, embrace the ugly and finish the gun as a well loved and abused barn gun. Others may disagree, but that is my $.02.

I remain your humble servant,

Just Dave

The ad I saw for Plastic Wood filler in neutral shows it to be the same Plastic Wood that's been sold for years.

Although the can says it is "stainable/sandable", my experience with it is that it is neither.

It is basically a mixture of cellulose, limestone, cellulose nitrate, and solvents like acetone.
http://www.dap.com/media/33556/00079201001english.pdf

IMO, in order for it to be truly stainable it should use water or alcohol as a solvent.

A number of years ago someone had used Plastic Wood to repair a 1842 Springfield I bought.

Because it couldn't be stained, it was painted brown. I should say, the pieces of it that were left on the gun was painted brown because after many years it had cracked and crumbled.

At the moment, Photobucket isn't responding but if they do I'll post a few pictures of the mess.

I also think wood sandings mixed with super glue would not be very good. The glue will encapsulate the wood and prevent any further staining.

I'm sure you already know about using water and a hot iron to make steam but that is about the best method of removing dents.
Of course, if the wood has been cut away, the steam will do nothing to fix it.

Zonie said:

I also think wood sandings mixed with super glue would not be very good. The glue will encapsulate the wood and prevent any further staining.

Click to expand...

This is absolutely correct, as well as Zonie's advice about steaming wood dents out, and I know from no small amount of experience.

If the wood is cut or broken across the grain, no amount of steaming will bring that kind of dent back up. Further, even on dents that do not cut the grain, they almost never come back up fully to the surface of the rest of the wood around the dents, though it does look better than the deeper dent before you steam them.

I have tried staining the epoxy and sawdust mix with dyes that do not affect the ability of the epoxy to properly cure. I have even tried staining the sawdust and using a more expensive epoxy that is as optically clear as possible. The problem is that it always looks like that was what was done.

What I have found best is to use a black epoxy in holes and when it is sanded down to the surface of the wood; to use a permanent black magic marker around the hole to make it look like a very dark section of wood, or stain in the wood or even a knot in the wood. Of course, the stock has to be stained toward the medium dark to darker color to really make it much less noticeable.

Now, I would not suggest doing that to cover up around bad inletting on the escutcheon plates. There it would be best to buy or make a slightly larger plate to cover the original bad inletting.

Also, if the wood chips out, it is almost always better to glue the chip back in place, as mentioned before, then try to do anything else.

Gus

PC Woody is a stainable wood epoxy that works very well, depending on the application. It can be used to repair minor dings, inletting mistakes, etc. You can also use it as a bonding adhesive.

Thin cyanoacrylate is great for repairing chip outs from carving/inletting. That is the key ingredient in common Super Glue, but don't use Super Glue. You can buy straight cyanoacrylate in various viscosity at hobby shops.

JUST tell everybody your brother in law borrowed it, and it's 'honest' damages.......... :haha:

restoration work is a art form, it can be done, and blends in well....but you will need to do some 'net research to find out the area method, wood replacement and staining to match surround wood is one chapter, dents another chapter etc etc
marc n tomtom

I have never had any luck in trying to stain a filler. Black seems to be a color that shows up on older firearms around cracks, etc. so going dark is never a bad idea. I'd finish the rifle (that is stain it before any fillers) and if there are voids, then fill them in at that point. I like superglue.

Filler looks like filler and stands out, especially on a traditional muzzleloader. I'd avoid it...

To fill inletting gaps use wood from the stock. Plane off some curls with a plane or spoke shave. Put some wax on the metal part as a release agent Pack the shavings in the gap. Put a dab or CA glue on the packed shavings. Spritz with accelerator. Sand the inlay and the stock a the same time with a sanding block to level it up. The gap is gone. Sometimes I use sanding dust and epoxy.

No commercially bought wood filler or putty has any use on any gun ever.

I did some testing with my first build of wood filler, stainable glues, putty and several other things. i tested them for sand-ability and stain-ability.

By far, the best I encountered and what I used on a goof that I made, was PC WOODY. I bought it online, as I could not find it locally.

It was recommended to me on this forum and it works GREAT on minor fixes. If anything it tends to stain darker whereas other options stain less dark and are more noticeable.

PC Woody is an epoxy. It is very easy to mix and use . . . it's kind of like toothpaste in texture.

I see that satallight city CA "hot stuff glue needs no activator. Can you give me a little more guidance on using this product. Will regular super glue work

No CA glues NEED an activator, I'm impatient. Regular supermarket super glue works the same. It's just expensive.

If a gap occurs while inletting or a piece is partially or completely separated, I use super glue. But before applying the super glue, both contact surfaces of the shim or crack or partial separation are stained and when dry, the super glue is applied to both surfaces. The super glue dissolves the stain and becomes the same color.

Using a small screwdriver or other small tool, the shim or the partially separated piece is pressed against the other surface for a couple of minutes. For a crack, I used various clamps and surgical tubing.

The shim that's glued in an inlet is oversize and is recut to fit.

The "fix" or repair is nearly invisible using the above technique.

I don't use plastic fillers or sawdust in glue, but have used colored epoxy for a gap of a few .001s if the epoxy matches the final stain color.....Fred

Fred,

Have you ever had problems with the super glue adhering when the wood is already stained? Just wondering.

Gus

Have used super glue as described and have had no problems w/ adhesion. In fact had a 1-1/2" long crack in the forestock alongside the bbl channel and chiseled a groove that was 5/32" deep X 1-3/4" long that encompassed the crack and replaced the wood using super glue as above. The "shim" was proud both on the outside and in the bbl channel and was taken down to a thickness of 1/16" which is the thickness of wood alongside the bbl on all my LRs. The repair was nearly invisible.

Also had a split in the muzzle end of a stock that went from the RR groove to the bbl channel and was 6" long from the muzzle end....came that way from the bbl inletter. The web was 5/32" and after staining and super gluing, the stock was wrapped w/ surgical tubing. Again had zero adhesion problems. Of course the stain was alcohol based.....Fred

Fred,

Thank you for that tip and in depth explanation. Really appreciate it.

Gus

When you need to fill wood fill with wood. Except for tiny little place then stain first and use super glue extra thick. There is no such thing as stainable glue even if it says so on the label. They lie.