making wood filler

[thecapgunkid]

Nope. Did not get the tang inletted without a small gap. OK, OK so maybe it's a medium gap... :cursing:

The only advice I ever heard about getting wood filler ( 'cause I don't pay a lot of attention to this, being a shoemaker) is to mix wood dust with the stain to be used and then a wood glue to make a paste.

Not a lot to go on when everything else about the rifle project is pleasing.

Any proportions advice? Filler content advice? The stain is going to be a Fiebings dark brown. Please use the falling down laughing icon for sarcasm so I can pick it off and go to the good advice. :rotf: I already got hammered when asking about swamping the corners of a barrel rather than the flats

By the way, I used a piece of scrap wood to learn how to whisker, and found that using alcohol ( per forum post advice) works even better when you add some of the dye to color it. You only need a couple of three dunks with an alcohol based dye soaked applicator into an alcohol bottle and it will pick up and scratches in the wood you can't other wise see.

 

[Birddog6]

First of all.......Few can fix a gap & you not see it. :idunno: Reasons
are grain dif, not a straight cut, etc.

IF you use a sliver to repair it it is important first you make a wedge
to hold it in, or you will have a glue joint gap. So it will be obvious
unless you stain it almost black.

The Elmers Stainable Wood Glue & sawdust will work, but usually
it will show as well, as it will have end fibers & stain darker than the
other wood. If you go this route, wet the wood where the glue is going
first, mix the sawdust & glue into a wet paste just stiff enough it will
stay put, but yet have plenty of wood in it. If it is too dry it will just
break off when you sand it or try to re-inlet the tang.

However, if your cut IS straight where the gap is, I would go with the sliver.
And again, I would wedge it in snug. Have used the tang for the wedge before
to fix them, but must have a release agent on the tang so it don't pull the sliver
when ya take it out.

Grain flow matching is very important to make a hidden repair.

Keith Lisle

PS: If you go with the paste, mix some & test it on some scrap til ya achieve
something you can work with.

PSS: Your small & my small may be two dif sizes. If it is really small,
let it go. If it is at the End of the tang,you need a slight gap there.

 

[Artificer]

Keith's post above is GREAT!!

I would only add two very minor things.

The first is to use a FINE file on a piece of the same wood as the stock and collect the filings on a piece of paper, if you make up your own wood glue paste. Mix that with a good strong CLEAR epoxy. This gives you almost a powder of wood that offers more surface area to the glue and sticks together better.

If you do use the glue/wood paste, stain it a little darker than the wood around it. It doesn't show up as much as when you try to get an exact match or worse, if the glue mix is lighter than the wood around it. Staining it black, like Keith mentioned, often hides it even better, though, if the gap is not too much.

Gus

 

[ZUG]

My "success" with filling gaps or gluing back in "chip-outs" has not been very good. I had a small chip-out on a finished rifle in the area of the lock nose and tried to glue it back with CA water thin glue but it showed up being very noticable . I've also had an enlarged trigger plate that had about a .025" gap on one side and tried to Elmer's wood glue a thin strip of wood to fill the gap. The gap got filled OK but the glue line did show :surrender: . For me I just lived with the blemish. I guess in "hind sight" I should have practiced on some scrap wood first to get my technique down before I tackled the real job :hmm:

 

[Tinker2]

hotoSmile:



Gap?

 

[Tinker2]

I won’t use sawdust filler but that was your question.
Birddogs answer is as good as I have seen on the forum.


:hatsoff: To Birddog6




William Alexander

 

[Birddog6]

Something that should be mentioned...... :idunno:

If you use a epoxy or some glues like SuperGue, bear in mind the glue
will not take stain. Thus if using this type of glue, you need to tint
the glue or stain the wood fibers Prior to gluing, as you may very
well see the repair otherwise.

That is why I use the Stainable Elmers & it has worked well for me. When
I am carving a rifle, a very curly piece of wood will have a tendency to
chip out at times, & I immediately glue that chip back in with Elmers Stainable
Wood Glue & clamp it down. After I have sanded & stained the rifle you cannot
find the chip I glued in.

Keith Lisle

 

[ohio ramrod]

When mixing fine wood dust with glue for a filler you need the old hide glue (or some newer glue like it). Most wood glues will not stain :hmm:

 

[thecapgunkid]

Thanks Birddog, Gus and everybody else.

I ended up using both a sliver and sawdust. I messed up the tang, so the sawdust worked there. I dunno what I was thinking, but I bevelled the inlet too wide. The answer will be in the sawdust and an ivory ( piano key) inlay for decoration and to cover it up..

The pre inlet stock on my new Pecatonica Jaeger left a gap behind the pan where the wood meets it, so a sliver was necessary.

I don't have any pics yet, but I will post on the sawdust when I can get my camera working.

 

[crockett]

As others have said- I've try all methods including gluing in a similar strip of wood- they all show. There has been some talk about peen hammering the tang to stretch it out. How well does that work? If the gap was excessive would it be better to epoxy glue/solder a slip of metal at the back of the tang and brown/blue it?
Could some soft wire be tamped down into the gap? Left to brown?

 

[Eterry]

You beat me to the punch, I was going to say that I've read and heard of peening the tang on an anvil to cover a gap. I've never done it nor seen it done, maybe someone can chime in that has.

Eterry

 

[Birddog6]

IMHO, if he has trouble inletting a tang, he has no business trying to Peen a tang out & make it fit... :idunno: Just gonna get into more mess. Best to live & learn & go on....... If you want to Peen something, get some Key Stock & peen that & learn to make things fit..... not on the rifle part you need.

Keith Lisle

 

[Vaino]

For cracks I open up the split and use a somewhat similar stain as the finish stain in the crack. When dry, a runny Super Glue is used and the glue becomes the color of the stain. Clamp or use surgical tubing to close the crack.

For gluing in a shim, both the shim and inlet wall are stained and again the glue dissolves the stain and becomes colored. For this type of repair, I also use the runny Super Glue and hold the shim against the wall for a minute or 2 w/ some pointed pins.

If the repair is visible, it's because the grain direction of the shim doesn't match or there's a poor fit between the shim and the inlet wall. Usually, everything works out and the repair is nearly invisible.

I never use a filler because the glued in shims have always worked well....Fred

 

[crockett]

On gaps, some of the original guns sort of blackened around the metal parts so IMHO going darker sometimes is the better. I've never been able to match a wood tone to my liking but it may be my insufficient skill.

 

[Birddog6]

That is from oil leeching off the metal.

Keith Lisle

 

[19283]

Although it's probably impossible to hide a mistake completely when using filler, some ways are certainly better than others. Back in my kayak/canoe making days we would use epoxy with colloidal silica as a thickner, then add a splash of wood flour (not sawdust) for color, and if necessary some aniline dye to adjust the color. The consistency of the mixture is that of mayonnaise so it's easy to apply, and sands out smooth without any gritty texture. In my humble opinion, it's far and away the best way to fill gaps (assuming you can't plug the gap with a piece of wood) on any wood working project.

 

[crockett]

I've taken a scratch awl and followed the grain from the plug to the surrounding wood- that helps a lot to blend in the wood plug. Dye the plug the same color as the stock before putting it into place.

 

[trigrcreep]

I did the same mistake but just took out more wood on the other side then welded on my tang.Filed it down to fit the wood. Like the song says-its not love but its not bad. :hmm: