How would you (try to) fix this?

[Matt Ellis]

I purchased a certain rifle I've had a long distance love affair with in December. This particular rifle isn't rare, but it isn't something you find in every pawn shop or big box store either. Half the reason I purchased it was the beautiful stock it had.

When the rifle arrived, it had some issues that required some factory service. I sent it off to them in early January. It finally made it back today, and much to my chagrin (and anger) it arrived in much worse shape than it left. Some ham-fisted "technician" damaged the butt stock heavily. After opening the package, I tried to cycle the rifle. It would lock up about half way through. I pulled the butt stock, and discover an important piece of wood had broken off was jamming the action. It was largely intact, so I was able to clamp it up in position with a dose of TiteBond II. A couple of smaller fragments were completely missing, so I will rebuild those areas with a two part epoxy after the TiteBond has cured.

The bigger concern is the crack (arrow) in the tang area. It is still fairly tight, with no way to force or inject an adhesive into it. Anyone have any suggestions to repair it, and prevent it from growing? Thanks in advance.

I'm very disappointed in Marlin's so called "customer service."

-matt


http://i39.tinypic.com/a9lzo.jpg

The rifle before it went for "service".

http://i41.tinypic.com/21ve53.jpg

[Van Huskey]

My first and only thought was thin CA, I haven't used it in this fashion so I don't know if it would be great or useless.

[Sam Murdoch]

I wonder how much opening up it might do if left alone? All that occurs to me for a repair is 1 of 2 options.

1) Open it up a bit with a sharp chisel or a dremel type tool to make room for a filler that can be epoxied in place. Even just the depth of a match stick might be sufficient. Make your filler thicker than needed. You can rifler or sand after for final surface. You will need to be creative as to how to clamp and/or wedge this piece in position while the epoxy cures.

2) If there is room under the butt stock you might be able to just add a piece of fiberglass cloth epoxied into place on the surface.

Number 1 is a better choice though.

[Larry Edgerton]

If you spread it to get glue in you run the risk of making the crack run deeper. What my pops [Gunsmith]did in this case was chase the crack with a small drill the size of the syringe on hand in a hand drill until it was deep enough to get a syringe in the hole/holes. Fill out the with epoxy till it is coming out the outside and clamp.

If it is bad enough a cross bolt may need to be added, but yours doesn't look too bad. The gun is not really a collectors piece so a cross bolt would not be that big a deal. I am talking a bolt made just for that purpose, not just a hardware bolt. They can not really be seen when done, just the plugs. What caused it to break? If it is just normal use something is wrong, that gun is not known for breaking stocks up.

Have all your ducks in a row, and make a dry run first. Then warm up the epoxy and put it in the syringe. By warming it up it will flow better out of the syringe, and it will flow around the crack in the stock better, but it does speed up the curing time so you have to work fast and have a plan.

Larry

[johnny means]

I have epoxied similar situations by drilling a small inconspicuous hole that went into the crack somewhere in the piece. Then I use a glue syringe to inject epoxy or glue into the crack through the hole. I tape over the crack so that the epoxy fills the cavity before finding an exit point. Of course, the hole drilled must be small enough for the syringe to form a tight seal when inserted. If I don't manage to fill it the first time I wait until it cures and repeat from another point. I also fill the hole as I back out of it.

[Jacob Dahn]

If you sent this in for factory service. They should be dealing with it. Give them a ring and see what kind if response you get. You will likely be surprised.

[Matt Ellis]

Factory service are the people that messed it up to begin with, and it took them 3 months to do so. For those not familiar, Marlin was bought out by Remington a couple of years ago, and they have been having some serious growing pains/QC issues.

I've read the horror stories and should have known better.

[Jim Foster]

Did they send it to the old Remington factory in Upstate NY, or is the service farmed out in some far away land now? I toured the Remington factory and Museum as a kid and was blown away at the historic firearms they collected.

[Michael Mayo]

If you sent this in for factory service. They should be dealing with it. Give them a ring and see what kind if response you get. You will likely be surprised.


X2 I would do the same. They screwed it up they should fix it.

[Paul Grothouse]

You can use a vacuum to pull CA glue through the crack if you have access to the back side, or compressed air to blow it in if you can't get to the back of the crack, works like a charm.

[William Adams]

Loctite makes a wicking adhesive, 420, which is usually suggested for making (archery) bow repairs.

[Scott T Smith]

Lots of great suggestions so far. Normally I would go the drill and inject route, but in this instance would try the wicking adhesive on a different piece to see how it worked.