2nd stock attempt

CanuckR

CanuckR

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Well I managed to sneak away for a few minutes here and there today and started working on the foam core for my next stock. Here are a couple pictures.

The first picture is after rough cutting my "blank" on my little band saw. It is 2 pieces of 1" foam that I glued together with white glue and let sit for a few days.


This picture is after some more trimming and some initial shaping. I'm doing all the shaping by hand with 80 grit sand paper on a sanding block and by hand. The 80 grit makes really quick work of the foam. You can take more than originally planned off in very short order.


Here is a picture after I've done a lot of the shaping around the pistol grip and the butt area. So far I have about 1.5 hrs into cutting and sanding.


Here is how it will sit for the night, I'm adding some more foam to the fore end to widen it up a bit. Unfortunately I'll be sanding about 90% of that foam back off.


I ended up trimming the stock too short (height) I will have to add about 1/4" or so back to the bottom or top at some point.

The plan is to take this core, get it pretty much perfect and slightly undersized, I will then wrap it in a few layers of fiberglass, sand that out to the point where I am happy with it. After that I will be pulling a 2 or 3 piece mould off of it so I can make a few copies.
 
I've spent some more time working on the plug for what hopefully turns into a mould eventually.
Here it is after sanding the foam slightly undersized.

and another

Here it is after I put a single layer of fiberglass and epoxy on it. Its hardened but I haven't sanded it yet. You can see where I used a layer of cardboard on top to gain back some height to the stock after I mis measured and mis cut the foam.

Here is how it sits in my basement now. I stabbed a screw driver into the foam to hold it up so it was easier to work on. I put a second layer of glass on in a few places. From here I will sand the high spots down and put a layer of filler on it and sand/fight with it until I'm happy with the dimensions and finish.


Maybe I should clean up my bench too, didn't realize how messy it was until I uploaded the pictures
 
when you wrap something small using époxy and you dont have acces to a vaccuum bag, you can use saranwrap (same you use to put a plate in the fridge or in microwave)

wrap it as thight as you can. it will get the air out and will keep the fibregalss or carbonfiber thight and no gap or void between layers.

I have never made fibreglass stock(I prefer use aluminium) but I have used it for years working on boats.
 
Hey dero thanks for that tip. I'll give I a shot next time. Do you have much experience making moulds and such? This will be my first attempt after the plug is done, so I'd be lying if I said I didn't have at least a few questions.
 
Here is how it sits now, after a lot sanding, several coats of body filler and more sanding. Far from finished but I'm happy with how its turning out so far. Once this is to my liking it will get several coats of high build primer some more sanding, then a couple coats of 2k top coat and some sanding and polishing. Then in theory it will be mould making time.

One of the initial coats of body filler, got a little excited I think.


How it sits now. Looks weird with the epoxy being clear, the pink foam with pink body filler and such, its smoother and flatter than it appears.
 
From what I can gather (pretty new to this) most epoxy won't eat foam, polyester resin (the stuff in fiberglass kits and used in lots of fiberglass stuff) eats foam pretty well, so does body filler.
This epoxy is from plasticworld.ca in Toronto, its one of their house brands, it is designed as a surf board resin for skinning foam cores. Supposed to cure fairly clear and such, its one of the cheapest they offer and its exactly I want it for. It has a really long pot life which is nice if your new to it like I am, but it has a 36hr cure time, which sucks if your like me and have no patience and the attention span of a gold fish. Heating it helps it cure faster so it got parked in front of a space heater a couple times.
 
If you don't want to wait for a cure build a hot box. Use what ever sheet material you have ie plywood, insulate with an inch of foam add a hinged door. For a heat source the simple way is to use light bulbs, a double bulb setup is best in case one blows overnight. In a box about 16" square by 48" tow 40's will give you about 120F and add a bigger bulb for more heat. Almost forgot, you MUST have a small fan in the box, running all the time, to distribute the heat evenly. Add a thermometer and a timer and keep track of what happens. You can get as fancy as you want with temp control or just size the bulbs to get the right temp. Remember if you plan to add more epoxy it must be sanded or done wet on wet (the first layer must be sticky or it won't bond). Also be aware of the exothermic reaction which can destroy parts and moulds if you are not careful and using the correct hardener. I would suggest you wait until any thick sections are at least gelled before you cook them. A higher temp cure also strengthens most epoxies, many as much as 50%. Once you get on to the cooker it's the only way to speed the steps.

Ian
 
Do have any links for data that your working off? Like stock designs and materials and what's not? Ive been wanting to build a stock for a long time now.
 
I don't have any plans or dimensions. I've used rifles with mcmillan stocks and an hs and such. I basically took the rough dimensions from my factory Savage stock. Drew it out on paper and then adjusted it as I wanted. I have spent lots of time on a couple of composite forums and such. So I'm basically making the best decision I can based on my research.
 
Been a while since I posted any progress. It was slow over the Christmas break. Here are a couple pictures of where I am at as of now. First coats of primer and some spot putty in places that needed attention after being painted. I did discover a very time consuming error when I was making the foam portion of the plug. As I mentioned earlier I mis measured and mis cut the foam so I was about 1/4" or so too short, So I decided an easy way to get that back was to use a piece of cardboard on top of the foam and under the fiberglass. This was my second mistake, which led to the discovery of my first mistake. I have been wet sanding everything in my laundry tub essentially. I hate dust, and the paper lasts longer before clogging and such. I sanded through the fiberglass and into the cardboard in a couple places, which led to soaked cardboard under the glass. This made the top of the plug soft and hard to work with. I tried to deal with it and hoped it would dry out while I went to NB for a week to see some family. It didn't, so when I came home I fired up the dremel and cut the top off the plug and got rid of most of the cardboard sheet I used. I then put 6 or so layers of fiberglass and epoxy on to reinforce and build some height back up. I then proceeded to use a lot of body filler and 3 days to get back to where I was before. This led to the discovery of my first mistake and that was to use plain white Elmer's glue. Well it doesn't like being wet either. So if I go to make another plug in the future I will ensure I use waterproof glue and there will be no cardboard or similar materials in the plug.
Any ways here it is now, hopefully get some more paint on it tonight.


 
YESSS!!! this is why I like this forum. Thanks to the OP for sharing your trials and tribulations! I wonder if self leveling automotive primer would enable you to skip some of the filling? Anyway, thanks for sharing. Looks great so far.
 
I am using an automotive high build primer, although it is from a can. I am collecting stuff to use proper spray equipment before I go to my top coats, which will be a 2 part auto paint, hopefully next week.
 
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