epoxy pillar bedding a mauser commercial 98.

[.30-06 fan]

thinking about pillar bedding my mauser 98.

installed a semi-inletted boyds stock, now i'm wanting to pillar bed the stock. the stock is secure with no movement.

can i use jb weld to make the pillars and drill them out after they set?


cheers

[AJB]

A cheap option to consider is to use hollow threaded lamp posts. Look at almost any floor or desk lamp and you will notice these, they connect the body of the lamp to the part that holds the bulb. You can buy them in various lengths at Lowe's. In use, cut them to length, drill out the holes slightly undersized, coat the posts with epoxy, and screw the post into the stock. If you want to leave them slightly short, you can top them with JB Weld. To keep bedding compound (or the JB) from oozing into the posts (I guess I should now call them pillars) insert a short length of drinking straw into the hole, keeping it above the level of the bedding compound, and then insert the stock screws through the pillar and straw. Tighten the action into place coated with release agent. When everything is dry you will have functional pillars...cheap and easy, but probably not up to bench rest standards.

[DougGuy]

I used a large X-acto knife handle, drilled it for the screw clearance I.D. and then stuck it in the drill press and cut some rough shallow grooves around it, worked really good for the action screw and the tang screw on a Ruger M77.

Lowe's has aluminum rod in 1/2" diameter, the X-acto handle I used was basically the same thing.

[.30-06 fan]

thinking about pillar bedding my mauser 98.

installed a semi-inletted boyds stock, now i'm wanting to pillar bed the stock. the stock is secure with no movement.

can i use jb weld to make the pillars and drill them out after they set?


cheers

A cheap option to consider is to use hollow threaded lamp posts. Look at almost any floor or desk lamp and you will notice these, they connect the body of the lamp to the part that holds the bulb. You can buy them in various lengths at Lowe's. In use, cut them to length, drill out the holes slightly undersized, coat the posts with epoxy, and screw the post into the stock. If you want to leave them slightly short, you can top them with JB Weld. To keep bedding compound (or the JB) from oozing into the posts (I guess I should now call them pillars) insert a short length of drinking straw into the hole, keeping it above the level of the bedding compound, and then insert the stock screws through the pillar and straw. Tighten the action into place coated with release agent. When everything is dry you will have functional pillars...cheap and easy, but probably not up to bench rest standards.

I used a large X-acto knife handle, drilled it for the screw clearance I.D. and then stuck it in the drill press and cut some rough shallow grooves around it, worked really good for the action screw and the tang screw on a Ruger M77.

Lowe's has aluminum rod in 1/2" diameter, the X-acto handle I used was basically the same thing.

thanks so much! really appreciate your instruction, very cool!

will do as suggested!
cheers

[AJB]

Just to clarify my reply about using lamp posts for pillars, when I said you have to drill out the holes, I meant the screw holes in the stock. The hole in the lamp post is about the perfect size for the stock screws to pass through with proper clearance.

[.30-06 fan]

Just to clarify my reply about using lamp posts for pillars, when I said you have to drill out the holes, I meant the screw holes in the stock. The hole in the lamp post is about the perfect size for the stock screws to pass through with proper clearance.

thanks for the clarification, sounds good.

[docone31]

Plus, the threads add grip when installing with epoxy.

[country gent]

I always turned mine up from bar stock wasnt a big deal to do and I got just what I wanted. I would drill holes to fit screws very close to help maintain alighnment face end square and a light taper bevel on that edge or corner. cut a 8-10 pitch thread down side .020-.030 deep for glue and bonding strength. My cutter was a 60* threading tool with a flat on the tip about .030 wide. A tool for cuttting ring grooves works well also.Last was to cut of to length and install. I install with good epoxy working in and out with a twisting motion to work all air out and ensure a continuous coating of epoxy.

[yovinny]

I use steel hydraulic tubing for the rear action screw on 98's.
Cut, contoured and accra-glassed into the stock.
You cant do much of anything on the front with a pillar, there just bed the lug in accra-glass.
98's are designed for the action & trigger housing to contact each other in front... Unless you've got something non-typical there.

Cheers, YV

[.30-06 fan]

Plus, the threads add grip when installing with epoxy.

sounds good to me.

I always turned mine up from bar stock wasnt a big deal to do and I got just what I wanted. I would drill holes to fit screws very close to help maintain alighnment face end square and a light taper bevel on that edge or corner. cut a 8-10 pitch thread down side .020-.030 deep for glue and bonding strength. My cutter was a 60* threading tool with a flat on the tip about .030 wide. A tool for cuttting ring grooves works well also.Last was to cut of to length and install. I install with good epoxy working in and out with a twisting motion to work all air out and ensure a continuous coating of epoxy.

thanks i'm considering bar stock.

I use steel hydraulic tubing for the rear action screw on 98's.
Cut, contoured and accra-glassed into the stock.
You cant do much of anything on the front with a pillar, there just bed the lug in accra-glass.
98's are designed for the action & trigger housing to contact each other in front... Unless you've got something non-typical there.

Cheers, YV

thankfully nothing non-typical.


cheers

[Bodean98]

30-06 fan,
All of the above suggestions are good ones. One thing I would mention is sizing of the rear stock ferrule to your particular rifle. Do it with the metal out of the stock. You want a bit of clearance between the mag. box and the bottom of the action from front to rear and side to side as well. You should have metal to metal contact at the screw locations only.
JB weld is a strong product and I have used t successfully but it's really too thin for the bedding process I use. It doesn't stay where you put it and if not watched carefully can cause a real mess!!

[koger]

A mauser action and floorplate, should fit together and just need glass bedding in the action area, and a ferrule contacting the back of the action and floorplate. When bedded correctly, and assembled, the metal should all just contact at the screws tightest, and never compress the stock, what stock pillar bedding was intended to do to begin with. Mauser was 110 years ahead of his time.

[firebrick43]

As mentioned by koger, mausers need no pillars. That's for tube receiver designs prevalent today.

Also make sure you clearance the front recoil lug on the sides and front. Only the back should be in contact. Duck tape on the front and sides of the lug gives you the needed clearance.

[Clark]

This pic is 6 years old. I do not make the rear pillar from brass any more. 3/8" 1010 steel tube for mauser and solid 1/2" Aluminum for Rem700s.
But it shows the tape. That tape keeps thing centered while the epoxy sets up. It is important to get release agent on the outside of the tape.

I always do any pillar job with the pillars in compression while the epoxy is setting up.

I scratch up the outside of the pillars with a hack saw, ala Wagner, for the epoxy to get a grip.

[UBER7MM]

I like AJB's idea of the lamp piece. Welcome aboard, BTW.

I've cut an old military stock apart to get to the stock ferrule. Browells has them premade rears:

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-to...s-prod983.aspx

I hope this helps,

[Larry Gibson]

On a M98 the column the front guard screw goes through IS the front pillar and the threaded small extension on the recoil lug should bed solidly in it. There should already have been a pillar in the milsurp stock for the rear guard screw. Take it out and use it if you still have it. Otherwise make one as mentioned. Also as mentioned the M98 was "pillar bedded" by design, courtesy Mr. Mauser.

Larry Gibson

[Clark]

I like to set up the front and rear pillars in a Mauser so there is 0.015" clearance between the mag well and the receiver. Before bedding the barrelled action with compressed pillars should have 6 degrees of freedom.
The clamping force of the screws should clamp the receiver to the pillars and the pillars are bonded to the stock.
The forms a low compliance connection with response time >10x faster than the time of the bullet in the bore.
I check for this by holding the stock by the wrist and smacking the barrel. The response should be an exponentially decaying sinusoid with lots of sustain.
The frequency of the tuning barrel and stock fork may be low like the bullet in bore time, but the test is to see there is a high Q in the connection response. If the Q were low the sound would quickly be damped. Any distortion and there is interference.

[Clark]

I would like to add how wrong I have been about clearance.
The magazine front sides do not need clearance from the receiver in front, no matter what I said or some websites currently say.
The boss on the bottom of the recoil lug will bottom out in the trigger guard first. That will make a apparent clearance of ~0.030" between the magazine front and the receiver.
That 0.030" of clearance there will make it look like a wide range of pillar lengths are "just right", when in fact, the action and bottom metal are likely not to firmly clamp the stock if glass bedded with that length pillar.

[LAGS]

You can make a Jig to hold your Magazine Box at the correct spacing from the top of your stock, and Glass Bed the magazine at a height, where the Barrel and action should end up at 1/2 depth into the stock and Level with the top of the stock.
Then when the action is tightened into the stock, the front Pillar on the Magazine box, will set the proper clearance for the Magazine Box to the bottom of the receiver.
If the rear spacer is also the correct length, everything will be tight when the action screws are tight.
Then all you have to do is Point Bed, ( Glass Bed ) the rear Tang, and recoil Lug, and maybe the back 1" to 1 1/2 inch of the barrel at the chamber, and trim the stock for free foat.

[Clark]

How does that get the pillars precompressed, so when the epoxy is hard and the screws are tight, it is the pillars that bear the compression of the screws?