Pro-Bed 2000 vs Brownell's Acra Glass

[Gewehr-Guy]

I was getting ready to repair a couple cracked stocks, and found my old acra glass has gone bad. Brownells was out of the kit I wanted, so I found out about a product called Pro-Bed 2000. Has anyone used it, and how does it compare to acra glass ?

Is there any other products out there you would recommend for cracks and general bedding?

[LAGS]

I was out of Acra Glass a couple weeks back.
So I just picked up some Wheeler Engineering / Miles Gilbert Bed Rock bedding compound at a local sporting goods store.
I have used it before and it works good.
I can remember as a kid, watching my Grandfather glass bed rifles with Fiberglass resin mixed with sawdust.
We have come a long way since the 1950 's

[pietro]

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For cracks, I use a 2-part epoxy that has a little sanding dust from the wood under the BP mixed in for camo after it cures.

I believe Graf's has the non-gel Accra-Glas you want: https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog...productId/1192





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[Jkrem]

I just used some 5 year old Acraglas gel yesterday. I put the resin and hardener in the microwave for 10 seconds each, and they were nice and soft to mix. Hardened just like it did when the kit was new back in 2016ish.

[Gewehr-Guy]

Well I found an old kit that I dated 1999. What was left of the resin looks OK, but the hardener was the consistency of really stiff honey. I may try warming it up, and mixing up a small batch as an experiment, to see how strong it is, but I will get something fresh repairing the stocks.

And I just ordered some stuff from Grafs, but never thought to look for Acraglass!

[quack1]

I've used accraglass that was at least 25 years old and it hardened normally. Both the liquid and gel versions do get stiff, and hard to mix, but warming up before mixing takes care of that. I just let mine sit on the furnace in the winter and sit in the sun in the summer. Never tried the microwave, but that might work, too.

[koger]

Never had an issue with Acraglass, period. If it gets thick, nuke it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, as stated above. Here is why I prefer this over any other bedding compound, shrinkage. I had a guy bring in a Ruger MK2, 6.5x55 caliber, that was shooting 2 different groups. He had bedded it, but did not help. I looked at it after he left, and noticed, I could push the barrel with my thumb and it would touch the stock, would not let a dollar bill past the point. He had bedded the action up to the end of the chamber, but the bedding had shrunk, when hardening, and was not a firm hold for the action. I took part of the bedding out, rebedded it with Acraglass and made sure the barrel was floated. Shot it with my handload and it shot a tiny little cloverleaf. I have used Acraglass for nearly 40 years, and is the only bedding I will use.

[Bodean98]

The pro bed is thick and probably not good for crack repair. I use it for bedding the action and barrel and it works very well for that. It's not extremely hard like other bedding products. Almost the hardness of the stock wood.

[gishooter]

I would not recommend Pro Bed. Just did a skim coat to repair a damaged bedding job on a stock. Customer was a shooting buddy of mine. He bought the pro bed. Looked like good stuff per website and some reviews. So was curious to try it.
Was thick as stated. Warmed, prepped, etc as usual. Was a PIA to work with compared to my old standby Acraglass.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Outfits that sell glue and paint are really big on "Shelf Life" of their products. They are in the business of selling Paint or Glue so you should buy more. People who believe this line of BS are what keeps them in business! And someone else is usually paying for the paint so what the hey?

I have painted cars with Dupont Centari single stage paint that was 10 years old. Only thing I had to do was take it to my local paint store and have them put it on the shaker for a few minutes. The car I painted was the Yellow Jeep I've shown pics of in the Hi Lift Jack thread above.


I had a guy paint my Yellow Jeep, who was supposed to be some super duper corvette body/paint man. He made a mess with runs and sags all over the place and then blamed the paint which at the time was only 10 years old. I wanted to kick his ass and still will not talk to him. He hadn't painted for a long time and wouldn't admit he messed it up. It took me a week to sand the runs off and then I painted the Jeep myself (which I should have done in the first place.) with the same can of paint. Sometimes you need to thin it out a little but otherwise getting the pigment back into suspension is what needs to happen. It's not like the pigment goes away or degrades, the rest is binder and thinner. You use Hardener which makes it go off properly. I use the generic Acrylic hardener not the Dupont stuff.

I use Devcon two part epoxy to bed actions. Most times I add some Black Pigment to it, in fact I'm about to do it to my Replica NRA Sporter Build. I have had that Epoxy for 15 years easy. Just used some a few days ago to glue a glass back together for my wife. It went off just like it should.

So before you go buy new stuff mix up some of the old stuff and see how it works. You can also thin epoxys with acetone and they will still go off just fine.

Randy

[Gewehr-Guy]

The Acra Glas resin part looks fine , but the hardener portion is really stiff, so I will try a few drops of acetone mixed in, and try it on something.

For my split gunstock I bought some Gorrilla Glue two part epoxy, and thinned with a little acetone to get down in some fine cracks, and it worked well.

[LAGS]

I thin Epoxy with Denatured Alcohol.
And keep a rag that is dampened with Alcohol on my bench when I am doing bedding , just in case I have to wipe the epoxy off something like tools or my hands.

[waksupi]

If you are using an epoxy type bedding that is very thick, microwave it for a few seconds. Repeat until you have a good consistency. For cleanup, I always kept a gallon of vinegar and some paper towels handy. Vinegar works well for clean up.

[ulav8r]

Avoid getting epoxy on your hands, exposure can lead to an allergic reaction that will never go away. Learned about this on the Wooden Boat forum. Sanding epoxy before it is fully cured (about one week) can get dust into your lungs which can be worse than skin contact with uncured epoxy. The hardener is possibly the main culprit.

[fgd135]

I've used ProBed 2000 several times, including for a full-barrel-length bedding of a replica rifle-musket barrel. ProBed worked just great, good consistency, easy to work, with plenty of time before setting, and personally, I like the thickness of the product during handling, as it doesn't run all over the place. I've used it for wood military rifle stock crack repairs, too.