Originally Posted by
Colorado Cajun
Please tell me more about pillar bedding. What material should I use for this area? Can I custom cut aluminum pieces to place in the sections to stiffen it up before adding other material?
One guy I know suggested bondo with fiberglass in it for this area then seal it with a sealer. I'm going to tackle that section after I finish the action. Also, I'm not sure how far 4 oz of the Acraglas will take me starting at the rear of the action going forward.
On the Acraglas, how is the best way to remove the extra that seeps out or goes where you don't want it? I'm assuming file and sand paper?
I don't think the pillar bedding will help much for what you are doing, but Brownells has nice alluminum pillars for about $10 if you decide to go that way. Their pillars are contoured to fit the round bottom of your 700 action but will need to be cut to length. Pillars are an excellent idea on wood stocks, but synthetic stocks don't have the same problems with the tension on the action screws. I wouldn't do pillars on my first bedding job.
You chose well with your bedding kit. There should be enough compound to easily do the actions on a couple rifles.
Tape up the outside of your stock with masking tape before you apply the bedding, and put the release coating on all of your metal parts that will possibly touch the bedding and cleanup is fairly easy.
The most time consuming parts of a bedding job is removing material from the stock and taping the stock, barrel (from the point that you want it floated), & front and bottom of the recoil lug. A dremel tool is really handy for removing material from the stock.
The worst part of a bedding job is the nervous wait until you can remove the action from the stock to see your work. I used to worry that I would screw up and epoxy the action to the stock forever, but I've done many bedding jobs and have never had a problem.