Bedding thickness - minimum

[Rich S]

Is there a minimum thickness using Marine Tex for bedding? I'm getting ready to bed a BAT DS. Since the receiver cut will be thicker bedding and possibly have shrinkage, I was considering doing an initial and final bedding. I've bedded several DS actions and haven't noticed an issue but thought I'd try this. I was considering putting a couple wraps of tape on the receiver for the initial bedding, wait a few days then re-bed. The tape would be ~0.010 to 0.015 thick. Too thin?

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I think youre overthinking it. The only time you need to worry about shrinkage is over an exposed pillar. Over a year itll still be an undetectable change. If youre worried about it just glue it in. Taking an action in and out does more damage than shrinkage

 

[INTJ]

Marine Tex doesn't shrink much:

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Speedy answered: “My only preference of one epoxy over another is their stability over time. My buddy who works for the Texas State Weights and Measures Department had me cast several of the most common types of epoxies used for bedding into 1.000″ machined blocks. After one year of being kept in a controlled climate and measured for shrinkage monthly, the Marine Tex shrunk only 1/10th of 1% (i.e. 0.1%) whereas almost all the others (including Devcon Steel formula, Devcon Aluminum formula…) shrunk 3% to 6%. The only other compounds that matched the Marine Tex were Araldite 1253 and Araldite 2014, with the latter being quite expensive for daily use.”

 

[Rich S]

Marine Tex doesn't shrink much:

Marine-Tex « Daily Bulletin

Content tagged with Marine-Tex.

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Speedy answered: “My only preference of one epoxy over another is their stability over time. My buddy who works for the Texas State Weights and Measures Department had me cast several of the most common types of epoxies used for bedding into 1.000″ machined blocks. After one year of being kept in a controlled climate and measured for shrinkage monthly, the Marine Tex shrunk only 1/10th of 1% (i.e. 0.1%) whereas almost all the others (including Devcon Steel formula, Devcon Aluminum formula…) shrunk 3% to 6%. The only other compounds that matched the Marine Tex were Araldite 1253 and Araldite 2014, with the latter being quite expensive for daily use.”

Thanks. Good information. I started out using Devcon and switched to Marine Tex the last couple of years because I heard it had less shrinkage. I hadn’t seen a comparison.

 

[Rich S]

I think youre overthinking it. The only time you need to worry about shrinkage is over an exposed pillar. Over a year itll still be an undetectable change. If youre worried about it just glue it in. Taking an action in and out does more damage than shrinkage

I do tend to overthink things. I also like to try different methods. One of the things that got me thinking about this was an old post by Alex. He commented he beds then re-beds if he starts off with a sloppy inet with varing thickness. I figured it would only take a few extra hours skim coat it. I haven’t migrated to glue ins yet. I still prefer to have the action in hand when I chamber barrels. Guess I should get over it and make a few tools to do them based on measurements vs using the action to test fit.

 

[Bob3700]

The old Bob Pease method to Devcon bedding was to use the “F” putty first for the base. Bedding. Then skim coat with “F” 2 liquid. The thin “F”2 put the thin coat that gave u the intimate fit. That was back in the days when Devcon was affordable!