I have for years been doing my own bedding, I have used a process that is easy and seems to give excellent results. When my rifles are competitive enough to win their share of matches, and hold a zero for 2 or 3 shooting seasons, I feel the bedding is working. With nothing but hand drill and bits, and a Dremel with a carbide ball grinding bit, it works to perfection, and very quick and simple to do.
When I build my pillars, which are all 100% Devcon, I drill the stock with a step drill, 1/4" to 3/4" all the way. I have stainless washers I use to tightly fit the holes, then I set the rifled action, with several wraps of masking tape at the front end of the stock to set my preferred air gap for the barrel channel and take enough material from the rear tang section to build a new support for the tang when hardened, the material on the rear tang and the taped barrel will be my finished bedding templet, then I use cap screws to thread into the action and seat the Stainless flat washers square at the depth I want them finished at by tightening them to where I want them for recess. Next I remove the barrel and after plugging the holes in the washers with plumbers putty, I pour the pillars.
Once setup I now drill them with a 5/16" bit for slight clearance around my action screws and make sure they lined up with the action, at which time I plug the hole with plumbers putty about a 1/4" from the top now so I can finish drill them for perfect alignment with the action threads once I finish the bedding drilling from the top down at that time.
Now I grind some holes around the top of the devcon pillars to adhere the final bedding to and remove any wood to give a desired thickness, then route the recoil lug area and put a little plumbers putty in the front facing area to build a void for when the bedded back of the lug is set.
I now mix my devcon spread accordingly to the voided areas and set the action in taping it tight with duct tape front and back, with only the screw holes in the action front of the recoil lug cutout and washers in the pillars plugged with the plumbers putty. I use painter tape instead of masking tape to tape anything around the bedding area I do not want the devcon attached to.
Like I say, no special tools or expensive precision setups needed, and has given as good a results as I've got from expensive bedding jobs from professional's, such as Tom Meredith and Briar Hale, and others.
The duct tape on the front of the barrel at the forearm and the tang that was already set for fitment of the barreled action are all that is on solid stock areas, and once the bedding that has oozed out of the stock can be cut with a plastic cutter and removed before fully setting up. Then all that is needed when hardened and the barreled action is removed is to take a drill bit 5/16" to drill what was left at the end of the action screw holes. I now have a solid bedded action and I forgot to add, I usually relieve about 1" in front of the recoil lug cut out for barrel support on some barrels over 24" with extra heavy contours. others I skip this area and float the entire barrel.
