Advice on some kind of sealant or hardener for body putty on a rifle stock

[1968Maro]

I am building up a cheek relief on a rifle stock and my media of choice was body putty (seemed like a good idea at the time). Regardless it is what I used and it is not hard enough.

I can still dig my fingernail into it, etc. and I am afraid that it will get damaged. Can anyone suggest a sealant, or hardener to coat over it?

I was thinking about just brushing Epoxy over the surface, but I am curious if there is a better option.

Thanks!!

[LeighP]

I'd probably coat the whole stock with some epoxy, lay a sheet of chop strand over the cheekpiece area and then some more epoxy......sand and fill the stock with some spot putty as required and paint it with some epoxy enamel....that'd be the cheapest and easiest way I could see to fix it. I'll bet that body putty added some weight to the stock, eh?

[MrQuick]

sounds like you didn't get your mix proportions properly. Is it wood? I did a cheek rest on a phenolic stock using fiber glass and resin put over a foam base.

[LateNight72]

How long have you allowed it to cure?

Also, how low will your oven go? Might be adventageous to try baking it (at 150ºF or lower) for 45m-1h to see if it helps.

[1968Maro]

Thanks as always for the help gents,

It was kind of an experiment, I wish that I had gone with some sort of fiberglass build up because it is heavy as hell on a rifle stock.

I just couldn't figure out a good way to build up fiberglass on the wooden stock and all that. Not the end of the world, just wanted to see how it would work.

Where can I get the right kind of Epoxy? Home Depot? Brand name suggestion?

[elitecustombody]

marine supply store

[80 MONZTA]

Several years ago (wow, almost 20 years) I made a small part out of body putty for a scale locomotive, it needed more strength so I dribbled the putty with super thin C.A. (super glue). Still holding up just fine. Something as large a stock may soak up a LOT of C.A. though.

[justasquid]

If its still soft, I can't imagine an epoxy over it will help much. If it was a stationary object, it probably would, but for a gun that is going to be seeing a lot of shock, the putty, which will be the foundation for your epoxy, will more than likely crumble after use and the whole thing will probably fall off.

Honestly, I would start over with a more durable product.

If the stock is wood, I would make one out of wood and fasten it to the stock of the gun. Wood is very easy to shape and get the contour you want. If the stock is sythetic, I would still make a cheek piece from wood, but instead of fastening it to the stock, use that as the mold and lay fiberglass over that and create your cheek piece. When you have enough layers, peal it off and attach it to the gun. However, depending on what type of synthetic it is, you may have a hard time finding something to adhere to it. But, this method will reduce the weight since you aren't building up the fiberglass, you'll only have a few layers of fiberglass resin and cloth.