I fell on some rocks at an airsoft game and busted the wooden stock on my gun.

Luckily, the stock is actually a left and right half joined in the middle by some type of (apparently not very good) glue, and it cracked right along the seam of the two pieces, so the wood itself didn't fray or anything. The wood is about 1/4 inch thick (because the stock is hollow to accommodate a battery).

Basically, I want to know the best way to go about joining these two pieces and preferably also some way to reinforce them so this doesn't happen again. The best suggestion I have had so far is as follows: Use good wood glue and clamps to stick the two pieces together. Then, get epoxy and coat the whole inside of the stock to reinforce it. Would that work? Anyone else have any advice? Any input would be appreciated.

inject some woodglue into the crack, then clamp it up tightly for a day or two and let it dry. That should do it. As for reinforcement, there isn't a whole lot you can do. You could put some screws through both halves, I suppose

Does the battery fit into the stock tightly? If there's any extra room, I'd throw a support bar or two going across the cavity and screw the 1/4" side panels into that, as that would guarantee it's strength. Epoxy is an option, but its awkward to use and might not be the best choice. If you do use it, mix a bunch at once and paint it on with a disposable foam brush to keep everything nice and clean. Keep in mind that epoxy itself isn't incredibly strong if you were just to coat the wood in it, it's glass matting that really gives it super strength. I'm guessing the chamber is too small to make it feasible, but you could use a $10 fiberglass patching kit to fiberglass the inside of it, which would make it fairly indestructible. Keep in mind fiberglass cannot do 90° corners, so you'd have to caulk the corners so the glass can curve around and keep it's strength.

Give more details, pics if possible and we can figure out the best solution.

The gun is not with me right now. I will try to get up some pics, but it will take a few days. The problem is that the battery fits tightly into the stock, so there is little room along the sides for reinforcement. There is, however, a decent amount of room left above and below the battery once it is inserted because of the shape differences between the battery and stock... Also, the seam is halfway along a 180* U-bend all the way along it's length.

The airsoft gun is a 1:1 scale RPK replica, and here is a picture of a real RPK stock:

http://www.rusmilitary.com/images/rpk_buttstock.jpg

And from the backside, it looks like any other gun stock (an elongated roughly oval shape.)

Basically, it looks exactly like that stock, except that the wood is only about 1/4" thick, and it is hollow in the middle, with little metal reinforcements where the screws go in to hold it to the body of the gun.The seams are at the very top and bottom of the stock.

Here are some crappy diagrams to help explain:

http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c111/Lord_Naga/RPK%20stock/?action=view&current=Side.jpg
http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c111/Lord_Naga/RPK%20stock/?action=view&current=Top.jpg
http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c111/Lord_Naga/RPK%20stock/?action=view&current=Back.jpg
http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c111/Lord_Naga/RPK%20stock/?action=view&current=Profile.jpg

Looking at it again, it looks like it was designed to be flimsy there, so if you dropped it, it could be easily repaired. I think that if I get some Gorilla Glue and actually put it inside between the two panels as opposed to just on the inside of the stock (see diagrams), it would be significantly stronger. Then I could get a bit of epoxy and apply it to the inside of the stock where the original glue is, out of the way of the battery and wiring. Or could I do the fiberglass thing there? Please explain more about that.

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure I typed a reply and it got thrown away, probably cause &T went down for a bit. Anyways...


Fiberglassing is probably too difficult to do inside of the stock. I'll give you the info and you decide though. Personally I would epoxy wooden supports above and below the battery, it'd be great if you could post a diagram looking at the butt of the stock showing the battery and the hollow area so I can see how much wiggle room there is. So, fiberglassing involves glass sheeting and epoxy. The epoxy is a two part adhesive that bonds with whatever you lay it on and the glass sheeting to form an exceptionally strong reenforcement. Once the epoxy resin is mixed with the hardening agent, you have a set amount of time before it'll gum up/harden, so you have to work quickly. The process basically goes- mix up epoxy, paint a layer of it on surface, lay down sheeting, paint another layer, lay sheet, paint, etc. I'm not sure of the number of layers you would need to get a certain strength, but even one would make it fairly strong. The reason I think it's a bad idea is because fitting the sheeting down nice and flat inside a tiny box will be difficult, especially seeing as the glass sheeting cannot do 90° corners, so you would have to round the inside corners to keep the strength.

I think putting wood blocks in and clamping down tight with some solid glue in there. Hit me up with a diagram to see if that's a possibility.