Re: reccomendations for bedding a base?
I have epoxy bedded dozens of Weaver mounts.
Most epoxy material has a compression strength of ~20 kpsi.
The scope bases will never squeeze it nearly that hard.
A torque 10 or 20 inch pounds on a pair of #6 or #8 screws could make a force of ~ 2000 pounds.
But the area of contact to be bedded is more like 1/2 sq in.
So there is 5 times more area than is needed.
This extra area can be used for shims to fixture the mount.
As an alignment fixture, the rings are tight on the scope and the rings are tight on the mounts, and the mounts are loose on the receiver, then the mounts will be co linear and co planar.
The scope rings can be made to be co planar by loosening the rings on the scope slightly and pushing the bottom of the rings against a flat surface. Some Weaver rings do not have a good flat locating surface. It is easier to use rings that do.
I adjust a scope until it's cross hairs stay on a point when the scope is rotated in two bottom ring halves. This means the scope cross hairs are sighting what is in line with the scope tube.
The shims do two things:
Get the scope bore parallel to the barrel bore.
Keep the mounts from pushing out the epoxy upon introduction.
I used to get the scope parallel to the barrel bore by sighting on an insulator on a transformer on a telephone pole 75 yards away. I would stack narrow masking tape shims under a mount until the scope would naturally point on target.
Now I use a Leupold magnetic bore sighter.
Now I can bed mounts at night.
I have also learned to mask off the receiver within .05" of the mounts and put release agent in the screw holes and on the screws.
The wet epoxy is added between the masking tape, and the mounts are set on the epoxy.
The mount to receiver screws should be loose, but not backed out so far that they interfere with the rings.
The scope and rings are then tightened to the mounts.
If the container that the epoxy was mixed in is kept around, the state of the cure can be monitored. When the epoxy is like hard rubber, the scope and rings can be removed and the screws can be loosened more and the masking tape can be removed from the receiver. The exposed epoxy fillet can be fancied up with a Q-tip and vinegar or alcohol.
When the epoxy is about as hard as wood, the screws can be tightened to max torque.
When the epoxy is hard, the screws can be removed and the screws and holes can be cleaned with what ever cuts the release agent you have chosen. Loctite 242 can be put on the threads and torqued to the max.
