888 Stock Overmold

[jhmartin]

I'm not too much of a "craftsman", so rather than use a "build-up" technique, I've made a mold of a 753 stock and overmolded an 888 stock with plastic resin. There is still a bit of filling and sanding, but this method makes sure that I do not exceed the 753 stock dimensions.

This "HotPink" stock is for my 13 year old daughter.

[Jay V]

Neat! Tell us more about the molding process.

Thanks.


Jay V

[Bill177]

Neat little ladies gun - hot pink! Nice idea you have and I can see some other applications too.

How are you doing the process - hand layup (sometimes called wet layup) in the mold in halves or as a single piece?

Any problems with weight and balance?

Kindly share in the details of production.

[jhmartin]

The main difference of the stocks of the 753 and the 888 that I was interested in was from the trigger group on back. Therefore the overmold is only in this area. From the trigger forward, nothing is added (so far). Depending on the material used this adds about 12 oz to the rear of the gun ... but the 753 stock IS rear heavy. Weight can be added to the stock up front to bring more balance, but only up to 7.5 lbs.

My first issue was that I wanted to try this process without taking a gun out of service, so I called Denise at Daisy, and acquired a "used-returned" 888 stock to work on.

I then went to my friend Maj Bill Barker and borrowed a 753 stock to make my mold.

My first attempt at a mold was a disaster. I tried to use that crack filler foam, but as I was shooting this into a plastic bag to keep from getting any on the 753 stock, it would not cure ... that stuff needs humid air to cure. So what does the friendly hardware store have that does not need air to set up? Epoxy was way too expensive ... CEMENT! I decided to use portland cement w/o the sand.

I grabbed a cheap pistol case and cut some holes to hold the 753 stock, and poured the cement into a bag underneath the stock to make the bottom half. Note that I added some pellet tins and used the dimpled foam in the case to give me indexing for the top half of the mold. I let this concrete cure for a day.

I then cut a 4" hole in the top of the case ... added another plastic bag with the opening thru the hole and used the same mixture to pour the top part of the mold.

Once these were cured I removed the 753. I then fitted the 888 stock into the mold (some removal of mold material was necessary, but very little).

I have a parent that works at Avonite here in NM and he got me some expired resin to pour into the mold. I did this on the first gun I did, but that resin was too thick to flow evenly ... I ended up doing a lot of filling and sanding. On the pink gun I used plain old fiberglass resin, and it fills much nicer. The stock come out of the mold looking REAL nasty, but give it 30 minures work with a file/rasp on the edges, and probably another 2 hours total time of filling and sanding and it looks real nice.

I'm going to do another stock this weekend, so I'll take more pictures of the molding process.

I have two (older) shooters that have given up their XS-40s to go back to the 888's as these rifles now fit them much better ...

[jhmartin]

I was at a coaches meeting today, and there were questions about this process, so I've finally put more pics on our website at:

http://www.vc4hss.com/_Coaches/888_Over ... ermold.htm

The interest was because we have not gotten an answer from the 3-P council on the use of the "new" 853 stocks ... even if Daisy ships next month ... being strict on the rules says we cannot use them