Diana Air King - not lost, but banged up!

[MartyMcFly]

I think the fix came out pretty good. That said, the same type of damage occurred to my dad's laminate RAW stock. It has to be either the mixture of the compounds used to bind the wood or the lack of flexibility relative to pure wood fibers. Makes me warry to buying laminate stocks in the future...

-Marty

 

[jkingrph]

Repair looks good. I considered that stock very briefly, but decided against it jut not caring for the contrast in the layers. I have an AV 46m with red black grips and have a set of walnut grips from Rink on order for it. I guess I am just too old school in my taste for those wild colors. I have seen some laminated stocks in a I guess you could call it a muted olive green/brown layers but still prefer natural wood.

 

[Growlamunkay]

So laminate stocks, when done WELL are extremely strong, much stronger than most natural woods. However, doing one well is a bit more time consuming and expensive than doing one well enough. Voids in the resin are weak spots and act much like voids in a casting. I wouldn’t be shocked at all if ther was a void in the grip area and just the right amount of pressure snapped it. I saw 3 maple stocks splinter last year when they hit the floor so this is absolutely not a problem limited to laminate. Honestly, as much as I typically dislike the look of laminate, I tend to opt for it because at least in the firearms stocks we deal with at work, they tend to hold up better.

Edited to say:
I guess hold up better to a point would be a better way to put it. Laminate stocks are just fiber and resin, not unlike any other fiber and resin material, fiberglass for instance. Under normal use they preform admirably and have some advantages, however, anyone whose ever seem a rotor blade blow will tell you that even “stronger than steel” carbon fiber has its limits and when they are reached it tends to go all at once.

 

[Greenarrow]

Well done GT! It looks marvelous

 

[jkingrph]

I hatve one of the AV-46m air pistols, with the red black laminated target grip. A piece of the palm rest that wraps around the front of the grips snapped off along one of the lamination lines, I had just happened to look down and saw it lying on the ground, a piece a little less than 1/2" think and maybe 7/8 " long. Yesterday I epoxied the broken piece back on, and thinking it a bit fragile, planned on installing a steel pin through that area. I found a small finishing nail that would be about the right size, and drilled a hole through the "repaired" palm rest. and the hole was just a little too small to tap the nail in, so got a drill bit a few thousands larger and started to ream and the broken piece snapped off again, but at least I had my hole all the way through the broken off piece and into the palm rest body, so finished drilling it out. Applied fresh epoxy some on the nail, some on the broken surfaces and tapped both together, Right now it is outside in the sun so the epoxy will hopefully warm and set a bit quicker. It is supposed to be an extended set time epoxy, so I need to wait at least a couple of hours, then can file the nail head off and dress up the repaired joint. I will have a very small silver dot showing, may apply a dab of cold blueing so it will blend in better but will wait and see on that.