Putting a Picatinny rail on the forend of a FX laminate stock question

[Hummer57]

I have Dreamline laminate stock that was busted between the butt stock and receiver. I did a stock repair that’s far from perfect but functional. I want to put a small Picatinny rail under the fore end for a bi-pod. What would be the best way to wood screws to hold as I can’t go to deep? I don’t know how to put a brass thread insert. Thanks 

 

[DeadOnShot]

I don't like wood screws as they have a tendency to either pull out or split the wood. I drill the holes and insert flanged nuts from the inside.

Here are a couple that are available from McMaster Carr. They can also be purchased in a hardware store.

 

[Odoyle]

They're also called T-Nuts. They work great. Used them to make custom speaker enclosures.

 

[Hummer57]

Thanks that’s what I needed to know! 

 

[Revoman]

Sometimes the air bottle is very close to the inside of the stock and you may need to use a larger diameter drill bit (I used a sharp spade bit) to accommodate the diameter of the large part of the Tee Nut. I also had to grind the down a tad so that they didn't protrude too far. This meant that I had to grind down the screws that came with the pic rail so that they didn't touch the air bottle and mar/scar it up. The first nut, Knurled in the table above, would not have worked as the flange is too thick. The Tee Nut flange is about half the thikcness, so that made my choice easier. It took some time but I have just enough clearance to slide a business card between the stock and the air bottle....it is that tight.

Something so stinkin simple becomes so stinkin tough to do sometimes.

mike 

 

[steve-l]

What you want to do is just wrong. No strength in the wood there. Wood is a low density material and does not do well holding stressed fittings or fasteners. There are bottle mounts that do what you need. They work well and you can always remove it if you want to in the future.

 

[Hummer57]

Project complete! Plenty of laminate wood thickness!

waiting on longer screws to mount rail.