Stock finishing

[CIG]

Just received a new boyd's walnut stock for my ruger M77 stainless.  I am now floating the barrel.  I plan on glass bedding it, putting in glass or aluminum pillars (which would be best/easiest), then finish it with a Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil Stock Finish kit, and put in sling studs.  

My question is what order do I do these in?  Float barrel, glass bed, pillar, drill stud holes, finish, and assemble?  

I want to do this right.  Thanks for any input.

[armory414]

Check out this site:  http://riflestocks.tripod.com/

[CIG]

That was the web site I used to get some of my information on how to try this stuff, but I didn't notice it saying in which order to do things.  Is it better to glass bed first or after finishing?  My glass bed kit says after but most other information says before.  So I'm confused.

[gunnut69]

!st you bed the action and barrel into the stock.  If you are going to glassbed do that and install pillars if you wish afterword.  I've found the acraglass poured pillars the easiest and I've not had one fail yet.  If you wish a bit of powdered aluminum(available from Brownells) can be added, although for pillars I rarely do more than color.  After the action and wood have been mated the wood can be shaped and detailed and finished.  If your installing sling studs it's best to do that prior to sanding and applying the finish.  This avoids the little dinks that happen so easily.  After the sanding and applying the finish allow it to dry a bit before assembly.  A day or two at least, depending on finish material used.   Bedding compound in it's uncured state is poison to any finish material I've ever seen.  It will damage them all.  Remember you need the barreled action in the stock and fixed to get the best job on free floating the barrel.. After the action is bedded and the barrel floated the pillars can be poured.  The action and wood are now in a fixed relationship to one another and the stock can be finished as you wish.

[CIG]

Thanks gunnut69.  That is what I needed to know and it makes sense.  Can't wait to start this project this weekend and finish many after.