Project: loose forend

Was looking at a Marlin 1894 carbine, and noticed it had a loose forend. Not a 'you can feel a slight motion if you put some torque on it' thing, a 'it will rattle if you shake the gun' loose forend. Something to fix!

Box o' Truth has a nice piece on using JB Weld to bed the action of a rifle into the stock, and this is just a variation on that. You can use actual bedding compound, or I've heard of people using regular epoxy after mixing chopped-up fiberglass in to thicken it, but for something like this JB works quite well.

Process went like this:
Pull the screws to free the magazine tube(one, and when you tilt the tube out the spring WILL launch the plug if you don't watch it) and forend(two, one on each side of the metal cap).

Pull the tube, which lets you remove the cap and forend. This rifle uses a piece that dovetails into the barrel(top arrow in the pic below) , that's what the two screws go into, and it may be loose(this one was), so watch for it to fall somewhere.

Use something for a resist so the glue won't stick where you don't want it to. I use Johnson Paste Wax, the furniture polish that comes in the yellow can. Wipe a coat EVERYWHERE the epoxy MIGHT come in contact: in this case, the magazine tube, the piece that fits in the dovetail, the dovetail, the barrel, the cap, and the socket in the front of the action where the back end of the forend fits(bottom arrow).
And the two screws! Do NOT forget them, as their being permanently locked down might be a bit of a problem. Let that coat dry, then do a second, just to be sure. Also be sure that you get it all the way into any corners, like those of the socket. You might want to put a coat of wax on the outside of the forend just to help cleanup, but make damn sure you don't get any on the ends where you want the JB to stick.

Mix the JB. If you then let it sit for 15 minutes or so, it'll thicken enough that it will stay where you put it, not run into possibly embarrassing places. When it's ready, use something like a popsicle stick to put some into the socket, mostly around toward the outside; when you put a little pressure on, the stuff will spread around. Then I set the mag tube in place and slid the forend down into the socket. Then put the dovetail piece- ah, found it, it's called the forend tip tenon- in place in place. Put some JB on the front of the forend where there should've been a lip to fit the cap, and slid the cap on. Put the mag cap in place and put the screw in to hold the tube in place, then push the cap & forend back to set them in place, then put in the screws.

At this point you'll likely have some JB that's squeezed out; I've found that a cloth with some wax on it, or an oily cloth, will wipe it off nicely. When that's all done, put it down and leave it for three hours. A little more probably won't hurt, but give it at least three; you want the stuff to cure enough that it'll be fairly solid, not still soft enough to pull out of shape.

Time's up. Pull the screws. The tube tilted out with no problem, but the forend cap was stuck enough that I took a brass punch, set it in one of the screw holes, pointing toward the muzzle, and tapped it lightly; the cap popped loose. The mag tube and forend were not stuck, but the stuff had filled in well enough I had to wiggle things slightly to get the tube and forend off.

I don't know if someone in the past had messed with it, or if it was a sloppy job at the factory, but there was very little of the tenons left on the forend; that's fixed now. Here's the back end,
and here's the front. Which doesn't show quite as well.
If there's anything that needs trimming you can do it now(carefully) or let it still till the next day so the stuff will be cured completely. I'm letting this cure before I do that.

That's it. Pretty straightforward, and about the only way to mess it up is to forget to put wax on something or use the epoxy when it's still fluid enough to get somewhere you don't want it.