Strippers for stocks. Any suggestions? I am refinising a Winchester o/u (that came flying out of the truck and on to the concrete) and a reshaped, CZ 550 stock.
I have never re-finished a stock and would like suggestions on strippers, and pretty much anything else having to do with this job.
How do you get the recoil pad off the CZ 550? or do you just work around it?
Most of the liquid strippers you find at the hardware store should work fine. Most contain methylene chloride. Use plenty of newspapers under your work and do it outdoors. Make sure you also have oo steel wool, a weapons cleaning brush and paper towels. Slop on the remover with a natural bristle brush and use the weapons brush to work it into the wood. For tough spots lightly use the steel wool, but keep it away from checkering. Once the finish is disolved wipe it off with the paper towels. When all the finish is removed, saturate a rag with acetone and wipe the stock down real good. Let it dry for about a day. Inspect the wood for oil stains in the receiver area. You need to remove this oil before appling a finish. The best stuff I've used is "whiting compound" from Brownells. Make a creamy paste with methyl alcohol and whiting and brush on the oily areas. Put it out in the sunlight or place a small space heater near it to heat the wood. The oil will bubble out and the whiting will soak it up. Scrape it off and re-apply several times until no more oil is soaked up. Wipe the rifle down again, this time with the methyl alcohol and use a toothbrush to get any whiting out of the pores. Let your stock dry for another day and apply the stain/finish of your choice per directions.
Good luck!
Posts: 3957 | Location: SC,USA | Registered: 07 March 2002
when I am stripping a finished or oiled stock, I use the citris smelling cleaner.... it will burn YOU bad, use gloves, but doesnt stink. great results from browning to oil soaked milsurp stocks. jeffe
Thanks guys. I looked for Zip-Strip, but none was to be found. I used some other brand. Worked just fine, got the 'stuff' out of the checkering no problem. Left a nice looking piece of wood with pretty sharp checkering.
His stock refinishing process requires quite a bit of patience, as I found out. His instructions are very detailed and clearly laid out and he even responded to a few email questions that I had along the way. I recently refinished an old Marlin 336 stock and forend with tung oil using his process. I had trouble in the "filling the grain" stage of the process and intend to continue working on it until I get it right.
Posts: 80 | Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: 13 April 2002