94 Winchester 30-30 question

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jasonn

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My buddy has an old 94 winchester 30-30 that is about aprox 40 yrs old that hasnt seen any action for many years. It is beat up, getting rusty spots, not much blueing left, and has about 10% of the finish left on the wood. I offered to clean it up for a little project but i havent taken one of these apart and he doesnt have the manual. Can you point me the right way for instructions to take it all apart for a good cleaning? Also what products would you use to refinish the stock?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jason
 
Hi. There's an exploded drawing here. http://stevespages.com/ipb-winchester-94.html
A pre-1992 manual, that won't help much, here. http://stevespages.com/pdf/winchester_94_pre1992.pdf
This'll help more. http://www.castbullet.com/misc/tdown.htm
Stock refinishing isn't any different than refinishing fine furniture. Same products and techniques. Remove the old finish, sand the wood, stain and apply a new finish. Personally, I'd put on a tung oil finish. Tru-oil will do though. Birchwood-Casey sells a kit as I recall.
 
I use Birchwood Casey products with good results. Check their website. They also have a few videos on U Tube. Their Gun reblueing kit works well. Important...clean, clean and clean again. Just google Winchester 94 Schematics on web or images and you will easily find what you want (u tube has disassembly videos). If there is no sentimental hold on this rifle I say go try your first restoration. You will enjoy the experience, just take your time and don't skimp on the time spent...it will show in the end result. Proper gunsmith screwdrivers and punches are a must. Hope this helps.
 
The action of a 94 Winchester is a very tricky thing to get back together, even with drawings to go by. I would take the butt stock off, just by taking out one top screw.
I would then take apart no more of the action than what I could plainly see how to get it back together again.
After you get all the wood off, you could bath it in kerosene, along with air pressure, to get it cleaned.
Sand the wood, as lightly as you can. Be careful not to take off much wood where it joins metal. Better to leave some minor marks, than to sand down a gap by the metal. Finish your sanding by polishing with #600 sand paper.
There are no end of finishes around, and in enough time most of them will be given to you as what to use. About the very easiest finish to put on and an excellent finish, is tung oil. Just put a very few drops on your hand and rub it in. It will be ready to redo in as little as two hours, if you use it sparingly. The more times you put it on, the better will be the finish.
 
Yep go to that cast bullet site and its relatively easy. I had most of mine in a tiny box for a while before I came upon that site, but the twitch is almost gone now. MAKE SURE you have a screwdriver like the one it shows on that site or you will have boogered up screw heads. Very easy to make if you don't have one.
 
Sunray, just as a point of interest, your post wasn't there when I started to write mine. The tung oil was an independent thought.
 
You will probably find the wood underneath the finish to be in good shape unless there are scratches. Suggest before you sand you steam or hot water soak out the spots by putting a bunched up rag with hot water over the dents or scratches. FYI the stock was sanded sufficiently before it was finished so it may not require sanding once stripped. Most cases you do not need to sand when refinishing a stock. If its rough when stripped then wet it, let it dry 12 hours and then sand. Dont start too coarse, just use some finer abrasive that will take out blemishes that do not soak out. Done a half dozen of my own stocks and none have needed sanding yet. When you sand you remove the patina that has taken a long time to develop.
 
Thanks for all the info guys. Very helpful. I am going to order one of those screw drivers tonight.
I have a couple more questions though. What do you use to strip off the old laquer or whatever it is on the wood? you dont just sand it off do you?
Also how does the hot water soak work? Just put it in a sink of hot water? How long? or would i be better off with using the towel with hot water? again how long would i leave it on there?
And one last question, H4831 mentioned bathing all the metal parts in kerosene. What does this do, does it strip off the bluing or just the rusty crap? How long can you leave it in the kerosene? (where do you get kerosene?)
I am going to start with the wood and a good cleaning. If everything goes well I will probably reblue it. I originally was just going to give it a quick cleaning and lube up, then thought i might as well do the stock as it is pretty rough, but now this is sounding like too much of a fun project to not try my first restoration.
 
The finish is likely a varnish and should come off easily with paint stripper. Get some 0000 steel wool and you can scrub the wood once most of the finish is gone with stripper in it. If there are dents or scratches or both, DO NOT put it in a sink of water.
Soak a cotton or flannel cloth about 6 or 8in square and bunch it up after letting it soak up as much hot water as it will take without dribbing all over the place. Put it over the offending dent or scratch and wait. Couple of hours later if it hasnt swelled up there may be oil in it and water wont work. I have heard of some guys here soaking the wood in bleach to get oil out but that may be drastic. Just remember it was sanded well enough for the finish before it was varnished and not much has changed. All you do by sanding is take the patina off and make more work for yourself.
 
H4831 said:
About the very easiest finish to put on and an excellent finish, is tung oil. Just put a very few drops on your hand and rub it in. It will be ready to redo in as little as two hours, if you use it sparingly. The more times you put it on, the better will be the finish.
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Just an FYI........some people have a severe allergic reaction to Tung Oil, as it's made from nuts.
I get a bad rash when using it,and I'm not allergic to nuts, so I use Tru-oil now and actually prefer the finish.
 
I use an old trick that works well. Mix some varnish with your choice of oil. My choice of oil is boiled linseed cut with turps and I add burnt umber artist tint to colour it down. The varnish (about a 25% mix) adds some solid to the oil and sets it up faster but is still a penetrating finish as the varnish is carried into the wood to seal. Can buff up pretty nice or not if you wish. Damned easy to patch-just dab a bit on and rub it in. Thats it.The varnish can be pretty much any such as an alkyd or varathane. Makes no matter.
 
I can't get the magazine clamp off. I have the special screwdriver and still cant get it to back out. I took the one off the forarm and now cant get it to go back in straight either.
What am i doing wrong? Do you have to have the magazine clamp off to get the forarm clamp to go back in straight again? Damn it. not being able to get this one simple screw back in is making me mad.
 
jasonn said:
Thanks for all the info guys. Very helpful. I am going to order one of those screw drivers tonight.
I have a couple more questions though. What do you use to strip off the old laquer or whatever it is on the wood? you dont just sand it off do you?
Also how does the hot water soak work? Just put it in a sink of hot water? How long? or would i be better off with using the towel with hot water? again how long would i leave it on there?
And one last question, H4831 mentioned bathing all the metal parts in kerosene. What does this do, does it strip off the bluing or just the rusty crap? How long can you leave it in the kerosene? (where do you get kerosene?)
I am going to start with the wood and a good cleaning. If everything goes well I will probably reblue it. I originally was just going to give it a quick cleaning and lube up, then thought i might as well do the stock as it is pretty rough, but now this is sounding like too much of a fun project to not try my first restoration.
Click to expand...


If there are dents in the wood, soak an old facecloth in water, fold it up and place it on the dents, apply a clothes iron on top of the cloth with the control set to steam. The steam will drive moisture into the dent and lift it right out. Do the dent steaming after removing the old finish and you will have to sand some as the water and heat will "raise the grain " of the wood.
You can get kerosene at any hardware store. If your 94 was made post 1964 to say the mid 70's and the receiver is losing it's finish, reblueing is not an option. These rifles had a black chrome plating on the action and will not take hot blue. Any I've seen done tend to turn orange in the blue solution.
 
See what I meant when I stated, a way back, to take only a very minimum apart!
Kerosene is a very good solvent and cleaner. The metal parts can soak in it as long as you want; hours, days, weeks? It will in no way effect the finish, but it will loosen dirt and crud.
You can get kerosene at Canadian Tire. I get the four-litre tin of it.
 
jasonn said:
any advise on what is going on with the forarm clamp? Is the screw not going back in straight because i dont have the magazine clamp off?
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Jason, it's next to impossible for us to sit back and tell you why the screw won't go back in.
For something like that, just look at it and figure it out.
Any screw has to go in straight, through everything it goes through, thus everything has to be in line.
This long screw in the 94 can only go through one way, start at the side that is counter-sunk for the head of the screw. So, wiggle things around until it goes.
 
jasonn said:
any advise on what is going on with the forarm clamp? Is the screw not going back in straight because i dont have the magazine clamp off?
Click to expand...

Chances are the magazine tube/barrel slots are not PERFECTLY lined up and is deflecting the the path of the screw so it doesn't want to feed straight thru from hole to hole (it would have to bend around the barrel or the tube to get there).
I have had the same experience. :mad:
You'll have to wiggle, rotate, jiggle, push, pull, and swear a little untill the end of the screw is just in the right spot. :dancingbanana:
If you're off a little and you force it, it will strip the threads of the band. :D
Just take you're time and you'll get it.
 
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