M14 Chu Wood

Rubikahn

Rubikahn

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Location
Here
What should I put on the wood stock of my Nork M14? From what I understand, gun oil is bad for wood?
 
One word.

Dishwasher.

Put it through ONE cycle (by itself - no dishes, but WITH SOAP!) and it will come out cleaner than you could EVER get with oven cleaner.

At that point, it's ready for sanding and oiling. Oil it up with Tung or Boiled Linseen oil and sand with progressively finer paper...you're golden. Sanding while oiling causes the 'sawdust' to actually fill in the tiny holes.

Depending on the grain, it can actually look pretty good.

However, it's NOT worth the effort to bed the stock... the wood is too soft.
 
What should I put on the wood stock of my Nork M14?
Click to expand...
How about gasoline and a match?

You have to get that crap out of the wood first before you try to do anything with it. Canucklehead has it right and there is some really fine wood patterns out there in that crappy chu wood but as a precision stock....look elsewhere. My stocks have very nice lines but for the short time that the rifles had been together before I bought them new, the trigger groups have already pressed into the wood by almost 1/16".
 
Dishwasher works fine for cleaning the oil and crap out of it. Either that or Easy Off or Simple Green. For Chu wood sanding and filling is a MUST.

A good finish (either gloss or satin) can be done with Tung Oil or Birchwood Casey True Oil.

If you use Tung Oil you should cut it 2 to 1. True Oil is good out of the bottle. Also you should allow at least 24 hours between coats with light sanding, de-whiskering with 00000 steel wool or fine grit wet/dry paper after each coat.

With the Chu wood the most important part of the process is filling the grain.

This method works for me and I can tailor the stocks to the finish I want. Hope this helps.:)
 
Ripstop said:
How about gasoline and a match?
Click to expand...

I also believe this is what you should do with your factory stock... I replaced my 2 with USGI stocks... When I did, I thought I should harvest the metal pieces off the wood stock... I was SHOCKED to see how soft the wood really was and how thick the "grain" of the wood is... It sure ISN'T a quality piece of wood on the factory Norinco M14...

Cheers
Jay
 
I've been having quite the experience with my stock. First I tried the dishwasher. My dishwasher is older and too small for the stock to fit in (even with the top rack removed). I tried the black garbage bag out on the deck in the +30 temps to sweat the oil out. No dice. I tried Simple Green which was a start but really didn't do the greatest job. I went with the oven cleaner and that gave the best results. I thought I had all the crap out of the stock so I tried painting it with the truck bed liner. After 4 days I couldn't figure out why there were 3 spots on the stock that WOULDN'T dry. If you guessed that there was still oil in the stock, you're right. I'll be saying screw it to my wooden stock and ordering my fibreglass one shortly.
 
Another way I've had success is by making a tray, lay the stock in it and cover it with bleach. The length of time in the bath is determined by the amount of stain and oil in the stock. They come out bleached absolutely bare and natural. Don't know how this would work with the chu stocks, but they're only trial and test pieces anyway.
 
I took the old-fashioned route of sanding the older finish off--I'm not an expert wood worker (by any means!) but the original finish was so soft it only took a few hours to get down the almost bare wood. I used tung oil to give it the finishing touch. i was pleased with the results but I came across a good deal on the EE for a Boyds stock that I couldn't refuse. For starting out, though, the original stock is fine, and if you mess up you can follow Ripstop's advice :) .

Before:
M14before.jpg


After:
M14after2.jpg
 
If you like the look of your original Chu wood stock it can still be bedded by using pins.
Once it is bedded with pins it can be just as accurate as a fiberglass stock.
 
pfosted said:
how do you do that?PFO
Click to expand...
It's the same principle as pillar bedding a bolt gun.

The problem with all wooden stocks is that they can compress in the bedding areas when subjected to clamping forces. On the M-14 the areas that start compressing first are usually under the trigger group: the rear bedding pads behind the trigger and the wings on either side of the magwell. This is why it is recommended to store a bedded M1/M-14 with the trigger guard unlatched to relieve the pressure.
The softer the wood the quicker it will happen and change your bedding and your groups.

So to pin the stock you drill holes/cut grooves to insert metal rods that are cut to the right length and epoxied in, that transfer the clamping force from the trigger group bedding points to the receiver. Then you do a regular bedding job on the rifle.

Is it possible to do at home?
Click to expand...
If you have done bedding work before it's not to hard to figgure out how to run the pins.
 
Master-G said:
After:
M14after2.jpg
Click to expand...

I'm gonna try the dishwasher method w/ 2 Chicom stocks at once..& then a light sanding. From there, I'll try some Linwood stain...If it comes anything close to the above stock, I just have to give it a shot. :cool:

I try to recycle as much as possible!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom