Need To Remove Excess Oil From A Laminate Military Stocks Before They Can Be Repaired

albayo

albayo

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I have a few VG military stocks with lots of oil in them but some need repairs but need the grease and oil removed before I apply any substances to repair the cracks or replace pieces of wood.
I need a product or a recipe to remove the oil and grease.
I am also looking for an epoxy or glue to repair wood.
I also need some brass pins that can be used to repair stocks if they even use them these days.
 I have one stock with a crack around the pistol grip which I think I could drill at an angle from the area under the receiver. But I need a way of injecting the epoxy into the hole.
 
I've heard that you can cook the oil and grease out in a 200 deg oven (haven't done it myself though)
Gorilla glue is your friend, not their wood glue their original product. (follow the instructions)
Brass pins are usually available at model or hobby shops, you could also use brass nails from a hardware store and cut the heads flush.
Lee Valley sells chair doctor glue that comes with a type of syringe to inject the glue into leg brace fittings.
Good luck.
 
I've used oven cleaner to remove oil from stocks.
Got no experience with glue/epoxy so no personal recommendation.
Brass screws were used to repair cracks. Screw in nice and tight, then file off the head.
See your doctor or a vet for a medical syringe? There used to be small bottles with a needle attached for blowing air into worms to make them float in fishing departments/stores.

Good luck.
 
Go to Canadian Tire and pick up a cheap steam cleaner. The last one I bought was around $30. It generates steam through a spout and is designed to remove paint. It will heat up the stock and open the pores to release the oil. BE CAREFUL, they used different types of glue to hold the laminate together. If you get to carried away, you may cause the laminations to separate.

As far as a glue to hold them together, Acraglas will do nicely. Personally, I use the clear fiberglass kits from the boat shops. It can be put into a disposable syringe and injected into the crack. Use a clamp to hold the stock together and set it aside for 24 hours. You likely won't have to use brass or any other strengthening material to hold the area together. You will likely have to use something to pry the crack apart slightly to inject the resin. I don't use any Flox when I do this.

I have seen Gorilla Glue, which is quite thick, thinned with a bit of Acetone and injected into the cracks as well.

If the crack isn't to deep, you can also press the glue into it by judicial use of your thumb. I prefer to use a disposable syringe with disposable needle. Some wood work shops carry them.
 
First off you'll never get ALL the oil out of the wood. The best you'll do is get enough out that glue will bond to the wood. But it's a long and slow process. So I hope you have some patience.

If the wood is overly oily such as the black staining at the metal to wood contact points my suggestion is to first dunk and soak the stock with lacquer thinner. Or if it's too long tent the stock in a plastic garbage bag sitting on some scrap wood riser sticks. Then open the end and hose the wood down with brake cleaner. Close the bag and let it soak for a few minutes. Remove, hose it down while held vertically to flush away the surface solvent and oil. Put it back in the bag and hose it down to soak again. Repeat until the can is empty.

That's your starting off point to remove the easily flushed away oil at or very near the surface.

There used to be a product called K2R. I don't see it in Canada anymore. But I came across a recipe for a substitute on the web and tried it with pretty good success. Buy "ant powder", which is diatomaceous earth, from a garden nursery. Then mix it into a smooth brushable paste with lacquer thinner or MEK or even some more brake cleaner. Paint it on rather thickly and rub it into cracks and allow to dry for a couple of days. The wicking action will draw the oil out of the wood. After a couple of days scuff it off and apply another coating. Repeat until you don't see dark lines of oil in the white coating where the cracks and end grain are coated. At that point the wood will work with most good glues. An air nozzle and some fine picking at the cracks with various brushes will aid in getting the powder out of the cracks.

The Gorrila or other polyurethane glues are great. But they don't like to be squirted into narrow cracks worth a darn. Epoxy works well for that but there are a few tricks. The first one is that you want/need to find some long 2 hour cure laminating resin. This is a thin variety of resin that is used for fiberglassing so it wicks into the weave of the cloth well. And it'll wick into your narrow cracks well too.

Along with this you're going to use a trait of epoxy to your advantage. When warmed up it thins out to a very watery like consistency. So you're going to use a heat gun or you're going to bake the wood to warm it up to around 150F or 70C before you apply the glue.

This makes it VERY runny so you want to dam the vertical sides of the cracks with masking tape. But only do it quickly once the wood comes out from the warming process. Apply the glue to the larger opening of the crack and flex the wood to pump the resin down deep if it doesn't flow on its own. Try to leave an escape path for the air in the crack by only applying the resin to one end of the crack. If you have a heat gun keep the wood warm as you work with it. With a bit of care you will find that the cracks will fill well. And even if they don't fill completely they'll fill to where the wood will be sound.

If the crack covers over and you get trapped air in the crack you can work the air out and glue in with a super thin piece of music wire. Model airplane and model railroad hobby shops sell straight lengths of music wire down to as small as .015. A length of wire that is .025 with the end tapered on the side of a grinding stone down to a fine point makes a great little tool for working in the resin for jobs like this.

Once the glue is in the crack and the masking tape dams are holding it in place if you must bind the joints do so only moderately. The crack formed because the wood shrunk and the stresses were too much for the wood. If you clamp the cracks totally closed you'll just restore the pressure in the wood that produced the crack in the first place. So by all means clamp the wood but only with moderate pressure to partially close the crack. Let the resin fill in the rest.

The hobby shop you got the wire from to make the crack prodders will also have a rack of K&S brass rod and tubing. You can get all manner of sizes from super small and up to around 1/4 inch. Pick a size that works for you.

I have not done any brass rod repairs but one thing I know you'll want is to groove the rod so it has some tooth for the glue to stick into and lock the rod better in the wood. Along this line I'd suggest 1/8 rod that you run through a 6-32 threading die. For a heavier repair 5/32 rod run through an 8-32 die will give you a little bigger pin with a good grab. For a REALLY heavy duty repair 3/16 rod run through a 10-32 die will do the trick. These sizes and dies will cut a shallow thread groove that aids in both holding the glue as well as giving the wood fibers somewhere to fit into and really grab the rod. As well drag a coarse tooth hacksaw blade sideways along the pin stock with a heavy pressure to scratch a slight relief groove so air and glue has a small but noticeable escape path if the pin will be installed in a blind hole. For full through holes this obviously isn't needed.

Chamfer the ends of your pins and drill a 1/64 inch smaller hole than the pin size. Using a thin wire coat the inside of the holes with epoxy. With through holes you can be pretty generous. For blind holes be very miserly. If in doubt poke down into the hole with your application wire repeatedly and wipe it off each time to remove all the glue that doesn't just soak into the wall fibers. You do NOT want any pool at the base of the hole or excess on the walls of the hole. In fact put some on and use a few pipe cleaners to wipe back out most of it. Then lightly rub some resin on the pins to fill the threading grooves and then tap the pin into place. For blind holes I'd recommend using a clamp to squeeze the last little into place as pressure from a clamp will force air and excess resin out where tapping it with a hammer will just produce lots of hydraulic shock with no travel.

That should about do it. I've used all these methods at one time or other for repairing gun stocks or other wood working. For such things the thin epoxy laminating resin really is great stuff to use. Just work at keeping it off the outer wood if you want to stain and varnish it again. It also looks a little different from linseed oil if that is your desired finish. So use masking tape over the wood around the areas to avoid the resin getting on the outside surfaces. For pins this simply means covering the wood and drilling through the tape. For cracks around end grain areas it means masking across edges and leaving a little sticking past to form dams that control where the resin can flow. Particularly warmed resin that flows like water.

For parts that are simply broken off just about any glue will do just fine once the oil is drawn out of the wood. If you want to hedge your bets with a reinforcing pin or two it can become tricky. If you are OK with gluing the part back on and then drilling for pins that's easy. For hidden reinforcements you'll want to figure out some sort of drilling jig. Or perhaps you can glue then drill from inside the inletting so the end of the pin is hidden when the gun is together.

If both ends are blind then you pretty much need to drill oversize and pot the rod in with a thickened epoxy to get a really good joint. For this sort of reinforcement use simple threaded steel rod and drill your hole in each side about 1/16 oversize. Test fit the part and rod and if needed bend it to allow for out of line holes and to let the part seat correctly. When together the rod inside should be able to rattle slightly so you know there's no pressure holding the parts in poor alignment. Use a file to mark a notch on one end that shows the correct orientation if you had to bend it. You'll use that when you pot the rod during assembly.

To glue it all up mask up to the edges and then carefully trim the tape with a small sharp knife. That'll prevent a lot of resin stains. Mix the resin and set aside a little for the joint. With the rest mix in micro balloons generously to make a thick paste. Put some of the thickened paste into the holes and let it flow down to the bottom. You don't need to fill the hole but use enough that it'll fill up the gap and slightly squeeze out when you push the rod into the hole. Coat the threading with more of the thickened resin paste to fill the threads. Wipe or scrape away any excess. Coat the end of the wood joint now with the unthickened resin. Now with the alignment mark pointed the right way if you had to bend the rod force it down into one of the parts. Wipe away any squeeze out. Push this into the other side but just get it down so there's about a 1/8 inch gap. Use pipe cleaners to clear out any paste squeeze out. You don't need to go crazy. Just get the worst of it. Now use a pipe cleaner or thin knife to put in some more unthickned resin. Then squeeze together and wiggle to get a perfect interlock of the joint. Wipe away the squeezout and clamp with moderate pressure. Wipe away more squeezeout and adjust the clamping pressure as the joint seats and forces the resin out.

All in all this sounds like a lot. But in truth it takes no longer to do it than to read about it.

One note. It is a poor idea to mix adhesives within a single joint. Do not even try. You'll simply get a big mess with poor strength.

A note on the Lee Valley Chair Doctor. This is actually a superb glue and for cracks you have that are either closed naturally or only require light pressure it would be a great option. Simply force the crack slightly apart and apply the CD glue to the end and let it wick in. Remove the wedge and very lightly clamp it closed. The CD glue doesn't fill gaps well though. Even if it has additives to slightly swell compressed wood it won't swell a tension crack shut. But for hairline cracks it would be my glue of choice because it soaks in so well. But for open cracks that won't close with moderate pressure you want to use a non-shrink glue. And for my money that is laminating epoxy.

I have not used Acra-Glass but from all I read that would be another option as it is apparently quite thin and flows well. Just keep in mind that the "trick" with epoxy is the way it thins out with a little heat. If the Acra Glass can't do that then epoxy would still be a better choice.
 
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BCRider has pretty much covered it.

Powdered chalk mixed into a thick paste with acetone will also work at wicking out deep oil. Paint it on, let it sit for a day. Repeat until there is no colour coming out into the chalk.

Acra-glass epoxy (regular not the gel) is very thin when warm and will work well.
 
For removing oil and such...TSP is your friend..Its tri-sodium-phosphate....available at most hard ware stores in the cleaning section. put about 3 tablespoons in a plastic container,add a cup or 2 of hot water. Wash the stock with it,take it out and let dry.The TSP crystals will turn brown as it soaks the oil out of the stock...rinse and repeat...might take 4 washings or so...but if you do it in the bath tub you can rinse the bathtub out at the same time and keep every one happy!!
 
Me? No, I just learned to "touch type" back in high school as it seemed like a great class to take where there were lots of girls. Typing back then was for wusses and secretaries and LONG before we had computers with keyboards. Who would have guessed that it would turn out to be one of the more useful classes? And of course with the home computer and forums like this I've gotten lots of practice in recent years. So now I can type a lot faster than I can write. In fact due to the lack of practice my long hand script writing looks like a drunken chicken walked through a puddle of ink... :D

It's interesting to see that there are any number of solvent and fine powder options that will work for wicking out the oil.

I like the TSP option as well. But with the water needed to make it work I'm a bit leery of using it on the wood. The water is going to make the wood swell and we'd need to let it dry for quite a few days to make sure it's back to size. And even then the outer surface may become a little rough and need some light sanding. The solvent methods won't produce this same issue. But if it's extreme enough to warrant the extreme water and TSP step then it would certainly work well.
 
I have a Garand that was just dripping oil. I tried everything listed and it all helped a bit. I even tried covering it with whiting and putting it in a hot box for a week. TSP in a laundry sink was the most effective. I recently saw a Brit pickers show on TV and what they did was to soak it (a table) with alcohol and then light the alcohol and let it and the oil burn off, the flame producing some heat to help the process. Certainly worth a go and I will try it next time. I must add that I did get most of the oil out of the Garand stock but when I put some oil back on it to give it a finish it turned absolutely black again,......it just didn't slip out of may hands anymore!!
 
I've used brazing rod's to do pin repair's. Just clamp the right die in a vise, chuck the brazing rod in a hand drill and turn it on. A little oil wouldn't hurt, but don't go too fast you'll over heat the die.
 
use brass screws and cut the heads off . you can also drill the heads and put a wood plug over it.
in the army we used Varasol to remove the excess oil and crap.
I found oven cleaner worked well also.
scraping them with a sharp edge might work also.this works well for laminated k98 stocks.
 
Careful with the scraping as it risks taking off some of the wood as well. But done with care and a very slightly less than razor sharp edge it can strip away varnishes neatly.

Speaking of stripping it might be worth trying some aircraft paint stripper or antique furniture stripper to see what that does. Certainly both are safe for wood so it's not like it'll ruin the wood at all.
 
Would order in the Brownells " Stock Repair pin Kit ". Used a couple of those pins several years ago on a shotgun stock and turned out great.



Use With ACRAGLAS~, ACRA-QUICK? or ACRA-20? For Stronger-Than-New Repairs On Cracked/Split Stocks

With this Kit, plus ACRAGLAS and a vari-speed drill, you can do quick, easy, sure-to-hold repair jobs on cracked or broken stocks. Pins go in easily, won't further split the stock; cannot pull or shoot out; can be cut off at any length. Made of "half- hard" brass alloy. 60° flat-top threads for best holding. After broken surfaces are coated with ACRAGLAS and clamped tightly, drill pin hole with drill provided. Coat pin with ACRAGLAS also, and run it into hole with vari-speed drill at slow speed. After cured, cut off and dress ends.
 
Perhaps some brake cleaner, cuts grease and oil off of car parts instantly and drys very quickly. I use it to degrease parts prior to painting and works great. Also good for getting fresh oil stains off of concrete. Not sure of effects on wood, but can't be any worse than oven cleaner.....................
 
Oven cleaner is caustic and will chemically burn wood. Don't use it. Use varsol. Fill a vat with it and drop the stocks in it for 24 hours.
Laminate stocks are made by gluing layers together under pressure, just like plywood. Most of 'em are toast if they crack. Especially at the grip. However, there are needle style epoxy applicators, if the crack isn't too big and the wood isn't too dry. That and clamps. There will still be no guarantee that it'll stay together.
 
I've used brake cleaner for some small jobs of de-greasing wood but it's an expensive way to go. For something bigger I found it's better to use a solvent in a regular can along with some nitrile gloves and do it outdoors.

Varsol or it's close cousin "low odor paint thinner" are both excellent for thinning oil and drawing out the worst of it. But since it's a solvent it only thins and spreads the oil so we still need to do something to draw out the rest of it. That's where one of the wicking style paste solutions come in. Or the possibility of using TSP and water to wash the oil out of the surface wood.

All of this is why as a wood worker I cringe at the idea of using raw linseed oil on wood rifle stocks. Once you apply an oil that takes literally many years to oxidize and polymerize to a hard resin you remove the ability to glue the wood if such repairs are needed without all this messy process.
 
As above, use chlorinated brake cleaner (perchloroethylene). It's exactly the same chemical that's used in dry cleaning clothing.

It's not expensive when Princess Auto has a sale, about $3 for a tall spray can. If you want to make it "last" longer on the wood, then spray it inside a plastic wrap, or plastic tube. Don't breathe the vapours or spray it inside a closed area.
 
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