urethane

[aspen80]

Hi all,

Does anyone have a method to remove urethane without disturbing the original finish?
Any info will be helpful and appreciated.

Thanks

Information

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[WarPig1976]

Ain't no way brother.........

[Patrick Chadwick]

Well, if it's been painted over with polyurethane varnish there won't be any original finish to recover.

However, do not despair, but look up my previous contributions under the term "treacle rifle". Searching for "treacle" ought to be sufficient.
Since Bubba usually sloshes on the PU without removing the original finish, the varnish is often a superficial layer with very little penetration into the pores of the wood. That helps in getting it off!

As you will see, removal of PU-varnish with the help of the modern jelly-type strippers, thin flexible scrapers, and some patience, can return the wood to a fine natural state that does not need much more than a good feeding with linseed oil to bring it back to something that you can look at and hold without thinking "yeuch".

Note: the scrapers I advocate (flattened out cover plates from 3.5" diskettes) are drawn over the wood to remove varnish and flatten the fibres. They are NOT supposed to be held upright so that they actually remove any wood!

---------- Post added at 09:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 AM ----------

If you have the patience to read through this thread, you will find the topic treated in detail, as the thread covers a lot of what you need to refurbish any recoverable rifle. https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....=treacle+rifle

[browningautorifle]

remove urethane without disturbing the original finish

There isn't original finish, it's urethane... Do like Patrick says...

[Sunray]

Urethane is plastic. It gets into everything and everywhere. Varnish, it ain't though. And if the original finish was BLO or the like, it won't be keeping the urethane out.
Denatured alcohol(of the rubbing variety) usually removes it, but, as mentioned, there's no finish to protect.

[WarPig1976]

Alcohol removes Poly??? No, paint stripper removes Poly just barely. Alcohol removes Shellac, it’s the solvent of Shellac actually.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Guys, I endeavour to be precise. Urethane is...(quote from online dictionary)...

• a synthetic crystalline compound used in making pesticides and fungicides, and formerly as an anaesthetic.
• short for polyurethane.

But as a rifle covered in a crystalline material sounds about as likely as one covered in sugar-icing, I assumed (maybe erroneously) that the contributor was using option 2) - the everyday abbreviation for polyurethane.

I do not know the composition of the jelly-type paint stripper I use. Benzylalcohol plus heaven (or the manufacturer) knows what. What I do know is that if you get the tiniest drop on your skin it feels pleasantly cool for a couple of seconds - and then burns like crazy. So use rubber gloves, and have a jug of water and a roll of paper towelling handy for cleaning up. Up to now - with one exception - it has turned every lacquer or varnish that I have come across into a brown sludge than can be scraped off. The exception is original Japanese "urushi" finish, as found on pre-war quality Arisaka rifles.

If everything else fails, one can try acetone, but that really is a "last ditch" substance, which I use very rarely - for corners soaked in oil or degreasing metal components.

[aspen80]

I thank you all..... this weekend I will try some of the fore mentioned ideas and a couple of others.
I'll see what works.
use to use Zip-Strip and that would burn like fire.

[Patrick Chadwick]

The stripper will probably turn the PU/varnish/whatever into a brown mush. Remove the mush with a flexible scraper, as described in the posts on "treacle" rifles, which I hope you have now read. Remember to draw the scraper so that it removes the gunge and smooths down the wood fibers. Do not hold it upright so that it actually scrapes off wood!
Then clean up with REAL turpentine. This should produce a clean wood surface without raising the fibers, and while the turpentine is still wet you can see how the wood will look when it has been oiled.

You can use this procedure a section at a time, there is no need to tackle the whole stock in one session. So you always have some dry wood to hold, and can redo any patches that are not satisfactory.

Stick to this method, and when the stock is clean and well rubbed down with turpentine, you can apply a first treatment with linseed oil without further delay. The turpentine will actually help the oil to penetrate into the pores of the wood. That's why you should use nothing else but natural turpentine to clean off the stripper!

[aspen80]

At this point, I have tried Zip Strip and It worked just fine.
Now to get some "terps"