Making grips

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Was web-crawling about making pistol grips. Just curiosity though maybe will try it sometime.

A milling machine would seem necessary to safely cut the back-side details on metal grips. Maybe some guy with actual skill could safely make a metal grip without a milling machine, but that disqualifies me.

Found shop pictures from a couple of fellows who make and sell nice-looking wood grips. Shop pictures show em milling inside features by hand-steering the small wood blanks under a straight router bit chucked in an ordinary inexpensive bench drill press.

Is there any way in the world that could be safe? Or is a miracle the fellows still have fingers? My old Jr High Shop Teacher Mr. Stubbs would probably advise against it.

On the other hand the guys apparently make at least a part-time living doing it, so how dangerous could it be?

The internet is littered with advice not to use an ordinary drill press as a metal milling machine. They say the bearings and chuck are not built for the side-pressure. They say sooner or later the chuck will fall off and stab you in the privates with a hot end mill.

On the other hand, at low speed and shallow cuts with a wood router bit, on wood, it probably isn't too risky on the drill press bearings. But hand-steering a tiny piece of wood under an exposed router bit? Even at low speed the wrong move would have to hurt.

I have an X-Y drill press vise. Maybe it would be safe to mill the back of a grip if you can keep yer fingers away from the router bit?

[Guest EYEMAN]

I have made several grips for my 1911s and others with a flat back side which didn't require milling of the back. When I decided to make some bocote grips for my Walther PPK, I did the opposite of milling and did a build up for the inset. This picture will better describe it(photo not that good).

[East_TN_Patriot]

Eyeman, those are some excellent looking grips! I piddled with the idea once myself and found that there are many grip makers who use the same method you did to create the raised areas on the back of your PPK grips. Even some commercial grips (one for the Colt SAA come to mind immediately) have glue blocks that the end-user has to position and attach so it will fit their particular firearm.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Was web-crawling about making pistol grips. Just curiosity though maybe will try it sometime.

A milling machine would seem necessary to safely cut the back-side details on metal grips. Maybe some guy with actual skill could safely make a metal grip without a milling machine, but that disqualifies me.

Found shop pictures from a couple of fellows who make and sell nice-looking wood grips. Shop pictures show em milling inside features by hand-steering the small wood blanks under a straight router bit chucked in an ordinary inexpensive bench drill press.

Is there any way in the world that could be safe? Or is a miracle the fellows still have fingers? My old Jr High Shop Teacher Mr. Stubbs would probably advise against it.

On the other hand the guys apparently make at least a part-time living doing it, so how dangerous could it be?

The internet is littered with advice not to use an ordinary drill press as a metal milling machine. They say the bearings and chuck are not built for the side-pressure. They say sooner or later the chuck will fall off and stab you in the privates with a hot end mill.

On the other hand, at low speed and shallow cuts with a wood router bit, on wood, it probably isn't too risky on the drill press bearings. But hand-steering a tiny piece of wood under an exposed router bit? Even at low speed the wrong move would have to hurt.

I have an X-Y drill press vise. Maybe it would be safe to mill the back of a grip if you can keep yer fingers away from the router bit?

Yes it does. Picture, thousand words, yada, yada, yada:

These were taken the next day. The black is from paint. Mine was a larger piece of wood and I never thought it would drag me in bu tit did.

I have since started using a router because the speeds are so much higher which makes it less jumpy.

Dolomite

[Guest GunTroll]

Man that makes me cringe!

[Guest BEARMAN]

Man that makes me cringe!

+1000!....

Ouch, just oh f^%#ing ouch!!! Dolomite....how'd it heal up, brother? Got any feeling in that digit?

[Randy L]

I have made a few flat and a few that required building up never used a router on anything that small too much risk as shown the results can be very painfulhere is a picture of one I made

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks Eyeman and Randy L, those are pretty grips. Good job!

Dolomite, that is what I figgered might be the result of a router bit in a drill press.

Building up and spot-trimming with a dremel might be the way to go. Was looking at CZ75 and Beretta 92 grips, which do have some necessary details on the back.

Was trying to think up a way to cut the ledges "blind" or templated on a router table, but I won't push any work piece thru a router table unless it is pretty big. So with a router table it would seem to necessitate milling the back details on a pretty big piece of wood, and bandsaw ripping it down to a thin piece, and final shaping etc.

At the very least, wasteful of wood, and might demand quite a bit of precision to mill the back details "blind" on a router table.

[Randy L]

What I do on grips that need the panel on the back. I drop the mag if its a auto loader which you should have already done to unload and check the gun. Take off the original grips and trace through the frame on both sides this gives you your right and left inside panels fitting is critical or they will shift around. Then you will need to decide how you want to shape your outside panels and glue them on your inside panels. The outside ones need to be a little oversize so you can shape to fit after the glue is set then you can mark and drill holes for screws . I realize this is short but hopefully this gives you the idea and making grips is like anything else the more you do the better you get.

[Dolomite_supafly]

My thumb is still not right. It healed at an angle and the skin constantly grows out weird then peels off like a hangnail every couple of weeks. It is numb yet is still slightly sensitive to pressure but that is probably because the bone is closer to the surface now.

I joked about this happening because it removed a scar I had when a drill bit went through my thumb a few years earlier. That one was rough because I couldn't just pull it out so I have to reverse the drill and back it out. I couldn't get the speed just right so it pushed some flesh out as the drill backed out.

Both bled pretty good but the router did make for what looked like a murder scene in a shop that wasn't mine. I even went back a week later to find bits of "Dolomite jerky" still clinging to the bit and the piece of wood. I did go on to complete the piece I was working on but not for close to a year.

Dolomite

[sigmtnman]

Hmmm jerky...

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks Randy. That is a good idea getting the tracing of the back side from the pistol frame.

Glue-on build-outs on CZ-75 and Beretta 92 grips would be visible from the outside of the grip along the backstrap. So if gluing on a build out piece, the glue line would need to be pretty smooth or it would be real obvious to the eye on the outside surface of the grip.

Was considering DIY grips just to get as thin as possible, which would work best with aluminum. Maybe possible with hardwood or maybe not.

Finally broke down and ordered some thin aluminum grips for CZ85. The CZCustom thin AL grips look about as skinny as a grip could get on a CZ, and the CZCustom site has published dimensions for their grips.

The jury is still out on 92FS grips. There are a lot of suppliers of 92FS grips, but most of em are intended to be beautiful grips, not thin grips.

There are some alumagrips for 92FS, but the website does not list thickness. It is difficult to see from the pictures whether they are thin enough to make a significant difference compared to the factory grips.

I don't mind the 92FS factory grips except it would be nice to have em thinner. Am kinda a slow learner, and after many years finally figured out that 92FS and even CZ is just a little too fat for my hand. The hands are pretty big, but the fingers may be shorter than average. A little shorter reach distance for the trigger ought to help.

[gregintenn]

I have made a few flat and a few that required building up never used a router on anything that small too much risk as shown the results can be very painfulhere is a picture of one I made

Is that a 1905 Colt? You don't see those everyday.

[gregintenn]

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/show-tell/51231-my-new-grips-45-acp.html

You might ask ftncityfatboy's son in law. It appears he knows what he's doing. Have you looked at a dremel tool? You can get a lot of attachments for them.

[JPS]

1911 grips are relatively easy - I made these with just a band saw and belt sander. (Sorry for the bad pic on the walnut/darker grip - it's a lot prettier than it looks in the pic.)

I want to try making some for my PPK with the inserts, but need to wait for the weather to warm up so I can get back in the garage.

[Randy L]

That is a colt 1900 neat old gun used all my luck on getting that one $290.00 out the door at an auction

[DaveTN]

A milling machine would seem necessary to safely cut the back-side details on metal grips. Maybe some guy with actual skill could safely make a metal grip without a milling machine, but that disqualifies me.

Why would you want metal grips?

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Why would you want metal grips?

Hi Dave

I think metal grips are as pretty as wood or plastic grips.

But the main reason is application-specific-- I like Beretta 92 and CZ-75, but finally figured out that they are a little fat for my short fingers.

Those CZ Custom thin aluminum grips I got for the CZ-85 are remarkably thin, and seem to improve the ergonomics. Those things are only about 1/16" thick across the flat of the grip. I didn't caliper them before installation, but they couldn't be much thicker than that on the flat.

It seems doubtful that one could make a wood or plastic grip that thin. Made of wood or plastic, grips that thin would fall apart.

To get similar thinning on a Beretta 92, since no one apparently makes 92 grips that thin, the other option might be to remove the grips and put a jumbo piece of heatshrink tubing on the handle.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Finally got around to trying to make some 1911 grips for starters because they look simplest to make. I like a thick polyurethane finish so it will be a couple of days before I can post pics.

 

This is the best video I found on making 1911 grips. I used a similar method but without the milling machine and with not nearly as much skill as this fella displays.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNwOGD25ggo

 

I made the first stab at making grips before finding that video, so was encouraged that my method was "in the ballpark" of what this fella is doing anyway. Had cut out three sets of blanks, hoping that at least one set wouldn't get completely ruined by the time they were finished.

 

After scuffing fingers on the belt sander trying to hang onto the thin wood while shaping of the first set, recalled the trick of using double-sided carpet tape for temporary attachments. Used carpet tape to hold a wood work block on the back of the other two sets during sanding, which allows one to sand the thin grips without bloody fingers or losing grip on the workpiece and have it fly over to the other side of the shop multiple times before done. That guy in the video, maybe he is screwing his grips to his holder block rather than using double-sided tape, but I'd probably just scuff up screws trying it thataway.

 

I have a small 10" sears bandsaw which is identical to those 10" Rikon bandsaws. It is a nice little small saw, but never had luck re-sawing on the thing. Not many people make 70.5" bandsaw blades and the sears blades are OK for some work but they suck for resawing. So recently got a highland woodworking "woodslicer" half-inch resaw blade that works GREAT. The price of the blade was high enough that it took some thinking before taking the risk paying that kind of money for something that might suck, but that woodslicer blade turns the little bandsaw into an entirely different animal, at least as far as resaw goes. Maybe beginners luck, but I didn't even have to find a non-square tracking angle to get the thing to cut straight. Just run wood thru against the square fence and it rips just as straight and smooth as you would want.

 

I need to get a flat-end spur drill bit to cut the screw bevels properly, and without a milling machine and only one eye, it is difficult to drill the holes precise enough, but got em "close enough for rock'n'roll". With just one eye you have to move yer head all around a work piece to make sure the drill bit is aimed where you think it is aimed.

 

If I make any more grips, and continue to use oil-based polyurethane, ought to make some kind of painting jig to hold the grips horizontal while drying, and keep finish out of the screw holes. Poly lays the smoothest finish on horizontal surfaces. Was thinking maybe some HDPE studs a couple of inches long mounted in a wood block. Maybe start with HDPE rod bigger than 1/4" diameter, and turn down the ends to 1/4"  little studs, so the grips are held up by the screw holes, and keep paint out of the holes. Poly doesn't stick to HDPE, so they "ought to be" fairly easy to remove after the paint sets.

 

Here is a "second best" 1911 grip making video as best I could tell--

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HthjSbzR1k

[Guest Lester Weevils]

So I decided to make some HDPE quarter inch "pegs" to hold the grips for painting. Took a cheap walmart HDPE cutting board that is 0.3" thick, cut some 0.3" strips and crudely lathed 0.25" pegs out of them. Pics get bigger if you click on them.

 

 

Drilled holes the proper distances in a piece of scrap board.

 

 

So far the HDPE is working as was hoped. After drying, the polyurethane scrapes right off with a fingernail, and the pegs are real easy to remove from the grips.

 

[Guest Lester Weevils]

So the wood for this first test was a board from a boxelder we cut out in the back woods. This was resawed out of about a 2 foot piece of board. Boxelder has a lot of "variety" in the grain. One section of a board will look entirely different than other nearby sections on the same board.

 

After drying, boxelder is surprisingly light-weight wood, but is categorized as a hardwood. It was pretty easy to work and didn't seem subject to splitting. The grips were copied from fairly thin plastic 1911 grips, but they seem strong enough for the purpose even made fairly thin.

 

Will put a couple more coats of polyurethane on em. These pics are after two coats.

 

This is a "flamed" piece of the boxelder board--

 

 

Here are grips made from a spalted region of the board--

 

 

And these came from a "clearer" piece of the board--

 

[Rickey]

These are some of the 1911 grips that Ive made. The laminated ones are sorta fun but I havent found any clear coat that'll last for long with heavy use such as IDPA. The Alum works really good about gripping your hand and the Elk antler ones look really good on a blue gun

 

Edited September 15, 2013 by Rickey

[TripleDigitRide]

These are some of the 1911 grips that Ive made. The laminated ones are sorta fun but I havent found any clear coat that'll last for long with heavy use such as IDPA. The Alum works really good about gripping your hand and the Elk antler ones look really good on a blue gun

Have you thought about trying Epifanes? It's not cheap, but it's made to stand up to the elements.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

These are some of the 1911 grips that Ive made. The laminated ones are sorta fun but I havent found any clear coat that'll last for long with heavy use such as IDPA.

I didn't see pictures if you posted some.

Do you speak of wood laminate, or synthetic/resin laminate, or something else?

I'm ignorant of how much wear happens on grips. Do ya think 6 coats of minwax floor polyurethane would wear too quickly? That is my default finish on most wood products which seems purt rugged on most items? Edited September 16, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Here are the grips on my pistols.

 

Taurus 9mm 1911 with the spalted boxelder--

 

MetroArms 1911 with Advantage Arms .22 slide and flamed boxelder--

 

Later on need to figure out how to make grips for the Beretta 92s and Cougar, machining back details without losing any fingers.