Anybody make their own grips?

[jameslovesjammie]

Has anybody out there ever made their own grips? I have been lookng for a competition style grip for a Sig Trailside and the few I find are around $200. I have a dremel tool and sandpaper, along with other basic tools.

Has anybody out there made their own? Any trouble areas to watch for? I would think all you would have to do is take a wood block, cut it in half, recess where the frame goes, and screw the two sides back together.

Okay...it's a little more complicated than that. But anybody have any experience?

 

[jeepmor]

I've never tried it, but am considering it for my S&W CS40 auto since I simply cannot find any aftermarket models. I want to get rid of the sticky hogue grips for CCW use.

I used to be a woodworker by trade and you are on track. My only suggestion is to make sure that you have the two halves dead on before you start making your shape. If you want to form them on the gun itself, use plenty of masking tape to protect the gun from any slips.

A spindle sander setup in a drill press would be a lot of help in this endeavour.

jeepmor

 

[gunmn74]

I just tried making a walnut set of grips for a s&w 637. I got a nice little scrap
piece of walnut and traced the grip on it. I was planning to make the whole
grip and then cut it in two pieces and then work on the fit.
I spent about 20 hours on it then I split out a big chunk of wood, putting an
end to my project. Walnut was way to hard to work with for me.

 

[gaudio5]

i ended up with a pile of saw dust! good luck!!

 

[rcmodel]

I have made a lot of them over the years. Here are a few examples:

Top right, clockwise
S&W 1950 Target .44 Spl. = Walnut
S&W 19 Combat Mag = Walnut
Astra Constable .22 = Vietnam Rosewood
1911 = Elephant Ivory


The hardest part is getting the inletting to fit the gun perfectly.
The outside shaping and finish is child's-play in comparison!

They have to be perfectly flat, and they have to fit the frame recesses exactly, or the grips will not stay tight and will move around. And that is very distracting when shooting!

Also, some auto-loaders depend on the grip inletting to keep internal parts, trigger bars, & springs in place.
They especially have to fit perfectly.

I have had fairly good luck doing the inletting with a Dremel, but only by using the router plate attachment.
More recently, I have been using a dual-axis milling vice on a drill press table.

Either method will need final inletting/fitting done with Prussion Blue and small wood chisels or carving knives.

A trick some folks use is to glass-bed the grips on the gun using a Brownell's AcraGlas kit. That makes up for a lot of inletting mistakes.
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1033&title=ACRAGLAS~

Another trick some of the target shooters use is to hand-form the grips to exactly fit their hand using Bondo Auto Putty, then paint them to their liking.

Myself, I'm more of a real wood and precise inletting kind of guy, so I haven't tried either of those two methods.
I'm very sure they will both work great though.


rcmodel

 

[jameslovesjammie]

rcmodel,

Those Model 19 grips are amazing! Almost looks too good to shoot!

I had my sights set on wood or laminate grips, but that bondo thing really has peaked my interest! A half gallon of Bondo is like $11, and sanding would be worth my time for an exact fit!

I would imagine I would have to wrap the frame in something like Saran Wrap before applying Bondo. How would you keep these in 2 pieces when doing something with a curved frame, like a round butt Smith? You couldn't just slide them off the bottom?

 

[rcmodel]

I wasn't suggesting you make the grips totally out of Bondo.

What the target guys do is slap Bondo on the roughed-up wood grips already on the gun, and hold it while it sets up enough to fit their hand.

I suggest wearing a disposable vinyl glove when doing it though!

Several thick coats of paste floor wax, or AcraGlas Release Agent from Brownell's will keep it from sticking to the gun.

Wax-paper or a cut up zip-lock bag under and/or between the grips will keep it from sticking them together.


rcmodel

 

[Boone&Smith]

I have never done it, but I did have some walnut cut and planed the correct dimensions for when I get brave enough.

Here is a link that you may find beneficial.

 

[JaxJim]

RCModel, Those are awesome! Beautiful job.

I've made a couple of grips and used glass reinforced Bondo to fill the gaps.

I also tried with limited success, using the same reinforced Bondo to make molded grips to my hand on a Ruger MK II. It worked but was both ugly and never fit right.

I use saran wrap on the gun to get a good release from (and protect) the metal.