Awesome! Those look great!
Awesome! Those look great!
Due to the price of primers, warning shots will no longer be given!
My parkinsonism that controls walking and balance has made me unable to work in the shop. VOTE RED * PRAY OFTEN You are welcome to message me here or send email to xlordsguitars@gmail.com.
Definitely lesson learned!! The last grips I made were with a tracing, and I wanted to try on the frame this time. From what I understand, at Colt’s they fit the grips to the frame, then do final polish and blue. I may try that next time.
I am also interested in your oak blank. Do you just transfer a tracing to the wood, and cut it out to shape to mount the grips to?
I knock the roll pin out of the grip frame, then clamp it to a blank of oak, trace around it with a sharp pencil and cut it out. Once I get the upper sharp corner and the flats described, cut, polished, then I drill the holes through the guns frame and I have a corresponding roll pin on the oak that matches. At this point I put the blank on the oak and I make a corner stop and glue it in place so the grip panels will go on and off in the same place every time.
The oak may be a tad smaller than the actual frame, so I can see the pencil lines on the grip panel. I then sand to the line, leaving the line, and I try and consume the line as I am polishing with finer grits. I fit it to the gun's frame prolly 2-3 dozen times, mark with a sharp pencil everywhere it will write, and carefully remove material until that pencil line is gone.
Ruger put this birdshead grip frame on (long long story LOL) so I didn't complain one bit about the mismatch between the cylinder frame and grip frame, I took it to a Bridgeport mill, and milled the grip frame to match so that my custom grips didn't have any whodunits (unsightly gaps) to regret. If you want to "melt" the grips to the metal like the Italians do, you have to machine the grip frame to a knife edge, so there is an almost undetectable joint where wood stops and steel starts.
Last edited by DougGuy; 07-04-2019 at 06:48 PM.
My parkinsonism that controls walking and balance has made me unable to work in the shop. VOTE RED * PRAY OFTEN You are welcome to message me here or send email to xlordsguitars@gmail.com.
What you did with a machine, I did with files, lol. You either have to true up that junction or shape that area of the grips to fit.
I fired 50 rds of Lyman 452423 over 9 grains of unique. No movement of the grips and nothing broke, lol. It feels really good in the hand and rolling is minimized. It points better for me too. Success!!! The middle finger is also moved back so no more knuckle busting either. Curse Ruger and it’s use of lady hand sized grips.
Gonna half to make a new set of wide enough grips to replace the crappy skinny cheap grips the Ruger seems to put on just about all SA's these days.
I HATE auto-correct
Happiness is a Warm GUN & more ammo to shoot in it.
My Experience and My Opinion, are just that, Mine.
SASS #375 Life
Looks like good swamp medicine for pigs. Nice work Dick!
"My main ambition in life is to be on the devil's most wanted list."
Leonard Ravenhill
You must have seen the exact same thread on SA that I did, because I bought some blanks too!
Took me some time to get around to it, but mine also wound up on a vaquero. I came to the same conclusions you did: soft material, easy to work with. Way easier than hardwood! but steep cost, hopefully they hold up to use and abuse. I have high hopes.
Here are mine:
This is a most informative thread. Thanks for all the information. I like the cap and ball Remington but hate the grips, feels like I barely have anything to hold onto. Being able to browse the process has me thinking I might want to give making a meaty set of grips for one of those.
Can't really make the grips longer but even just a bit more thickness would be welcome.
Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.
Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.
Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat
It’s easier than it looks. You get to set the thickness, taper, etc.
I’m working on a set of curly maple right now that is just beautiful.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |