I have a chance to produce 1911 grips.
For those of you who are familiar with these odd little shapes of wood, I have a couple questions.
I see how to create the shapes, and how to set the holes up from scales.
What I don’t see is the profile– the profile is rounded, but it tapers. Picture a slice off the edge of a tapered cylinder, a quarter inch thick at the thickest, and you have it.
I need to produce 100 pairs, fifty lefts and fifty rights.
Therefore, I’m looking for a production method of shaping the round surface, one that is fast and doesn’t waste too much wood.
I believe this process would come last in the sequence, but since I’ve never done a run like this before, I’d listen to any discussion of the entire sequence, also.
I do NOT want to sit down and do them one at a time by hand. This must be a production run, or I’m probably not interested.
I await the wisdom of the assembled wizards.
Replies
I need to start by saying I have never made grips for a gun.
If the job were mine, I'd make a block of wood with a recess the same shape as the outline of the grip and round the block to match the desired curvature, then You could just screw the scales in place and use a stationary belt sander to profile them. This would be pretty quick and would leave only a small amount of hand work to do. Will they be checkered?
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
Nope, no checkering for the first runs. Just smooth.
I haven't made grips, either, but faced with making 100 sets, I think I'd lean toward router methods. First, a template to rout the edges, and then some sort of copy-router setup to rough-carve the profile of the surface. A jig could also be set up for drilling and countersinking the screw and threaded socket holes. A fair degree of precision would be required all around.
Note, too, that fifty lefts and fifty rights only makes fifty pairs. ;-)
Edited 6/12/2009 1:27 am by RalphBarker
>Note, too, that fifty lefts and fifty rights only makes fifty pairs. ;-)My third grade teacher sent a note home saying that I would start studying fourth grade arithmetic.My mom sent a note back saying that this was quite a compliment for a boy who had just tried to make two quarts of Koolaid in a one quart pitcher.
Never made pistol grips but I think the router jig/guide would work.
If I was to do it I would drill the holes a wee bit undersized and use the holes to position the wood blank before any profiling.
The fixture would be made 'around' the screw hole alignment pins. All fixture dimensions fitted to these pins.
I think it would be a fun project making the fixtures. Also, I would be sure to use more than one router. Changing bits leads to errors unless you make some gages for setting bit dept etc.
PS Loved the "Note, too, that fifty lefts and fifty rights only makes fifty pairs. ;-)"
Reminds me as a child having to learn the Multiplication tables. I remember being depress until I realized I only had to remember 1/2 of them if I remembered to switch the numbers around. Yes, somehow I had fooled myself into 'thinking' this would help me doing the daunting task. Yes, somehow my mind still wants to switch the numbers around but I get correct answers... Ain't life fun!
Edited 6/12/2009 9:24 pm by WillGeorge
I have made 1911 grips, but never in a production run. I can't quite get my head around a way to do them with a jig and a router as had been suggested.
What I have done is: Mill stock that is close to the finished thickness to reduce the amount of wood to be removed. I always cut the outline first, and then drill the holes for the grip bushings, these have to be an exact distance apart to fit properly because they take all the strain of the grip staying in one place during recoil. The countersinks for the big screw heads come next and these screws just hold the grip to the frame while the bushings take the force of recoil.
The tapered and rounded profile I have always done on a disk or 6" belt sander. I make a holder from a piece of wood about the width of the grips, 18" long and attach the blanks to this using screws through the bushing holes. It is then pretty quick to just hold the ends of the stick and rotate the grip blanks into the sander to shape the profile. With an 80 grit belt it doesn't take but a couple of minutes to either shape the grip correctly or destroy it if you are not careful. :<) Leave about a 1/16" flat on the sides as you create the profile.
Use the belt sander freehand on the grip to make the bevel on the bottom and then to a pad sander to remove the 80 grit marks. Sand to the desired smoothness and apply your finish of choice; not too slick as the gun will rotate in the hand too much in recoil.
Bruce
The best router jig I can imagine sounds like this:Mount the router on a long, rectangular base.If each end of the base rides on a semi-circle, which is mounted at right angles to the base, the router can move the length of the project and up and over the hump.Such a jig will create half a cylinder.Then, if one of the semi-circles is SMALLER than the other, won't the cylinder taper?After that, the only problem is holding the work piece, if it's already pattern routed to shape.It could be secured by the grip screws themselves, but that runs the risk of hitting the screw with the bit.I like the idea of pattern routing the shape-- I can see that method turning out consistent scales quite quickly. The pattern could even make more than one at a time.
Yes, it would create a tapered 1/2 cylindrical surface. Of course you would have to use a less than 1/2 round cylinder as the grips are rounded but not cylindrical. I had thought of this method before you replied and I think that you would need to use a plunge router and make small, 1/16"?, cuts to prevent tear-out. You would need to start at the high point of the arc and work your way down to the edges on each side.
A true high production run would probably involve a multi spindle carving machine, that would be way out of my means, and probably yours, but could not be set up economically to make 50 pair of grips. That machine would also be hard to compete with on a per pair cost basis, compared to a small shop method. Hopefully your customer will pay you enough per set to make it worth your time to make the jigs and produce the grips.
Good luck and have fun!
Bruce"A man's got to know his limitations." Dirty Harry Calahan
I have built quite a few pairs of stocks for 1911 A1's. You can rout out the profile to get you closer. I have had good luck getting the profile correct on a thicker blank, then band sawing to the correct thickness. I tried 2 faced tape and gluing the thin blank for profiling, but the heat always loosened it.
Have you researched all the grip manufacturers out there? There’s a bunch. I have five different 1911’s and have put aftermarket cocobolo, stag, micarta and aluminum on them. I thought about making them but the price never seemed to justify it. As to the profiles there is more than one. I have some that are a slim line style and others that are thicker. Also how are you going to countersink for the screws? There are a few types of grip screws out there.
OK .... If you go to this site: http://wood-carver.com and take a look, you'll see a set-up that can be shop made at minimal expense. Working set-up in a factory taught me that the more time you spend jigging things up, the less time you'll spend working the run. Best of luck!
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