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Silicon carbide on factory grips


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First modification to my Stock 3 is complete.

Ordered 1 pound of 60-grit silicon carbide for $12 shipped. Then I picked up a couple of packs of epoxy and a set of fine brushes from Home Depot.

Used a dremel to carve a groove for my thumb to better access the mag release on both panels, first.

Mixed up 1/4 tube of JB Weld original epoxy - not the 5 minute JB Qwik.

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Painted a thin even coat of epoxy onto one panel, being careful to avoid getting any onto surfaces which touch the gun, or the hole for the grip screw.

The best technique I found for compressing the media down into the epoxy was to pile it on good and deep, then put pressure downward evenly with my flattened hand. I was also careful to pack it inward on all four sides.

The epoxy won't be dry enough to let me dust the excess off and screw them down until tomorrow night, but here's a few teaser shots of the finished grips.

Next up? Cerakote and trigger work... someday, I'll get to those!

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Edited by MemphisMechanic
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The biggest surprise is how much difference that thumb groove made. It feels like my thumb is 1/4" longer, and I could already reach without flipping the gun.

I'll get them installed tomorrow and let you know what I think.

I will say one negative thing!

This stuff, well, it... sparkles. You could market these as "GlitterGrips" if you wanted. 

Picture that really shiny black sandpaper you sometimes see and you've got it in your head. That's exactly the material I used.

I'll probably cerakote these black. The highest points on the grips will undoubtedly wear down, but it'll kill most of the sparkle.

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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5 hours ago, goshimu said:

That is an awesome job. The stock grips sure are thick. Like cz shadow grips without the swell.

That's why I didn't buy $100 grips and did this instead. How guns fit you is highly individual - picking this thing up for the first time felt like it was custom molded to my hands. So I decided to give them traction, and keep that shape. 

The fact that this cost about $25 was a nice bonus over Henning or EGD grips!

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Outstanding!  I have been considering this for a while, even though working on my grip has had phenomenal results.  I shot a friend's Accu-Shadow in order to zero it for him, and he had something similar.  It was very nice.

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33 minutes ago, SCTaylor said:

Looks great Memphis! I may have to do the same thing, had thought about skate tape but grit looks better!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All my previous guns were polymer and I didn't have removable grips that I could do the carbide treatment to.

In person this looks much, much nicer.

I'm going to take a brass gun brush to them when I get home and knock the loose grit off - right now they shed sand every time you play with them.

Sunday is it's very first range trip. Don't look for a before & after comparison - I never fired the gun with original grips.

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Done a bunch of sets in various configurations. 

The sweet spot is leaving the back smooth surface bare and grinding down the textured portion until it's smooth. Then when you build it back with jb/grit it's the same factory dia which is still pretty big. 

Plus the bare section allows for easy grip and or grip adjustment if/when needed. 

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Edited by bpipe95
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This post originally said I feared the gun was too fat due to the added width from the epoxy and silicon.

I just dryfired with it (draws and loads) for half an hour and I'm quite happy with it.

Finished product:

(Until it gets sights and cerakote)

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Edited by MemphisMechanic
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Dryfire tonight was interesting. The bladetech body for my BOSS hanger showed up shockingly quickly, so I was able to begin relearning my drawstroke and practice a few loads.

Here's the holstered blaster, and a comparison of the magazine & magwell sizes on the Stock III and my M&P 9L. Reloads are tougher to stick, but that's because the grip angle is off a few degrees and I need to relearn where to present the gun to eat the incoming mag consistently.

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Edited by MemphisMechanic
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I did something similar.  Great friction, but after a month or so I did smooth out the thumb channel on left side penal, because the friction there is so much when I rotate to reach the mag release during reloads that my strong hand thumb got bloody (the skin on the inside of knuckle).   Your hand may not require rotation for reloads, so this may not be a problem for you. 

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3 hours ago, JusticeOfToren said:

I did something similar.  Great friction, but after a month or so I did smooth out the thumb channel on left side penal, because the friction there is so much when I rotate to reach the mag release during reloads that my strong hand thumb got bloody (the skin on the inside of knuckle).   Your hand may not require rotation for reloads, so this may not be a problem for you. 

Are you trolling right now? That can't be for real. 

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