What tools needed to blend a grip safety

[waktasz]

I replaced the grip safety on my Caspian. It is installed and the tab cut down to disable the grip safety, but it needs quite a bit of material taken off to blend in and look nice.

I'm certainly not a gunsmith but this is something I should be able to tackle. What sort of tools do I need to blend this in. I can't see how I could do this with a file(too straight) or a dremel(disaster waiting to happen).

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: Files and a Dremel is what I use then it goes to the polishing wheel on the bench grinder. Go slow and it will turn out great. Thanks, Eric

[splashdown]

I did my first one recently. I used a dremmel sanding drum to start with and a small half-round file to finish it off. Since the guns were going out to be refinished, the bead blasting cleaned up the tool marks I made. I also didn't mind hitting both the grip safety and the frame to blend them neatly.

Edited April 17, 2011 by splashdown

[10ring]

Try a small half round file and go slow. Once it gets close to blending together then use some sandpaper wrapped around a stick or dowel.

[mpolans]

I did mine with a dremel grinding wheel, then progressively moved to the dremel polishing wheels to do mine.

[waktasz]

Do you mean Dremel sanding drum or something else?

[sperman]

I started with a belt sander and air grinder, to remove the bulk of material. (Who needs a speed bump when you're going to pin the grip safety anyway.) From there it went to the mill to narrow up the back of the beaver tail. Once I had the shape roughed in, I started welding on the GS to try and fill in the gaps. You don't need a gap at the bottom of the "wings" if the safety isn't going to move. After all of that, I started with files, to get the surfaces flat. From there I went with 40 grit emory cloth, and stepped up through the various sizes. Right now I'm at 400 grit. I'll do some more welding to the bottom of the grip safety, because the fit to both the frame and the MSH isn't very good. One of the wings is a little short too, so I'll probably add some more steel there also.

IMO, you should only use the buffing wheel to put the final polish on the gun. (The hard chrome shop is going to bead blast it anyway, so why bother.) You can tell the guys you do a lot of work with the buffing wheel. All the corners are rounded off. To me, the gun looks fuzzy, for lack of a better term.

[2alpha]

The only tool not mentioned is skill.

[mpolans]

Do you mean Dremel sanding drum or something else?

Dremel grinding bits. They're made out of some sort of porous stone-like material.

[halibut]

back it down to light grit rolls on a mandrel when ya get close, those stones will get a little aggressive...