Custom Grips - Molded With Epoxy

[Genghis]

I'm in the middle of Saul Kirsch's book. On p. 24 he suggests making a set of custom grips using epoxy, rolling some of it into a ball and sticking it on the grip, then molding it using your hands. Has anyone done this? How did it work?

[XRe]

Forum member Dalmas has some pics of his gun on his website. He also has a description of how he did it, etc... He posted a thread here, as well - might search for it.

[shred]

Some people like it, some don't. Travis builds up his grips, Max doesn't.. it all depends. Unless you have a stock of spare grips, you'll want to do the trial-fit thing.

[lynn jones]

what kind of epoxy do you use to mold the grip?

lynn

[Carlos]

Here is another website showing how Johnnie from IPSC/Sweden fashioned such grips for the CZ Tactical Sports/ TS/ Standard IPSC .40:

www.strictlyIPSC.com

Regards, D.

[shred]

what kind of epoxy do you use to mold the grip?

lynn

Travis uses JB-Weld. Others have used Bondo and various epoxy putties-- I don't think it matters much, so long as it sticks (tip: if you want the 'undo this mod' option, use grip-tape instead of packing tape as a base layer-- the epoxy will stick better). In all cases you'll need to add some texture.

[benny hill]

Work's ok for strong hand but when you go to weak hand , the grip sucks.

[Dream]

Mike Caylor can take care of the grip mod.

he does nice work

[Rumpy]

Work's ok for strong hand but when you go to weak hand , the grip sucks.

Good point Benny, I was thinking about doing it, and I wouldn't have even thought about weak hand....... I would have been in for a bit of a surprise.

Thanks.

[Harmon]

Healy, just glue your hand to the gun....might help!

really, if you get the grip too aggressive and get a bad grip on the gun when you draw, youll be shooting the whole stage with a bad grip..

i guess i want a grip thats slick enough to allow me to shift the grip as needed, but with enough traction to allow me to hold on to it.... Factory STI seems to fit the bill.

[AWLAZS]

+1 for Benny if you make the grip too strong handed it wont shoot well with the week hand.

[shred]

I did one grip with epoxy putty and it's no problem for weak-hand shooting-- when I shoot WHO, I leave my weak-hand on the side opposite where my strong-hand goes, and thus opposite the strong-hand putty. Don't go nuts on the WH side or front side and it'll be fine.

All you're looking for is to fill in the spaces when you grip normally, not some wraparound orthopedic Olympic Free-Pistol looking thing.

[smokshwn]

+1 on info as to the specific brand name putty or some idea so we can find the right stuff.

[shred]

So long as it's epoxy putty, it's all about the same, just with different additives and colors (some have metal, some plastic, some are white, some are grey, some are brown). Just checking the garage, I've got tubes of 'Magnum Epoxy Steel' and 'Ding Stick' to name two, but there are 2 or 3 options, with varying names, in most hardware stores glue section.

The kind you want comes as a big tootsie-roll thing inside a plastic tube, maybe an inch or so across. The roll is made of two parts internally. You chop off a length of the roll and then knead in your hands for a minute or two, then apply. It hardens up in 5 to 15 minutes. It's great stuff for all kinds of repair and molding needs.

Travis likes JB-Weld, but that takes too long to set for me and comes in tiny packages. "PC-7" isn't very good for this. It's packaged similarly to the putty but is a 2-part mixing paste and is much goopier.

If you sprinkle and press some sand or grit on the putty before it hardens, that adds some texture or you can dremel on it later.

Also note that this stuff doesn't come off easily, so either try it on a grip you don't care a lot about, or do Sauls tape-the-grip-first trick to see if you like it.