Stippling Grips.....

[TDean]

What's the deal on getting stippled grips, whether they be "roupe" style or the more traditional cratering technique.

I wonder if anyone has attempted to do this themselves?

I've heard that a soldering-iron is the tool of choice for the home stippler, but I haven't seen the results.

Anyone do this, pictures...opinions...comments?

[lynn jones]

TDean,

i've done several grips using a wood burning tool. it's not very hard, just try not to be too aggressive.

i took a dremel tool with a sanding drum to the corners of the the grip on the front edges and under cut the trigger guard for a better feel.

the stippling will be very ruff on the hands for awhile. if you just burn a little, you can deepen the holes later.

lynn jones

[TDean]

Thanks Lynn, something like this?

Does the melting plastic stick to the tip? Do you need wax/pam as a release agent or anything?

[Julien Boit]

I did it on all of my grips with a soldering iron.

It's completely up to you to find the ideal design .

I use to dremelize under the trigger guard, around the mag catch and the side panels where they meet the front checkering.

I just have a question for the pros (Benny and Bob) :

How do you maintain the orginial color of the grip ?

Black grips stays black, blue become lightly white, gray become black, I haven't done (not yet) one in red but it's planned.

BTW Tdean, yes it has a tendency to stick to the tip, I use a copper brush to remove it .

[lynn jones]

yep, that's what you need.

the tip gets a little plastic on it, no big deal.

one note, the burning does produce a little smoke, that smells and can get in your eyes. wear eye protection, and get a little fan to blow the smoke away from you.

lynn

[2alpha]

Two things to consider, burning plastic creates toxic fumes, be careful with the dremel you can weaken the grip too much and have problems trapping the magazine instead of ejecting it.

[lynn jones]

2a,

true..

[Bill H]

I'll second that.

[L9X25]

I stippled one of my grips and later decided that the stippling was too coarse and increased the diameter of the grip too much. I used the side of the soldering iron (the chrome barrel part) and slowly rubbed it over the specific areas and it slowly flattened the stipples and resolved the problem areas. It was not nearly as sharp and it decreased the size too. There is more than one way to use a soldering iron!

Leo

[Ron Ankeny]

I have done several Glock grip reductions and textured the grip with a round punch. Just heat the punch up with a propane torch and press it into the plastic. Looks like this:

[Loves2Shoot]

How about making a sandpaper grip? It is very cheap/easy and doesn't add the bulk to the grip that stipiling does, and it is very grippy. SVI's "Scott" is the ticket, but if you don't want to pop out $200 you can do it for less than $5 in materials. If you want more info on how to do it e-mail me.

[Jon Merricks]

Dont look to bad Ron. Have you tried it on an S-I grip yet?

[L9X25]

L2S,

Basically all of the techniques increase the grip to some extent. I tried several techniques (sandpaper, stipple, Scotts) and finally decided on the "do it yourself" Scotts grip. To keep the grip from growing, I re-contoured and reduced the grip size on a belt sander and then applied the adhesive and abrasive materials. The end result was still smaller than a stock grip. If you do not reduce the grip prior to adding the adhesive and abrasive, you will notice that the grip will be noticeably larger.

As you metioned, it is very inexpensive and not terribly difficult to do. The biggest hint is to use small amounts of adhesive to reduce sagging or running. The materials are so inexpesive that you can and should practice on non-valuable items and perfect your technique before attacking the blaster.

There are various colors and grit textures available. I recommend the smaller grits as the larger particles can be very hard on the hands and are very difficult to remove or smooth.

Leo

[Rufus The Bum]

For the price of a soldering iron, you could have Jim Shannahan do it for you, there is none better.

[lynn jones]

jim will even stipple your rudy project glasses.

lynn

[ErikW]

I had a post about doing them myself, can't find it, seems lost. Anyway, I used files, sandpaper, and soldering iron, in that order. I'm very happy with the results on three different guns. Somebody replied to thank me for the post because it encouraged him to do it himself and he's happy with his. It does take a lot of patient work. Try working on similar material first for practice.

If you're going to give it a try, let me know and I'll give you full details.

[Ron Ankeny]

Jon:

I have performed the texture on two STI grips, but I sanded it off and added skate board tape.

L9X25:

What adhesive do you use and what do you use for the texture when you make a do-it-yourself Scott grip?

[Chris40]

Erik Warren I would like to try it email me how it 's done if you don't mind

Thanks

[Loves2Shoot]

Here is an example of what I prefer.

Note: It is very aggressive.

Simple to do:

1. Remove the grip (optional) make sure you do remove the mainspring housing so you don't glue it to the grip.

2. Sand or dremel the grip down smooth.

3. Tape off the areas you do not want to texture

4. Use a quick drying clear auto epoxy (I liked the 5 minute set, but you have to work fast) and a flat small hobby brush (Like BE's dedicated brush for slide glide) to coat the grip with the epoxy.

5. Pour aluminum oxide (or sand blasting type material) of your desired agressiveness/color (note: a more aggressive material with make the grip larger) on the entire grip. Test this process before you try it on your grip, if you don't get enough epoxy on your grip it will have bare spots, too much it make the grip too big. Make sure the grip is well coated.

6. Let the grip sit for a couple of minutes then remove the masking tape and scrape any unwanted texture from the screw holes and wherever else it ended up.

7. Let it cure overnight and there you go.

You can get the grit at any sandbloasting supply store (I got mine free, it doesn't take a whole lot to cover the grip) and the epoxy at any auto parts store. The grip pictured is very aggressive, I have a SV Scott Grip and it is well made also, I just didn't have $200 per gun to put them on all of my guns. Good luck ~ L2S

[L9X25]

Ron,

Look in your local yellow pages under abrasives and you will likely find a few dealers that sells the abrasive media that is used in the production of sandpaper, grinding wheels and other industrial abrasives. You can buy the suff by the pound (looks a lot like gunpowder) and a small amount goes a LONG way. There are diferent types which result in different colors. Silicon carbide is usually very black (and heavy) and aluminum oxide is often brown. The last time I was there they also had blue and a reddish color too.

Each type (color) is available in different "grit" just like sandpaper. The smaller the number the larger the particle size. I initially tried 80-100 grit and found it too coarse on my tender hands. Smaller particles felt much better.

For the adhesive I have used polyester fiberglass resin & hardner and I have also used epoxy. While both gave me acceptable results, I prefer the polyester because of the liquidity for easy application and control and the fact that it is very sticky and retains the particles very well. It is usually the consistency of maple syrup and about as sticky. Others have told me that certain brands of epoxy were even better than my polyester. Be sure to apply the adhesive as thin as possible to stop runs and sags. You can use masking tape to protect areas from runs. I would experiment with a worthless piece of plastic, to perfect your technique, before attacking a $100 grip.

L2S beat me to the punch but what he said agrees with my beliefs. I would estimate that his grit is in the 50-80 range and lookes great but might be too harsh on many hands. That is the esame grit that I initially chose and then changed to a much smaller particle. It works well, is smaller in diameter and MUCH easier on the skin. Try it before you install it!

Good luck,

Leo

[kaiserb]

Here is an example of what I prefer.

Note: It is very aggressive.

Very cool looking.

[Chris40]

Thanks for the info nice pics

[Sixgun]

Loves2Shoot,

Thanks for the e-mail reply. Your grips look very cool.

Did anyone ever try masking off the diamonds, and putting the grit around them, or would that look too cheesy?

Thanks,

Ray C.

[TDean]

Wow, cool L2S. Great stuff.

This opens up a whole new area of tinkering!

[warpspeed]

Julien,

The grips turn color because the heat is too hot. The way that you keep that from happening is with a rheostat (sp?) like they use one wood burning tools. You want to use just enough heat to melt but not burn/oxidize.