Continuing from Part 1...
With the grip rough cut in profile, started the tedious process of sanding to shape.
My primary tool for shaping--a cheap Harbor Freight drill press and various diameters of sanding drums.
The sanding drum refills are difficult to find in local hardware stores. McMaster-Carr has a huge selection of diameters and grits for about $8 per 24 drums.
Whenever I make a grip like this, I turn to the internet for design inspiration and look at all the .22 target guns from MatchGuns, Pardini, Hammerli, Walther, Benelli... and the custom grip makers like Nill-Griffe, Rink...
And then I start gnawing away.
The shape evolves. Always trying to make it fit my hand more comfortably. The top edge against my thumb joint can be a sore spot.
And getting the palm swell in the right spot is challenging. Grab the grip, point at an imaginary target on the wall. Take a bit more off at a pressure point. Repeat.
When I got bored with drum sanding, I fired up the 4x36 belt sander and cleaned up some edges.
About a week later, after working on the grip here and there after work, it was time to make it attach to the Hammerli frame.
Some M4 socket head cap strews.
And took a hard look at that Hammerli frame again. Gonna make inserts that fit in those webbed pockets.
Before that happened, I put the clearance holes for the M4 screws into the left side of the grip.
Counter bored to sink the heads of the screws below flush.
Only need to attach the grip from one side.
Another detour. Screw cups to reinforce the holes in the wood. This isn't mandatory, but it sure is a nice touch.
Two of these were spotted, through drilled and counter bored from some scrap steel rod. I'll need at least one, maybe two for the palm shelf later.
Cut to length.
The screw fits like this into the cup. Cups will get blued later.
Now, insert nuts for the grip frame. Cut and milled two small pieces of aluminum.
These will fit into the right side of the grip frame against the recessed web. The outside edges are below flush with the grip frame so the wood grip slips right over.
Some magic marker as layout fluid will be used to show where to drill the holes.
By drilling and threading these inserts, the grip can be securely tightened from the left side to sandwich the frame. No more wiggly grip.
With the grip slid over the frame and tight against the gas tube at the top and tight against the heel of the grip frame at the back, the holes were spotted.
Drill and thread for the M4 grip screw at the punch mark.
The smaller secondary punch mark on this one told me which nut was which.
Drilled and tapped.
I'll have more up in a few days. As always, we appreciate everyone checking in.
Sweet! Nice touch on the spacer/nuts. I was wondering how you were going to address the issue of tightening the grip to the frame. I've seen one or two locally that are drilled through and use regular hex nuts on the right side to allow the screws to tighten up. Functional, but not pretty. It's interesting to see folks opt for different choices, I expected the screw cups to be blinged a bit with brass rod. The blued steel should blend better with the black screw heads though, nice choice.
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