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Post by Robster on Mar 29, 2017 20:22:19 GMT -5
OK, Thanks to the generosity of forum member Steve, I have drilled and added the estucheons. yup, I screwed them up. Fortunately I screwed up the inside, non-show panel and the outside one came out good. no problem, I will epoxy a few chips into the screw up, sand and call it good. it'll be facing my body in the holster so will not be seen. I am up to 1000 grit sandpaper on the panel I screwed up and still at 200 on the right or outside one. So there will more pics coming as these are of the work in progress. Side I screwed up: What I call the "show side":
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Post by potatojudge on Mar 29, 2017 20:28:33 GMT -5
Getting there! Bisley grips are daunting, and I bet that extra partial hole fills and polishes to be nearly invisible.
Now what's the story of that gun? It's got a Harton look with that chamfer and subdued CCH. Love it.
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cmh
.401 Bobcat
Posts: 3,745
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Post by cmh on Mar 29, 2017 21:05:47 GMT -5
Those look fantastic..... great job!!!! 😊
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Post by Robster on Mar 30, 2017 3:50:39 GMT -5
Potatojudge, you hit the nail on the head. It's a Vaquero, not the new model, .45 lc. I had Harton do his black powder chamfer, action job, opened the rear site, fit stag grips, remove the surgeon general warning from the barrel and he sent it to Turnbull for their case hardening. I'm just goofing around with the grips for myself because I really like sheep horn with bark but do not want to pay the big buck, or ship the gun for another pair.
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steve
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,502
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Post by steve on Mar 30, 2017 8:15:35 GMT -5
I think they look great, and that is a gorgeous gun! Potatojudge is right, I bet once expoyed and sanded you'll never be able to tell.
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Post by contender on Mar 30, 2017 8:43:12 GMT -5
One of the first lessons in grip making is to get your holes drilled before any final fitting & all. But,,, as with anything,,, we live & learn. My first set didn't come out like I wanted,,, and I realized I had to drill my grip screw holes early on. After that,,, much better. But, those are coming along nicely.
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Post by potatojudge on Mar 30, 2017 9:55:11 GMT -5
Lots of ways to skin that cat. What's worked for me is fitting the top of the grips to the grip frame, drilling the locator holes oversized slightly, then clamping them with a bit of epoxy to the gun with pressure up and towards the top of the frame so that fit is as tight as possible. The blanks are still flat on the sides, so over to the drill press for ferrules and the screw and after that do all the contouring you want.
At least that's the crutch I use since fitting that top part seems to be the most difficult and easily seen if imperfect. There's also the FA style where the fit isn't perfect but the top of the grip is undercut slightly leaving the over-hang looking like a "perfect" fit.
Robster, I really like these semi-customs like yours. Much more affordable, 100% better than stock, and tailored to your style.
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Post by Robster on Mar 30, 2017 10:16:26 GMT -5
Thanks, I enjoy my semi-customs as much as my customs!!
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caryc
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,040
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Post by caryc on Mar 30, 2017 12:45:59 GMT -5
No real need to get too nuts sanding down to 2000 grit. I've made lots of rams horn grips and the most I will hand sand down to is 400 grit. Of course I have a bench buffer, but if you don't have one, you can get some 6" polishing wheels for a bench grinder. Most of them turn at 3450 rpm same as a buffer. I use three different polishing compounds. Two of them are for polishing plastic and are available at McMasters.com. One is a cutting compound to remove any sanding scratches. The other is a "coloring" compound. That one is to get to a finished surface. But the final and best one I use is from Brownells. It is Brownells 555 White, for putting mirror finishes on stainless. After using the first two compounds you might be satisfied with the finish but when you use the 555 white and get that mirror like finish on them, you might see very tiny scratches that were not even visible before. In that case, I give them a light sanding with 600 grit paper and repolish with the 555 white. This will give you a beautiful finish and eliminate a lot of hand sanding. If you use different polishing compounds be sure you to use different wheels for each compound. Never mix compounds on a polishing wheel. I don't know if you've seen this link before but it shows how I make a set of rams horn grips. You can see how I drill the grip screw hole. I drill a small pilot hole first then use a 1/4" counterbore also available at McMasters. It's a lot safer than using a plain old 1/4" drill bit. Your grips really look great. Well crap! I made this post before I noticed that there was a page two in this thread. As far as that grip screw hole, I guess you can now see why I use that counterbore. It's pretty much screw up proof. If you haven't tried to repair that hole yet, You might take some of your scrap horn material and do some aggressive sanding on it to get a batch of horn material sanding dust. Then mix it with a a two part epoxy resin that dries clear, like Devcon high strength 2 ton epoxy. Mix the sanding dust in with it till you get a good color and fill in the hole with it then sand smooth and repolish. Good luck with it. www.clccustomgrips.com/RamBuild.html
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Post by Robster on Mar 30, 2017 19:20:56 GMT -5
Thanks for the link and info. I actually took chips of the horn and jammed them in the hole with crazy glue. I'll sand it down and see how it looks. As I had mentioned I am glad it screwed up on the inside panel and i did not screw up the outside panel. they are not perfect, but i am happy with how they came out. It's the one and only pair I am going to make. I made them because most grip makers don't do ram's horn with bark and i really like the look of the bark on it. you guys definitely earn your money with custom grips!!!
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caryc
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,040
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Post by caryc on Mar 30, 2017 19:29:23 GMT -5
Thanks for the link and info. I actually took chips of the horn and jammed them in the hole with crazy glue. I'll sand it down and see how it looks. As I had mentioned I am glad it screwed up on the inside panel and i did not screw up the outside panel. they are not perfect, but i am happy with how they came out. It's the one and only pair I am going to make. I made them because most grip makers don't do ram's horn with bark and i really like the look of the bark on it. you guys definitely earn your money with custom grips!!! Hey you did a nice job on those and since you now know the process, why not make another set? You'll only get better at it. I got started in the grip business because I wanted a blonde colored set of wood grips for one of my guns. Since no one was offering them, I decided I'd have to make them myself, So, I made that set of grips out of bird's eye maple. That's what got me started. Here's the only set of ram's horn grips I made with bark on them.
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Post by Robster on Mar 30, 2017 19:38:26 GMT -5
They look AWESOME!!!! I just read through your tutorial, great info there!!! I like how you standardized and streamlined your process.
I guess I should never say never, BUT....I already have a million irons in the fire, I don't need another one!!!!
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caryc
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,040
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Post by caryc on Mar 31, 2017 0:33:21 GMT -5
They look AWESOME!!!! I just read through your tutorial, great info there!!! I like how you standardized and streamlined your process. I guess I should never say never, BUT....I already have a million irons in the fire, I don't need another one!!!! Someone once told me that they saw an old square rigged sailing vessel in the bark on the left grip !! I didn't notice it until he mentioned it.
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Post by Robster on Mar 31, 2017 3:51:29 GMT -5
They look AWESOME!!!! I just read through your tutorial, great info there!!! I like how you standardized and streamlined your process. I guess I should never say never, BUT....I already have a million irons in the fire, I don't need another one!!!! Someone once told me that they saw an old square rigged sailing vessel in the bark on the left grip !! I didn't notice it until he mentioned it. I can see it as well!! that's pretty cool!!!
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Post by Robster on Apr 3, 2017 20:52:16 GMT -5
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