Making my own grips?

[mike780]

Of course if carbon fibre is the look you're going for, you can buy it in sheet form and work it with a drill and sander/dremel more or less like a wood panel (although you'll want to make the long cuts with a hacksaw). Just be sure you're dealing with the dust it throws off 'cause that stuff is brutal. CF also uses up your abrasives pretty quickly. Over all though, a pair of these would probably cost a fair bit less than making plugs and then moulds and then castings- especially if you're not familiar with casting parts.

[Cokrkilr]

The main thing I'm going for is having clear grips again :) my dye ones are yellow and they don't sell them anymore... just the crappy carbon fiber look alikes that really just look like a checkerboard.

The cf would just be a fun thing to try, like with the colored weave stuff deep set in some 1/4" thick epoxy... mmmmm-hmmmm.

I had also thought about buying carbon sheets in a couple different colors and seeing if you could accomplished a finish like a fancy laminate rifle stock?

[mike780]

That would probably be a job for micarta or g-10. If you're looking to diy you can even make your own micarta, and it doesn't puke out the brutal itchy cancer dust like g-10 or CF.

[OPBN]

I googled "clear dye grips" and found a few places that seem to have some NOS and for only like $10. Try www.productionpb.com

[Cokrkilr]

Thanks for the research OPBN, but Im looking to replicate these grips shown below. I have only found them in the extremely crappy finish of "checkerboard" (Dyes terrible version of carbon fiber using black and white)

Heres what I want! But I will style my version a little different, I may try to incorporate the "wave" design of my Benchmark rail into the grip, tie it all together

By the way, Luke, since I have your attention a little bit in this thread... Ive been kicking around an idea that would be SWEEEEEEET if you could do for a decent price... im going to pause right now and go to paint and include a terrible pic of what id like to mill.... some one off amazingness...


Ok, grip first.


Now, forgive my horrible mouse-manship, Luke, but you should get the idea


Maybe make the radius around the back oval almost exact to the oval, to keep some meat in the rail around the valve area. Ive been thinking about this a lot recently... ever since I went to your damn site and saw all the bad butt rails, but I really like mine. and I think It would end up being awesome... with some hand sanding contouring back into the frame around the waves so there isnt a hard edge, it would just "flow", haha... let me know if its something youd take on. I have a pneumag kit coming in now so Ill have the marker apart for a bit while I fit it (realistically maybe a day, lol)

[Henchman]

You can buy a carbon fibre mold kit here:

http://www.eastbaycomposites.com/

I bought their carbon fibre only kit, to wrap existing grips with CF.
I have done some other bits as well.


Untitled by markwhensley, on Flickr




Untitled by markwhensley, on Flickr

[OPBN]

Odd, the ones I linked to seem to be pretty close to what you have and if you look closely actually have some sort of finger impressions that mimick the groovy frame simliar to what you are wanting to do. Slap some CF film on the back of them and you're there. No worries, just trying to help. Good luck.

[Cokrkilr]

OPBN, the link you posted is for dye sticky grips, they are a wrap around .45 grip similar to a hogue grip for a regular ol' 1911. While they are a nice comfy grip, and I've owned a few sets in my day, its just not really what I'm going for.

And when I was referring to the wavy milled pattern it was intended to be in the grip panel itself, not around the front like a wrap around style grip... to mimic the lines in my benchy rail :)

For example, if I left the outside smooth section of the panel the same, then the area where the where the dye logo and little nubs are I still left recessed a little bit, but did 3 of the waves like ones in my rail in it.

Hopefully that's a little more detailed as to what id like to do :)

[OPBN]

My bad, didn't realize they were wraparound. www.paintballgateway.com has just the panels.

[Cokrkilr]

OMG! have you ever been open mouth kissed by a man!!! How the heck did you find those!!!! I have seriously scoured tons of paintball websites and Googled a bunch of different terms and came back with nothing...

Now its decision time, do a project or take the easy way out?

Thanks OPBN, that's awesome man

[OPBN]

OMG! have you ever been open mouth kissed by a man!!!

That's a story for another thread.

Just typed in "dye panels clear". PB Gateway has a lot of older stock. Glad to help.

[Cokrkilr]

Seriously? I searched probably 10 different name combinations and all I ever came back with was the printed ones.

Thanks again though!