Wed, Aug 29, 2007, 4:15am (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (jdarylh1) doth sayeth: I want to get there as fast and easily as possible. That's why I have nail guns, cordless drills and power saws. I can probably make one without a duplicator, but after making a test version out of pine, I started thinking that there had to be a faster, easier way. My clay model is really precise in terms of fit, and to exactly (or close) duplicate that in wood has been a slow, tedious process. The pine grip wasn't all that successful, but it was my first. The next one will be better but I'm looking for a better way to transfer the dimensions and rough it in other than trace, measure, get the calipers, etc.
Yeah, I've got power tools, but sometimes it's more relaxing to just do something by hand.
Well, you could make a pair of grips like I did, with wood filler, and mold it. I used saran wrap around the revolver grip area, packed on filler, set some saran wrap on that, then fit my hand on it, and squeezed. When it dried, sanded it, tried it, added filler, repeat. Took a couple or three days to finish, but wound up with totally custom gps, with finger grooves, and thumb rest. Completely form fitting. As a house gun it would aim exactly where I pointed my hand, didn't need to use sights. That's one way.
Or, you could cave balsa, that'd go fast, and soak it with epoxy when done But If I was doing it, and had hard clay molds I wanted to copy, I'd make a simple duplicator, with a Dremel type tool. Fix it and a pinin a fixture, suspend that from a frame with springs (maybe hinges on the back side, and two springs in the front), and have the frame on casters (Hell, you could even cut hollows, and roll it on marbles), so it could move. Have the model, and piece to be carved fastened from below, so they won't shift. I'd rough cut excess of the piece to be carved. Then just lower the fixture, so a guide pin can go over the model, and have the Dremel spaced so it will go over the piece to be carved. That should rough cut well enough. For a one-time thing anyway. I'd still just prefer the filler method, unless you want pretty wood, to show off.
I was gonna mold a woodfiller cheeck rest for my squirrel rifle, but wound up laminating one instead. But I'll probably mold one for a scoped air rifle..
JOAT What is life without challenge and a constant stream of new humiliations?
- Peter Egan