Homemade 1911 grip stocks

[LastManOut]

I just finished making these grip stocks from burl wood ash for the Springfield 1911 I just got from turkeyduster after adding the new trigger from jtkratzer.

[SteveD]

Nice grips...I've got a block of Zebrawood I've been saving for mine,just no time.

What size bit did you use for the grip screws?

[Dan77]

Nice !!!!! Can you give some procedures on how you made them. Machine/By hand.

[jtkratzer]

That trigger looks nice on that parkerized frame/slide. Let me know how it goes on the range.

[RocketFoot]

Very nice! You should go into business making those! Good job...

[LastManOut]

Okay, the procedure I used to make these stocks.

I had a nice 1" thick slab of burl ash for special projects.

I first wet the face with mineral spirits to view the grain patterns, positioned one of the factory plastic grip panels on the slab to find the right pattern.

I rough cut the piece out of the slab on a Shopsmith bandsaw and laid out the exact position of the grip panels viewing both sides of the wood avoiding unwanted defects.

I then cut the wood to size with 1/32" extra all around, notching for the back-strap retaining pin, then drilled the screw holes on the Shopsmith drill press, reconfigured the SS for band saw mode and re-sawed the 1" wood down the middle.

The SS was reconfigured to drill press mode and the depth of bore was set to enlarge the holes on the back to fit over the grip panel studs.

With the Shopsmith in disk sanding mode w/ #100 sand-disk to shape the panels individually and flatten the back, bevel the top and bottom edges. The pin barrel and mag release notches were filed by hand with rat-tail files of different diameters and coarseness, fitting the pieces as I went.

Once the fit and thickness were correct (3/16" was added to each panel to accommodate my big mitts.) the depth of bore for the screw heads was set, each one individually since the thickness varied between each screw hole slightly.

The panels were sanded to #220 and applied 3 coats of Zar Sa tin polyurethane sanding with a scrubby-pad between coats.

I just ordered stainless allen-head cap screws that should be here later this week to complete the project.

The whole build took me about 4 hours labor. (I charge $50/hr for shop time, so I'd price myself out of any market for selling them.)

Thanks for asking.

[normanvin]

Very nice! You should go into business making those! Good job...

I agree.........

[DCChris]

Gorgeous grips!! Great job!!

[deth502]

[SIZE="3"]
I rough cut the piece out of the slab on a Shopsmith bandsaw

then drilled the screw holes on the Shopsmith drill press, reconfigured the SS for band saw mode .

The SS was reconfigured to drill press mode

With the Shopsmith in disk sanding mode

wow, those machines really can do anything !!!

[LastManOut]

wow, those machines really can do anything !!!

Yep, just place the wood on top of it and push the button. It spits out what ever you want.