Posted: 5/14/2008 4:32:13 PM EDT
| I did a search and did not find anything. I would like to texture the grip on my XD that I see here and there. Has anybody ever done this on their own? I don't think traditional methods for stippling will work. It looks like the pros use a soldiering iron or something similar. What do you guys think? |
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I use adhesive texture grips on my Glocks. They work great and won't come off until you remove them. I would be hesitant to take a Dremel or soldiering iron to an XD. I am pretty sure it would void the warrenty. Decal grips |
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I'm not to concerned about the warranty on the firearm. I would like to know how it's done. My firearm hobby goes way beyond just shooting them. I love to fix and modify my guns as well as my friends and family's guns. I would like to texture my XD but I don't want to go into the process blind. I might try it on a P22 instead of my XD. I hate that gun, and if I destroy it in the process I won't miss it. Of course, the plastic lower is replaceable and if I do break it, it should not be to much of a problem as it is not the registered part of the gun. When you say adhesive texture, do you mean stuff similar to skateboard grip tape? |
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ok, here is how you do it, and how I did it. -buy a weller soldering iron, I bought a SP23LK model, its a 25W Iron so it wont totaly melt the crap out of your gun. - Buy some slotted head brass 10-24 thread machine screws, about 1" long so they can screw into the soldering iron and transfer heat well. - Next take your a screw and cut a criss-cross cut pattern in the screw head with a dremel tool of some sorts, you want it to look like a waffle type of a pattern with the all the cuts intersecting each other. - Next get a very small triangular shaped needle file(easily found at tool stores), and start to file each cut to bring the cuts into a diamond pointed shape, similar to what checkering on a wood stock would look like. This is where you want to take some time because this pattern will be melted into your grip. - Now lay out the area you want stippled on your pistol, I used a pencil first to lay out the idea, then went back over it with a fine tip sharpie, you can google "grip stippling" to see some of the patterns that the "pro's" use and charge alot for. - Now thread in your screw to your soldering iron, plug it in and your good to go. it may take a few minutes to get good and hot. I had a plastic tool case that the dremel came in so I tried texturing in that first before I went to town on my XD. you should rotate the soldering iron in different positions to get a nice even melt across the grip. Also as you do the grip use a small wire brush to clean out the diamonds of your bit because they can get a little clogged up with plastic. - When your all done the grip is pretty rough, so I used a fine grit foam sanding block to knock down some high or rough spots, also take the block with you to the range when you shoot the first couple of times so you can fine tune how you want the grip to feel. - I have done a few pistols now this way, and ever person that has it loves it! It took me about 2-3 hours the first time with making the screw bit, then its about an hour or so once your bit it made. So after all that here is some pictures of my XD, a close up of the texture, and what the bit should look like http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2051/campics1gx9.th.jpg http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/3149/campics1012mw4.th.jpg http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/2189/stipplingbit001wz6.th.jpg http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/5936/stipplingbit002co1.th.jpg |
| jaked02, thanks for the reply. I had some liquid courage last night and decided to go to town on my XD's grip. I just used the standard tip on my iron and my results are not quite what I wanted. I will take some pictures so you guys can see what not to do. I think it is fixable, but it's just not uniform enough for my taste. I'm going to pick up a couple brass screws and produce some tips to try out. |
Got to love the liquid courage. I keep wanting to try out stippling one of my grips but just hadn't got up the non liquid courage |
use a plastic tool box to try it out first, like the ones the drills come in, thats what I did when I was trying out new design ideas |