Saturday, June 4, 2011

Crosman 112 needs some new grips

Hot off the Crosman 116, I stripped and resprayed the old longer barreled 112. Didn't see a reason to blog the tear down and rebuild as it was identical in every way.

For some reason, probably too much time between coats of paint, the wrinkle paint didn't wrinkle. Devious. It produced a sort of bumpy, lumpy texture. Since it wasn't what I was after, it got stripped off and re-shot with less time between coats. Worked perfectly the second time around. Maybe even a bit better than on the 116. Definitely some learning curve to the wrinkle finish.

Since I'd sent the original 112 grips off to Nick, I had to do something. (And that was the idea for sending the grips off to Nick.) Anyway, there was a grip party as you can see. Just some spare grips from various guns for "research". Settled on using some rosewood left over from a knife handle project that's still languishing due to chronic laziness. I truly wanted to just make a set of simple grips and use up some of the wood on hand.

The rosewood by itself wasn't quite thick enough for the grips, so I Gorilla glued a thin piece of maple--about 1/8"--to add some thickness.

Fascinating, I know. Glued wood. The rosewood is sandwiched in the vise with a walnut and another maple backer. It was handy and it was flat. And a few clamps. Never too many clamps when gluing.

A day later, an inseparable piece.

Chopped the piece to size.

Traced the grip frame onto the piece.

And did a quick cut out.

Cleaned up the edges.

Wow, this looks bad.

Maybe if I back up. Nope. Still awful.

Started shaping the sides.





Asymmetrical curve to the top.

And notched the trailing edge.

Spotted for the grip screw hole and through drilled. Followed by countersinking for the head of the #6-32 grip screw.

Getting there. Overtones of a 1911 grip shaped to fit the 112 frame. I don't completely hate it.

Sanded more curve into the grips. They're almost completely curved in profile now. Added a relief cut at the bottom for some visual appeal. Made the second grip to match. The grip on the right has been finish sanded and lightly polished.

One coat of Arrow wood finish on the right.

And on both.

Just laid the grip on the frame.

Reassembled the 112 and bolted the grips on.

Still need to add a blind pin or a protrusion to keep the grips from rotating on the frame, but they're good enough for now.

More soon.

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