Yet Another Grip for a 22XX pistol- Part 1

Yeah, another detour away from making that rear sight.   These grips are a higher priority on the list of needs/wants right now.  I've got way, way too many Crosman 22XX pistols and I harbor a strong distaste for the stock grips.  I'd really like to make three or so sets of wood grips, but the tedious nature of the work gets to me.   A few months ago, I cut out the rough outline of the grips from the leftover plank of rosewood from the Crosman 150 grip project.  The blanks were set aside as I worked on other things. 















As I wanted to move these along, I opted to cut some maple spacers rather than inlet the rosewood to the frame.  I'll gloss over a bunch of stuff here since we've covered making grips so many times.  The key to making the spacers work on the 22XX frame is using a piece exactly 0.125" thick.  This should save the time and effort of routing the inside edges of each grip to properly fit the frame.  I rough cut the maple with a small Japanese pull saw and sanded two edges.  It wasn't exactly precise.  The spacer really only needs to be fitted at the top and leading edge.  The other sides will be worked down later with the rosewood.

Drilled a through hole for the grip screw boss.  Hole is oversized.  It could be slotted, notched...as long as the boss fits through.  Note:  sacrificial board underneath so the maple doesn't splinter.

Again, the boss just needs to pass through.

Here's the only place I'm really concerned with fitting at the moment.  The top, back corner against the grip frame.  It's 1/8" thick and just acts as filler.

Wiped the rosewood with acetone then glued the maple spacer to the grip with Gorilla glue.

Clamped it in rubber vise jaws and a couple clamps.  The goal is no air pockets.

After the glue dried, I trimmed off the squeeze out then finished the minimal fitting to the frame.  Trimmed the grips to clear the safety boss on each side.

Used a small sanding drum.

Then transferred the two small locator boss protrusions from the top of the grip frame.  Pressing the grip hard against the frame indented the spots to be drilled.

With the grip now flush to the frame, I sorted through the number drill bits until I found one the just cleared the threads in the frame and used it to mark the grip underneath.  A transfer punch also would've worked, but the drill bits were already on the bench.

Drilled through with a slightly larger bit to clear the necessary #6-32 grip screw.

Flipped over and used a forstner bit to counterbore for the head of the screw.

Just showing one side, but it's tight against the frame.  Sanding to shape will be the next step.

More soon.