Glock grip texturing

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dangthathurt

New member
I'm beginning work on reducing the grip on my Glock 23.

Once I'm done the sanding and honing, what would you guys recommend to texture my grip. Stipling seems to be the standard but Brownell's suggests using truck bed liner applied with a sponge.

I use the gun to shoot paper for fun. No real hard use.

Any advice would be well received (especially with pics of your work.)
 
There are a good number of youtube videos on DIY grip stippling for glocks I highly recommend you watch them. Most of them use a soldering gun with various fine point tips to melt the plastic creating a stippled pattern. FWIW when you send your poly pistol on for this pricey grip enhancement service this is the method they use.
 
Cool. I have been watching those YouTube vids on stipling.
The one thing I was wondering was with removing the finger pads on the Glock the wall of the magwell gets fairly thin. Would stipling further weaken it?
 
Would stipling further weaken it?
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It's possible if you go too deep. Using an iron, you want to set the temperature as low as you can, so it just barely melts the plastic. If it's too hot, you can't control it easy, and the tip can melt through. Being this, you want a soldering iron with adjustable temperature. There is a small Weller brand, and the base unit has a red plastic housing, plus there is the same version out with different brand names, in a gray plastic. I think it is a company in China making them for Weller, and a few others, and it's why it is Weller's cheapest one too. Anyhow, that is the one I would recommend without breaking the bank.

Iron on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Variable-Temperature-Soldering-Station-soldering-iron-40W-with-extra-free-tip-/271033881727?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f1ae0d47f
 
I concur with using checkering files
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Right
You have control with files, and no real control using heat

That said, I like a Hogue slip on grip on mine, but if they don't fit your hand, other options may be better
 
I have not modified a Glock.I did spend 30 years making prototypes,models,molds,etc.I have a few suggestions.

IMO,its pretty risky to start removing material by eye with no way to monitor the remaining material thickness.

If you can lay hands on a dial indicator,a 1 in travel indicator would be ideal,

you can jury rig it into a wall thickness gage.

To go up in the mag well,the ideal might be a 1/4 in rod with a 5/16 ball end.I doubt you have one of those,but it doesn't matter.A long series 3/16 allen wrench or a bent rod,you just need a rigid "finger" to poke up in the mag well,with some feature that will act as a contact point inside the mag well.A smooth radiused end is ideal.Maybe a long carriage bolt screwed into a threaded hole,locked by a nut,and the head ground/modified a bit.

Then you need the means to fix the indicator(a magnetic base might be ideal)

so that the indicator contact point rests on the "finger" thingy I first described.Set the indicator to zero and you have a thickness gage.There are a hundred ways to set it up.Now you can measure remaining material thickness at any point.Its better to know its .061 than to see a flexible thin spot or worse,a hole!Ooopsy...

When modelmaking in plastic,one of my favorite tools was a simple scraper.I had 12 in pieces of feeler gage stock available.Looks lika a hacksaw blade with no teeth.Its hard,springy,and tends to have a good burr develop if you grind the end of it.I'd cut off maybe 4 inches of oh,.016 to .028 thickness stock with an abrasive cutoff wheel,then at a bench grinder I would just grind whatever shape I wanted across the end.Convex or concave radius,straight,angle,depending on what I was shaping.The grinder will leave a burr on the backside.That burr is your cutter.I might dress it abit with a fine india stone,but don't remove all of it.Lay that on your workpiece,flex the feeler gagea bit for some cutter pressure,and drag it on your workpiece.It will cut fine shavings.What is nice,your workpiece will be smooth.No "fuzzies" like a file or dry sand paper,and no filemarks.

When you sand plastic,use the black wet or dry paper,and use it wet.Much better results,and no fuzz.A red rubber eraser makes a nice conforming sanding block to wrap paper around.

IMO,grab the grip in a the fashion you intend,and consider two things.What feels like a high spot? a pressure point that is annoying?
And,taking a natural grip,where is the point of aim?A laser cartridge would help here.Scrape to "sight in" your point and shoot.

I suggest its like fitting a piece of steel to a piece of wood,lower offending high spots...but know what you are removing and why.Take off as little material as possible.IMO,sculpting for a fashion designer "look" would not be productive.
 
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Stippling isn't done with heat. It's done with a nail or other pointy tool and a mallet.
Either way, Glocks aren't plastic. They're polymers. Different thing. You will not weaken the frame by poking it with something hot.
The Hogue/Pachmayr slip on is better anyway.
 
A lot of boldly stated misinformation here.
I have received quite a bit of education from the big boys in the industry.

Polymer is about chaining complex molecules called monomers.Cooking an egg is a polymerization process.

A zip lock bag is made of polymer.So are natural materials like cellulose.

Try reading here:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/468696/polymer

I did try searching for what material Glock uses.I found a "polymer engineering firm" that said it was trade secret,but most likely a graphite filled polyamide...more commonly called Nylon.There are a ton of different Nylons,Zytel being one.

It is true,some polymers,subset plastics,are thermoset.They may begin as a liquid or compression formed solid,and they transform via heat or catylization.Tire rubber,polyester and epoxy are examples.More heat just overcooks them,but they don't melt.

But many polymers,subset plastics,are thermoplastic resins.They melt when heated.Nylons are fairly high temp.I recall setting up injection barrels to processing temps 430-480 deg f ?approx.for nylons.Important not,nylons are hygroscopic.They suck water out of the air.The water really degrades moldability and engineering properties.Desicant bed dryers must be used on the material till processing.

Glock frames do melt with heat,and here is a youtube vid of a guy working over hs Glock with a woodburning pen.
http://youtu.be/IBwpi-TabeQ
 
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I found a "polymer engineering firm" that said it was trade secret
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Years ago, I was a sales rep for Tregaskiss mig guns, and their plastic handles were a trade secret, or about what they were made of. They told us reps, while in Windsor, that NASA developed the plastic. You could whack it with a sledge hammer, or run over it with a car (I did that test there in the parking lot), and you could not break it. I would imagine it being something similar, as I don't think I've heard of a Glock frame breaking. I was later told, when American Torch Tip bought Tregaskiss, that it was a form of Lexan, or developed from it.
 
Lexan is a tradename for a polycarbonate.I have machined a lot of it.I've fabricated with the sheet stock,and built a number of injection molds for Lexan parts.I've also attended GE seminars on the use of their resins,Lexan among them.
Its remarkable stuff.Extremely impact resistant.It is literally used to stop bullets.Much"bulletproof glass" is lexan.

If you are machining it,particularly drilling and tapping,breaking the molecular chains as you cut it releases heat.Its not real conductive,so the heat stays local.The plastic melts.Its so bad,you can melt the material in a hole hand tapping.Use low speeds,clear chips often,and use water as cutting fluid.

Polycarb's weakness is chemical compatability.Exposure to some chemicals make it look like a hot glass marble dropped into ice water.

It can be solvent bonded with the MEK,Meth Chloride,Chloroform sort of solvents...but not necessarily successfully.They often cause cracking.

I.personally,would prefer the carbon filled Zytel for handgun frames.

There are some very high temp moldable thermoplastics.Its been a while,but seems like melt temps around 700 f.I cant recall the trade names right now,but I have molded some.Ultem,maybe?

You may start hearing of Glock frames breaking.The engineering resins are expensive.What is more expensive is machine cycle time,parts per hour.
Plastics conduct heat slowly,and the mold has to remain closed till the plastic cools enough to set,or the parts warp and sag in the bin.

Thin walls cool quickly,thick walls much more slowly.

The stuff you are filing off cost Glock a lot of money.It may be there for a reason.
Thin walls plus a lot of little stress risers via soldering irons seems like a recipe for failure.
I might soften an offending corner,or get some daylight under a trigger finger,but not the radical stuff.
 
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HiBC,

PTFE or Teflon, a fluoropolymer, is high heat, but I don't think it goes up to 700 Deg, only around 600. It is used not only for cooking, but in broadcast vacuum tube chimneys, to force the blowers air flow through their fins, and has a high voltage dialectic value. It has other uses in electronics, where high heat is involved.

On the Glock's, my best guess is colored Lexan, or something similar. I still prefer all steel, or a steel and aluminum mix myself. Plastic frames still have a steel insert in them for the slide ways. I still curse High Standard to this day, over their Duramatic, as that is the gun that gave everyone the idea of plastic frames, though they used a steel at the top of the grip too.
 
I don't know for sure what they use.No point in arguing speculation.Polycarb can take impact,but it does not like a sustained stress.Like a roll pin pressed in a hole.It also is very sensitive to some solvents a gun may see,and these cause stress cracking..Its not what I would choose.
Expert speculation on Glock mtl:
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=217353

A lot of the material referred to as "graphite" for fishing reel bodies,etc is graphite filled nylon.

The higher temp plastics like Ultem and PEET are typically used in medical equiptment that must withstand autoclaving.

Here is a link to a chart of processing temps for a variety of plastics.Note PET exceeds 700 f

http://www.plasticservice.com/ProcessingTemps.aspx

Teflon is an interesting and useful product but its mechanical properties are not so great....about like cream cheese.I have machined a fair amount of it.Think solid Teflon tape.
 
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HiBC,

On the Ultem and PEET, are they RF stable (microwaveable)? I'm interested in this for something other than Guns, and didn't know that the temperature rating was that high. What kind of mechanical properties do they have?
 
I can't answer that,other than to say mechanical properties are pretty good,about 16,500 on tensile.If you search Ultem and PEET plastics,you can find properties,and supplers of rod,sheet,etc.
 
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