Crazy Idea

[Vettepartz]

I don't have a 3-D printer, but maybe some other forum members do own one and have experience using one. Would it be possible to take a nice set of 'Coke' grips, and duplicate them on a 3-D printer using some dark brown plastic media? Of course you would have to re-work the estuchion areas to fit some real ones from scrapped grips. I have seen some items that were re-produced on these printers and they look pretty darn close to the originals. Just a crazy thought.

 

[rocknroad]

...and drive the value down for the real-deal cokes, due to the abundance of low-priced alternatives for shooters.

Or, this might be easier: Love the new knock-around stocks on the Outdoorsman

Probably just as crazy.

 

[younggun22]

...and drive the value down for the real-deal cokes, due to the abundance of low-priced alternatives for shooters.

Or, this might be easier: Love the new knock-around stocks on the Outdoorsman

Probably just as crazy.

I really don’t think they would have any effect on the “real deal” market.

Plastic replica stocks have been around for decades and they don’t have any effect on their wood counter parts

 

[SDH]

You could use walnut chips and brass dust media and make real ones! Everybody knows a 3D printer can make anything!

 

[gwpercle]

You could use walnut chips and brass dust media and make real ones! Everybody knows a 3D printer can make anything!

Ain't that the truth ...
Last night , on TV , I watched a 3D Printer making the parts for a ...drum roll please .....
3D Printer !

 

[DWalt]

Knowing almost nothing about 3D printers, I'd expect that the (plastic) material being used to make the object is fairly, if not prohibitively, expensive. Then the printer has to be programmed to print the object. I have no idea what is involved in that.

 

[Deacon KC]

Yes, if you can do the program work a 3D printer could certainly make them. I have made gunstands, feed bins for spent primers, etc on mine. It will need a FDM printer as the resin ones material would not stand up to the recoil effects. Look on a site called Thingiverse, it will amaze you what can be made.

 

[Muley Gil]

I once had a pair of Franzite grips that were molded copies of "Cokes."

 

[jmace57]

Ain't that the truth ...
Last night , on TV , I watched a 3D Printer making the parts for a ...drum roll please .....
3D Printer !

I have read that this is the plan for when the LONG space missions take place. And colonization. 3D Printers will make more 3D printers first, then start producing the other items.

 

[mikerjf]

Don't hold your breath. The specialty materializer in the Starship Enterprise's officers mess couldn't even make a decent cappuccino...

 

[DWalt]

Don't hold your breath. The specialty materializer in the Starship Enterprise's officers mess couldn't even make a decent cappuccino...

Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet) could make anything. Even whiskey in bottles.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqTs__x381c[/ame]

 

[Modified]

If you are going to that kind of trouble it would be better to see about reproducing Ropers.

Very specifically, sort out the different measurements Roper used to customize the grips for different hand sizes. Then adjust the various features for different hand dimensions: (swoop at the base to force your fingers together, angled rest for the middle finger, thumb rest, mock thumbrest, finger grooves, palm swell, the bit right under your trigger finger that pushes out your finger so that the knuckle or the pad rests on the trigger as deisred, etc).

In theory you should be able to produce a series of designs that can then be adjusted based on the hand measurements (finger length, finger thickness, palm size, etc.)

 

[Art Doc]

A plethora of repros will not affect original value. There's already several outfits making "Cokes" in wood.

 

[Pondoro]

You need a 3D scanner and you scan the original object. Then the printer prints a near-duplicate. The plastic is not expensive, but doesn't look much like real wood. The idea of printing custom grips for different hand sizes is a good one. Go to a dealer and squeeze ten different grips, choose your favorite, they print them right now. Target shooters do not care if the grips look pretty. Printed plastic grips should become so cheap that you'd buy your three favorite and then shoot with them to see what you do best with.

 

[Modified]

You need a 3D scanner and you scan the original object. Then the printer prints a near-duplicate. The plastic is not expensive, but doesn't look much like real wood. The idea of printing custom grips for different hand sizes is a good one. Go to a dealer and squeeze ten different grips, choose your favorite, they print them right now. Target shooters do not care if the grips look pretty. Printed plastic grips should become so cheap that you'd buy your three favorite and then shoot with them to see what you do best with.

I would say there is little reason to do this, as it is the route taken by many plastic grip makers over the years. There is no shortage of such grips to be had, going back even before WW2 to Murad, and then Franzite. Since that time there have been too many makers doing this for me to even start to list.

Something new would be applying Walter Roper's extensive experiments and the resultant knowledge to 3D printing. Anyone considering printing grips would be well served to read his book 'Experiments of a Handgunner' in particular. There is opportunity in applying the lessons from that book to modern technology.

Most people look at pictures of Ropers and find them pretty, and maybe neat, but they just can't understand the implications of what they are seeing without actually handling many different pairs. There's an entire lost art there which only seems to find any application in the extremely bulky and ugly free pistol grips. Old Ropers show that the notions involved in grips fitting your hand so that there is no shift under recoil, without requiring a death grip, doesn't need to be ugly or bulky, but can in fact be attractive and functional.

Roper grips aren't just pretty, they are also technical in the extreme, but few have handled (or better yet) shot with them enough to start to realize what Walter Roper was talking about in his books.