Wood AR-15 Grips: Day Three
On the third day of our Wood AR-15 Furniture build we decided to put the stock to rest and re focus on the wood grips. This ended up be a very good decision because it turned out to be by far the most rewarding day of the build so far.
After two days of trying to wrap our heads around how we were going to tackle the wood to achieve our vision and then making the first rough cuts, it was nice to get down into the details and start shaping the grips. We had cut and sanded the wood grip panels to fit the grip frames on Day One so today was all about attaching the panels to the frame and then shaping them to feel good in hand.
As we drilled and counter sunk the wood panels, we realized that using the same screws that came with the Executive Ordnance G10 Grips would mean that we would only have about 3/32nds of an inch of wood between the head of the screw and the aluminum frame. Our Rosewood is tough but we weren't willing to push it by giving it such little support or giving the screw an opportunity to pull through the wood grip. So, we had to make a new counter sink depth and get a new screw. Below you can see some screws that we found in the shop and used as temporary place holders for screws that we will buy later.
Now that the panels were secured, it was time to get to the fun part: shaping the curves. We began this process with a chisel but soon realized that while effective, the chisel lacked the precision needed when cutting near the frame. We then switched to a dremel and the micro saw-dust started flying. A few hours later we had the rough shape you see below dremeled out and the finger notch board attached without any shape.
The next step will be completing the shape of the wood panels and shaping the finger notches into the small piece of wood on the front of the grip. Please let us know what you think of the progress so far in the comments below. We are very pleased with how it is looking but would love to hear your thoughts.
P.S. if you missed the first post about beginning the wood grips you can see it here: Wood AR-15 Grips: Day One.
