
I had to do some sanding to smooth them out, but it wasn’t too bad. Or maybe try cutting them in both X and Y directions. 015″ or smaller step over for the next run. I hit it with the shop vac and they look great. Also the MDF dust clogs the filter in my shop vac something terrible. I was using the dust collection shoe that I made, but it’s not pulling all the swarf. It’s not super cheap like CamBam, but at $250 it’s not outrageous. I have to say that MeshCAM is a very simple program to use and it works very well. I pulled that file into MeshCAM and generated the tool path. To generate the 3D surfacing pass I mirrored the part in Inventor and then exported an STL file. The next step was to run the surfacing pass. The pencil lines were just for the roughing out on the band saw, so no worries there. Next I chucked up a 1/4″ router bit and ran the profile program. The corners where the curve meets the angled line need to be sharp, so I cleaned them up with a chisel.Īfter milling the backs I used my band saw to rough cut the profile so the blanks would fit on the jig and so there wouldn’t be as much material to machine away. I machined the profile into the back with an 1/8″ endmill. If I were to ever get the limit switches installed I wouldn’t have to indicate the Zero location either.

Like the 1911 jig I made before, I put two locating dowels into the jig and table so that it mounts up square every time. I made the jig by gluing and screwing some 3/4″ MDF together. One for the jig, one for the back side of each grip (mirror images) and one to mill the profile so the 3D surface program wouldn’t need to cut so much stock. I pulled the 2D model into CamBam and generated several CNC programs. It’s my opinion that simple is best and if you don’t need 3D, then you should do it in 2D. There I modeled up the jig, the stock and the back side recesses. I did all the CAM work except the surfacing by exporting the 2D curves from Inventor and pulling them into LibreCad. Then I made a jig to hold them while I profiled and surfaced them. The grips have a profile cut in the back near the top, so I had to machine that first. Then I had to decide how I was going to machine them.
#How change grip smith and wesson 915 how to
That actually worked out quite well.īut it still took me another restart to figure out how to model all the curved surfaces. On the fourth attempt I decided to place one of the grips on my scanner, import the image into Inventor and trace the profile with lines and curves. I took me five attempts to come up with a model that I liked.

I’ll have to play with some of the open source 3D modeling packages one of these days. Inventor is pretty damned expensive, and I’m not sure what I’d use if I didn’t have it.
#How change grip smith and wesson 915 license
I have an Autodesk Inventor license through the high school robotics team, so I decided I might as well use the tool that I had. The grips are an interesting shape and I decided I wanted to 3D model and machine them. I told him “sure, send me a set and I’ll see what I can do.” I got a request from a friend to see if I could make some Smith and Wesson revolver grips for him.
