where to find best grip checkering fixture??

[Cap]

anyone have any experience with grip checkering tools?

need suggestions of what's available
what works
what's good
amd what's best

Thanks

..L.T.A.

[pa_guns]

Hi

How much patience do you have? :D

Bob

[Cap]

plenty when I first start.
It's generally not til 3/4 complete when I start to get antsy and in a hurry to finish


i had the good sense to know off this evening when i got that way
Only completed 3 grips.
Forth one 75% complete

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/larycap/Picture676.jpg


..L.T.A.

[pa_guns]

Hi

If you have enough patience, checkering can be done very well with a couple of specialized hand tools. Ultimately the best results will be done that way. If you have limited patience, there are gizmos like specialized routers for big bucks that you can get.

Bob

[niemi24s]

Very nice grips! What kind of wood is the one on the left?

[pa_guns]

Very nice grips! What kind of wood is the one on the left?

Hi

Odd tree growing just upwind from the nuclear power plant ....

Bob

[toolman]

I thought I had patience until I checkered a shotgun stock. Boy was I wrong!

One thing you can't do with checkering is get in a rush.

[Cap]

Very nice grips! What kind of wood is the one on the left?

Thanks Niemi

it's some kind of maple burl


..L.T.A.

[Cap]

Toolman, what did you use to get everything perfectly straight??

I have the patience when I want.
Just not sure how to go about keeping everything straight and true

..L.T.A.

[toolman]

You begin your first two lines, the longest ones possible, one in each direction, using a flexible straight edge (plastic works well) and a single checkering tool, one of the ones without the spacer. And initially you are only making a light scratch in the surface of the grip panel that the spacer will be able to follow when making the second and subsequent lines.

Once you have your two initial base lines established, you need to use the spacer tool to make three additional lines in each direction, each time using the previous line to guide the spacer tool. Make one line in one direction, then make a line in the opposite direction before going back and making another line in the first direction, so on and so forth until you have four lines in each direction.

Once you have four lines in each direction, it's time to use the spacer tool to deepen the lines. You don't want to do more than four lines at a time, because each time the spacer tool crosses a line in the opposite direction it partially erases or obliterates it. So go ahead and deepen (point-up) the first four lines in each direction, then begin scratching four additional lines in each direction, one line one direction, a line in the opposite direction, a line in the first direction, so on and so forth, until you have four more lines, then you deepen them (point-up).

This is just a brief synopsis, I'm sure there are some good book out there somewhere. You'd be well off if you found some good books or DVD's and studied them.

[pa_guns]

Hi

The only quick thing I would add is that you need to be very careful not to "swing" the handle on the tool. It's even small amounts of rotation of the tool handle the gets the lines walking relative to each other.

Bob