Tripp Ends Refinishing

[dmuff]

Hey just got off the Tripp web site:

http://www.trippresearch.com/osdoc/chrome.html

It seems they will be ending their refinishing business.

[Bud White]

That aint cool .. I would have thought that was a big Chunk of $$$ making for them too

[garrettwc]

That aint cool .. I would have thought that was a big Chunk of $$$ making for them too
Probably not anymore. All the chemicals involved are probably getting costly. Not to mention having OSHA and the EPA constantly crawling all over you to make sure you are doing it safely. Plus so many guns are coming from the factory these days with these coatings already applied.

On the other hand you have their magazines which they sell a bunch of, and if I remember correctly many years ago Virgil Tripp was a pretty fair gunsmith, on par with Bill Wilson. Sounds to me like he's getting back to his roots and has found a new profit center in guns and parts.

[pa_guns]

Hi

That's a shame. They are one of the better refinishers of 1911's. They have an area here. Maybe they will talk about it there.

Bob

[Hunter]

My friend Radar brought this to my attention. It may concern some of us.
http://www.trippresearch.com/osdoc/chrome.html

[Joni Lynn]

I wish them well in all their future endeavors.

[John]

I wonder what led Virgil to this decision, obviously he was not doing the refinishing himself.

[pa_guns]

Hi

Doing any kind of plating process just gets harder and harder. You have to keep it "correct" per the EPA or you have all kinds of problems. Since you have regulations both at the state and federal level it can get pretty complex.

My guess is that who ever they had doing the plating decided to shut down. We run into that sort of thing all the time at work.

Bob

[cobratripp2]

We have always done everything under our own roof - a necessity for good process control, QC and quick turnaround. I never knew what other shops did. Compliance is not really an issue. It's like ATF compliance. You just follow the rules and it's not so bad.

Mag sales are good and I'm developing a new firearm design. There are not enough hours in the day. We gave three months notice so people did not have to rush their refinishing decisions. Thanks again to all our customers for helping us to be one of the best. See you in the magazine world.

[Joni Lynn]

Good luck and thanks for the great service you've always provided to your customers.

[pa_guns]

Hi

Running a plating shop along with everything else is a *very* impressive accomplishment. It's been 20 years since we tried to do that sort of thing in house.

Bob