Canadian Airgun Forum

Hi Dave, I might bring it along tomorrow so you can all laugh at it

Google:

Smooth-On Free Form sculpting epoxy.

$145 will give you enough product to make a hundred grips. I have used this and it's amazing stuff. Also, it's thick enough not to run and you have about a 3 hour pot life....aaaaand, it can be sanded and painted.

That looks like good stuff. So many interesting materials, so little time (and money) to try them all

Good question. I've only had the stuff a couple of weeks, so it's going to take a while to find out. First impressions are that it seems quite tough. I experimented with mixing in some sawdust to make it a bit stiffer, so I ended up with several balls of the stuff with various mixes. I cut those in half which was surprisingly difficult and have used them around the workshop for resting blocks of wood on so they don't slip. None of them seem to have worn in any way. The stuff attached to guns still looks like new. I think I have it on three of them now.

One thing I didn't mention is that while sugru sticks like crazy, this casting putty is deliberately made not to be sticky. It seems to have some sort of oily release agent mixed in. Sometimes it seems to stick anyway (I think the sawdust helps here, perhaps it absorbs the release agent), but in other cases I've had to glue the grip in place after it sets. Fortunately the stuff seems to stick well to itself, so you can build the grip up in several stages to get the perfect fit, and if the grip completely encloses what's underneath it will tend to hold well.

Jim

Thanks for the info. I was wondering if talc would work, sure would be easier than scraping out the power tools! I see Smooth on have their own 'folding powder', I wonder what that is. Can the fibres be used with the casting urethanes? I'm beginning to really want a way of replacing small pot-metal parts and I'm wondering if the castable plastics are strong enough.

That's very kind of you to offer to send some of the free form. A small amount to try out would be fantastic. I'm in Ontario, just north of Toronto. If you're still willing we can sort out the details via pm.

Jim