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Old 11-27-2016, 04:28 PM   #1
kwtony
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How to: Custom Speargun Handle Modification (photos and videos)

Over the past number of years I have been very heavily into modifying and building spearguns. Most of my passion is in tinkering and learning how things work in an effort to modify them. Since I was a child this has been a huge part of my life. Between all my custom modifications and tweaks one of my absolute favorite add on any gun is a custom made handle. Just like a set of custom wheels for a car, nothing changes the complete overall aesthetics like a new set of aftermarket wheels and tires. Not only does this modification completely transform the look and feel of your speargun, but it seriously changes the handling and overall performance of nearly every gun you put this on.

Since adding a custom grip, it is incredibly easy to see and feel just how much the recoil of the gun can be channeled properly into your hand and palm and not just a random explosion like many guns seem to do the instant you add more power. Even in stock form a handle modification can make a poorly shooting uncomfortable gun into a tack driver.

To help clear some confusion on this matter, I decided to make a thread solely on this issue to help others out there wanting to modify their guns. A few years ago I made a thread about this magical material and am hoping it might pick back up.

First things first...youll need to buy yourself some thermo plastic material. This stuff is commonly referred as Polymorph, or Thermoplastic. You want to buy a kit that not only comes with the plastic, but also the coloring pellets (not powder) as well. I have used this stuff for many many years and only used it in its raw white stock form, I would primer and paint the plastic and call it a day. While that works, I think the colors you can add is a much much better option. I bought this from amazon and has it at my house in two days. I could probably do 3-4 guns with this and still have some left over. This kit cost me 18 dollars...




This particular gun im fixing today is an 115 Omer Excalibur that was modified into a roller gun loong time ago, but also had a new updated vecta 2 trigger mech from rob allen inside of it. It is without question one of my favorite roller guns Ive built. I had to remove the old stuff from the handle that started looking pretty bad after about 2 years of moderate use.



This what the stock handle looks like.



Since every gun is different, you'll have to asses what you have to help figure out what it is you actually are going to do. Under this white handle is this frame. Which is typical of most rubber grip handles.



While I could simply mold the polymorph to that handle and it be incredibly sturdy, it would actually end up causing more hassle then its worth. This material is pretty dense, meaning if you add too much, it will overweight your gun and it will sink like a rock. So you have to start this project with the idea that you want to use the least amount of material as possible. Less is more here....

It is very important that when you cover your handle, that you add material completely around the handle. You want the plastic to mold over itself and wrap the handle like a rubber glove.

I was working in my shed at my jet ski rental and I have no stove or way to bring a pan and heat it up over an element so I used my electric kettle that I make my instant coffee in. All you need is hot water. You can microwave it, you can use you kettle, or boil water on the stove.



This kit comes with a color chart to make exactly the colors they show, but its really no different then mixing paint. So I just guessed it and it ended up being nearly identical to what I was looking for.



According to the recipe you need to add x amount of pellets to 1 oz of material....since I didn't invent odd numbers and Im not trying to take my shoes off to count that high, i just laid a pile out and figured I could add more if needed.



First all you do is add the plain pellets to either a glass or metal bowl and add the hot water. It takes about 20 seconds for the plastic to change from a white color, to completely clear. Once its clear, it literally moves around like playdoh. Then you want to add your colors in the center of the pile of plastic. You want to fold the plastic over and over and over again once you add the color. After about 20 seconds you'll feel it get harder, just add it back to the water and wait 10 more seconds and keep going till its fully mixed. Keep adding heat as needed.

Once its done, you will want to flatten it out so that you can wrap it around the handle of your gun. Once its fully wrapped, dip the handle of the gun back into the water. This might be cumbersome depending on where you are doing this at, like the kitchen or the garage. So be sure to make space for that swinging gun. I did this on my 140 RA and managed to knock a wine bottle off a nearby table...so be careful, or the old lady might not let you do speargun projects in the house any more. Id hate to hear about anyone having to kick their spouses out because of something so silly, make sure you take it easy.

You can just pour the hot water over the handle at this point to soften the material again. You want to fully blend the layers and the edges together and make sure they are solid, so that the polymorph doesn't come off. You can see in the video below just what I mean. Also, make sure you hold you gun up at eye level and pretend you are the in thr prone shooing position and make sure the finger molds flow properly. Sometimes you'll need to prop up the gun on the counter, or you can lay on the floor.




Make sure its completely pressed around all crevices and nooks.





In this photo I am showing the grip without a glove on. Since you should absolutely dive with some sort of protection, I would suggest putting your glove on when molding your handle. If its neoprene, make sure its wet when you are doing the initial molding. Once you see just how big your finger spacing needs to be you can kind of mold the groves with a bare finger. I wear thin plastic gloves on my shooting hand, as shown in the video. Remember its just like playdoh, you just have to add hot water ever minuet or so. Super easy.

Once its cooled off you are done and can use it immediately






Thanks for reading...questions, comments, concerns...feel free to ask, Ill do my best to explain with as many photos as possible.
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Last edited by kwtony; 11-27-2016 at 09:54 PM.
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Old 11-27-2016, 04:29 PM   #2
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Re: How to: Custom Speargun Handle Modification (photos and videos)

Here are a few other guns I have done this to.

130cm Pathos


87cm Rob Allen w meandros



115 Omer Roller

see above

141 Rob Allen




















These were some of the places I trimed out on my stock pathos to make for my wider fingers. Those that shoot with 3,5 or 7mm gloves would really benefit from doing this before you get started.



Same for in the palm area, especially since, I have to add more to the entire area, this keeps the palm from getting too large...which is not a good thing...










Seac Asso 90



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Old 11-30-2016, 10:04 PM   #3
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Re: How to: Custom Speargun Handle Modification (photos and videos)

Just want to add my 2c; to speed up the finishing process (and prevent any potential defects) I drop my molds into a separate bucket of cold water to make the polymorph set much faster.

Tony, it was your original post that put me on to this stuff and I can't get enough of it, have made custom handles (spearguns, machetes, general tools etc) as well as small line winders and even as a quick fix to hold a large bolt in place on my step ladder, cheers!

EDIT: pictures of other things this stuff has been useful for: simple linewinder (lighter for scale), easy access ball for quick release, quick and dirty machete handle - other side

Last edited by AlexbeeintheUK; 11-30-2016 at 10:10 PM. Reason: added img links
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Old 12-01-2016, 09:50 AM   #4
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Re: How to: Custom Speargun Handle Modification (photos and videos)

Haha, Alex, thank you for the kind words. I agree, this stuff is incredible. Ive fixed so many things with this stuff its not even funny. I ran out a while ago, but kept recycling old pieces that I found when cleaning and just kept on reheating it and viola!!

I agree on the cold water part and use that regularly as well. However sometimes that last 30 seconds before it completely solidifies is a good time to try and wipe out the finger prints and areas that arent as flat. You'lll notice in the video youll see my rubbing my fingers on the material, thats to make it smooth.

Since you posted I actually ended up doing another handle on my 87cm Rob Allen Dirty Water/Hole gun. It is the green gun with the meandros mech. I loved the grip on the gun, but it was made specifically for my right hand. I could use it on my left hand but it wasn't specifically comfortable. I had made a left/right grip on my Mahi Painted 150 Rob Allen and it is perfect. I wanted to do the same with this gun but with a little twist. Since its a dirty water gun and there is a chance I might leave it on the bottom to mark holes, i wanted a handle that was much more visible then the green camo that was on it. White is hands down the best color for that. For those that have never worked with this, Polymorph in its raw form is a translucent white color, on its own it will work just fine. However, I wanted something a little brighter.

The paint on the handle was also a little chipped when I beat on it with a hammer a while back trying to get it off....and I kind of got tired of looking at it.





I used my kettle at home because my roommate was using the stove. Started off with heating the existing handle.



Completely submerging it, let it sit for about 30 seconds and start prying with a flat blunt object.



Once you have it off youll expose the handle frame...



As mentioned earlier, this stuff is very dense and heavy, so use it sparingly.. My old handle weighed over 100 grams. The gun sank with the shaft in and also with the shaft out. Since this is normal of shorter guns, i wanted to do everything I could to make the handle lighter so later when I balast the gun, itll be easier. My goal was about 1/2 the weight, but still provided enough palm support to absorb the recoil and keep my hand aligned perfectly.

Since a white handle was my main goal, and I had a green gun, I thought it would be cool to make a white/green marble style handle to go with the rest of the paint theme. In order to do this, i mixed a small batch of green up and put it aside. Less is more in this, you want to aim for a 5-8% of color to white ratio..i over did it a little but still turned out okay.




Color pellets added



Mixing



Blended



Next on to the white



I forgot to take the photo but it weighted almost 50 grams total



This stuff is waaay whiter then the stock raw pellets.

mixing time







Adding to the handle




dont forget to heat it all back up a few times as well




In order to get the universal left and right grip, i found that you must hold the gun in your left hand, squeeze, then switch too the right and squeeze again....over and over and over....



The more you do it, the more you will see how the material wants to flow to accomodate both sides. You want to heat it up, and keep coaxing it over and over again till you have made everything smooth and clean looking. Any balled up not blended areas you can heat up and smooth over.






Over all weight reduction was around 40 grams total, which will make a big difference when adding floatation.

I am thinking off adding a small loading pad in the empty space in the back, the old handle would dig in pretty good after a while, but Ill test out the new flatter handle and see how it doest before doing that.
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Old 12-01-2016, 09:50 AM   #5
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Re: How to: Custom Speargun Handle Modification (photos and videos)





When its all done, you can cool it off under cold sink water...



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Old 12-01-2016, 08:10 PM   #6
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Re: How to: Custom Speargun Handle Modification (photos and videos)

I appreciate you showing us how to do this. I have used the Rat Grip rubber stuff to customize an AR-15 handle and I like the result. Super quick and easy but the stuff is expensive.

I have a question however, we have been hearing that customization of the handle to help managed recoil force is extremely important and that this is more than a comfort issue. Why are your final handles so different? Some look narrow and seem like you just added indentations for the fingers, while others have this huge, ugly blob and the handles look very asymmetrical and would work well with only one hand.

I assume that these "ugly", wide and asymmetric configurations are the shapes that will control recoil best?
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Old 12-01-2016, 11:55 PM   #7
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Re: How to: Custom Speargun Handle Modification (photos and videos)

I thought my favorite speargun is at its finest modification level ..then I saw this. It looks like fun and I'm doing it. Thanks for your posts.
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Old 12-02-2016, 01:50 AM   #8
kwtony
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Re: How to: Custom Speargun Handle Modification (photos and videos)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Perchunter View Post
I thought my favorite speargun is at its finest modification level ..then I saw this. It looks like fun and I'm doing it. Thanks for your posts.
You will have a lot of fun doing this. Its really an amazing material, if you think you've messed something up, all you have to do is re-heat it again. Ive made quite a few things with it over the years. Here is the actual link to the kit I bought online. Its good for a basic kit, Ive made two smaller size handles and have more then enough to make 2 or 3 more.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Good luck on your handle, Im excited to see how it turns out. Be sure to post up your pics when you are done with it. If you have any questions along the way feel free to ask.
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