So now that the pistols are all cast its now time to glue together all of the grip sections to the top rails., Now, once again with this being clear resin and there are sections you will be able to see the joining faces, i cant just use something like CA glue in case it dries with a white chalky look that's know to happen or leave the faces with a rough finish since this will be viable. So, with that said, I have to solve this issues so when they are joined together and dry, the join will be nice and clear, but strong.
First off is preparing the surface on the grip sections as these need sanding level in order to create the tightest seal possible.
To start I had to remove the excess material that resulted from the casting, but at the same time be careful not to overdo this as, again with clear cast resin, i can just patch and problem areas, if i make a mistake at this stage, the casting is ruined. Now to keep this as level as possible i would need a guard of some type. Thankfully i have the old mold for the pistol that is now useless since i changed to a different silicon compound. By placing the casting inside the mold, the exposed area on top allows me to sand the materiel away and will naturally act as a leveling device so i cant go too deep with the sander.
Firstly i used my file sander with a low grit sandpaper to quickly chew away the resin and give me a starting point.
With the first sanding pass done, next up is using my palm sander with a higher grit to smooth out the surface and remove the marks created by the first sanding pass.
After the 2nd pass, i remove the casting from the mold and then use an even higher grit sanding board to polish and level out the surface a little more.
With everything now leveled out and prepared, its finally time to glue. For this i used a 2 part epoxy, in this instance its Gorilla Glue. I've used it a lot in the past, I trust it and I know it damn well works. The added benefit, aside from the strength, is that it dries crystal clear, so it will perfectly hide the same marks on the areas of the gun that will be visible once its is all complete.
I apply the glue as thinly as possible to avoid bleeding on the edges once they are put together. This is where the surface preparation really comes into place. they are so evenly level it will create a fanatic bond with needing to use an excess of glue. I used good old clamps to keep the tow halves in place with they dried, and the pressure just helps make that bond even stronger.
On a side note, I made sure that when I clamped the pieces I used EVA foam on the contact points to ensure that the clamps wouldn't mark the surface in any way. Once again, EVA finds its way into yet another one of my projects.
I left these guns like this for 24 hours each, just to be sure that the bond is left to set as strong as possible.
With this process nailed down, I simply repeated it with the other guns one by one. I've only a few more to go and then its time to move onto preparing the front sections of the gun and then being finally ready for paint. Stay Tuned!
