Stippling...

[NightCat]

The title gives it away...

I'm wanting to Stipple needed spots on my M&P as well as a forefinger index mark and a reaction hand reference thumb mark.

...Here is my practice subject...


Before...


My First side not having ever done it before...trying to get used to how to hit it.

The middle is very un-uniform as you can see...it was my first portion to do.

Here is my other side after starting to get the swing of it....


Very time consuming...but makes a great difference to feel and tactile response and grip.

I'm probably going to finish this ENTIRE magazine before I tackle my M&P...

So far I'm about 30m in..

Just posting to show what I'm up to :P

[NightCat]

An extra 30m later and I have the bottom done...Think I'm done for a little bit.

[NightCat]

Finished it up tonight and experimented some more.

Different Roughnesses, uniform and nonuniform patterns to see what I like more.

Outlining.

Filling in a medium roughness


To show the different feels and a non-uniform vs uniform


Fine vs Rough


All 3 different "grits."


Practicing some dry reload runs, it feels a million times better than a regular Pmag

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Looks good. I will pay you $1 per pmag. Got 3 doz headed your way! Thanks again!

[NightCat]

hahah! yea....right.

I probably have 3 hours into that 1 mag...

Not sure if I'll ever do a FULL mag ever again...maybe just certain spots.

Probably put a white paint marker or chalk on my hands and then reach for a mag like I usually do and see where I grip it and then stipple just those area's....but that might look stupid..

Idk...I'm not really all amped up to do it again haha.

I'm going to practice on some other things Im thinking before I do the M&P.

I'll probably practice on my AFG2. It feels a bit slippery.

[SAnd]

Looks good. That mag looks like it gave you plenty of room to practice and experiment.

What tool are you using to do the stippling? A picture of how you are holding it would be good too. The descriptions of what and how people use their stippler make me think I could never be steady enough to do it.

Have fun.

[NightCat]

I'm using some POS 110-120v 30-35w soldering iron.

No adjustments on it what so ever...

And I'm holding it how I wont get burned...Not much more to it really lol.

My iron is shaped somewhat like a piston grip and I'm holding it all sorts of inverted..its a pretty weird grip to be honest with you, and I dont really have the steadiest of hands either..

the first attempt was really kinda buggered up...but I started to get the hang of how much to let the material melt, I wasn't really melting the material much at my first time around, I was just kinda letting it make a mark and moving on, I was relying much more on the amount of marks I made more than the type of marks I make.

I'm not hitting them straight on, at first I was tryin to go straight up and down like a Tattoo machine, but I quickly learned to adopt a different strategy.

I wish I had a better light to remove the shadow of the iron tip so I could work different angles.

I found the key was to work in a way to where your shadow was what you were working towards, so if my shadow is in the 6 O'clock position, I would work from the 1 o'clock to the 6 and then rotate my piece to get the light I liked.

I'd also try and change the angle at which I worked.

I would do a lot of my marks at an angle, and on certain parts, drag the tip across my piece.

I found if you drag it a hair, it yields a courser surface. but I didnt just drag in one direction, because I rotated my piece around my light I moved my angle and provided a very good texture.

I'll see if I can get a pic of how I do this...its sorta weird haha.

Have confidence, and practice slowly and try and figure out what works best for you.

I'm still looking at other peoples Stipple jobs online and I dont think mine is that good...but idk...Im still not confident enough to tackle my M&P. I'll do my AFG2 here soon probably because I just think its too slick...but...Idk...Maybe I'll gather the confidence after that, depending on how it turns out.


I just want to have the function I'm looking for, and not ruin the cosmetics of my gun.

[NightCat]

I would then use, what I'll label my reaction hand to support under my wrist, and use my index figure and thumb to stabilize apart of the pistol grip on the soldering iron...near my weapon hand thumb

It's very awkward, somewhat uncomfortable, but as my job calls for me to be okay with those two things, I didnt mind it.

It actually gives your forearm a decent work out :P

[SAnd]

Thanks for the pictures and descriptions. I appreciate your effort in answering my questions.

[NightCat]

No worries man, it's a pretty difficult thing to describe..I'll see if I can have a friend snap some shots next time I do it to better show whats going on.

But really, Im no expect, Ive never done this before until yesterday, do what works for you..thats all I did :P

post up some pics when you try it! I can try and help you as best I can with the little bit that I learned the other night and today.