CW40c project

[frank_drebin]

I ordered a few PM40 magazines today and will be making my CW40 a CW40c in a week or so. I think I'm going to go a little different route though. I'm considering notching it so that the mag is truly flush and then bobbing the backstrap. I will take pictures as the work progresses.

[jocko]

I ordered a few PM40 magazines today and will be making my CW40 a CW40c in a week or so. I think I'm going to go a little different route though. I'm considering notching it so that the mag is truly flush and then bobbing the backstrap. I will take pictures as the work progresses.

remember, measure twice, CUT ONCE. Should turn oput really cool. How many rounds hav eyou through the cw40 as of now?/ Are you confident that it is now reliable enough to cut down? take your time, and photos also, after all is done.

[frank_drebin]

Ok, I played around with a few ideas and this is the concept I'm going for. With the standard mag baseplate (pictured) or a Pearce extension this might be a great balance between the CW and PM grip.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc81/jbabbler/pistols/CW40c-Concept.jpg

[frank_drebin]

remember, measure twice, CUT ONCE. Should turn oput really cool. How many rounds hav eyou through the cw40 as of now?/ Are you confident that it is now reliable enough to cut down? take your time, and photos also, after all is done.

I have around 300 trouble free rounds through it now.
I will definitely be taking my time on the layout before I dive in. I don't just want to make another "covert" I want something a little more specialerer. ;)

[Bawanna]

I absolutely love your concept. That will be a classy set up for sure. Better take notes. I think alot of guys are gonna want to clone your concept and have you do it for em.

[frank_drebin]

Why thank you sir. I'll mock it up with a Pearce Extension as well and post it tomorrow. When I do the actual project I will probably start by bobbing the tail on the full length CW to try a few shapes w/o worry of messing anything up.

[Bawanna]

I gotta try hard and ignore you. Your tempting me to break out the hacksaw on my PM45 with some Detonics mags. It's fine the way it is, I can only screw it up, but the temptation is still there.
I'm still getting over my bobtail job on my Para. Cutting the back corner off with a hacksaw was the scariest thing I think I ever did but it turned out perfect and I love it to pieces.
Hmmm compact PM45, can they get any smaller?????

[frank_drebin]

Come on, everybody's doing it. It won't make you fat. You can quit any time.

[Bawanna]

I'm ignoring you. I'll wait to see your progress and hum along. It's gonna be awesome, I just got a feeling. If Kahr calls and wants to steal your idea how bout we partner up, I want in on the ground floor.

[frank_drebin]

I'm almost ready to start cutting and have been looking at a few options. The first option(shown above) presents a small problem. The plastic baseplate has much higher lips than the metal plate. If I cut the grip to fit the plastic baseplates the metal ones will hang out really far which kind of kills it for me. My second option leaves the grip slightly longer and allows the metal plate to fit flush with the grip. The problem here is that the use of any extension magazines will be limited since the plastic from a pearce extension plate is thick like the Kahr plate. Since I will be shaping the tail to match the floor of the baseplate I will only get one shot at this. I think I should make it where the plastic plates can fit is the way to go. This allows the use of many different mags and baseplates. Your thoughts?

[wyntrout]

It looks nice, but have you compared magazines and is there something that will fit as you desire? You're obviously okay with giving up a round of magazine capacity for the carry magazine. Most of us are trying to add a round or not lose any.
Wynn:)

[frank_drebin]

As it sits, the CW is a perfect size for me. However, once the magazine is added it loses it's concealability. I can conceal my Glock 23 better than i can conceal the CW40 with its ridiculously long magazine.I would love to have my CW40 with a flush fitting magazine but there aint no such thing. I considered fabing one but I would have to tig a metal baseplate on a shaved down 6-round magazine. The problem there being that the magazine it now unserviceable.

So... that leads me to a PM40 magazine with a Perace Extension or the standard Kahr plastic baseplate. I like the ability to add the finger extension so I'll most likely cut it for one. I'm placing an order for an extension today and will hold off surgery until it arrives. I'm only gonna get one shot here.

[frank_drebin]

Ok, for starters. the divider between the magwell and the backstrap will be my verticle guide. I am going to cut up the guide until I et the correct length on the magwell. After that I will mark the backstrap and shave it down with a bob. I am playing around with the bob-tail on the full length grip today for practice. I'll post a few pics of it in a minute.

[frank_drebin]

Unfortunately, I'm tossing out the original idea of the mag-length tail on the backstrap. I had rough cut the grip down to the PM40 size in front of the divider and was playing the tail height but could never get it perfect. Then, while sanding the left side of the tail the wheel shredded and took a chunk out of that side of the tail piece. Well, that made my decision for me. Doh! I now have her rough cut to PM/covert length and will start cleaning up some edges and smoothing everything out tomorrow. I have it cut for the steel baseplates for now and will wait on a pearce extension before I decide to trim it any further. One assumption I originally made was incorrect. The steel baseplate is not flat across the top. The front is thicker and the grip cut has to either have a rounded cut at the front or the entire length has to be shortened an additional 1/32" which will make it roughly the same as the PM. So far, with the PM/MK40 mag it handcycles perfectly, locks in tight and drops free.

[frank_drebin]

Here's a shot of the gun with the metal baseplate. The plastic baseplate is still a little snug at lockup but I don't want to remove any more material so I am waiting to see how the Pearce Extension fits before sanding down any more.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc81/jbabbler/pistols/CW40-5.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc81/jbabbler/pistols/cw40-1.jpg

[frank_drebin]

Ok, new pictures posted. I put 50 rounds through her at lunch and found the gun to be much more controllable than my PM40. I like this setup very very much.

[gb6491]

Looks good Frank and I'm glad it's working out for you.:)
It takes some stones to go chopping on a firearm.
To quote "Hannibal" Smith: "I love it when a plan comes together".
Regards,
Greg

[frank_drebin]

Thanks. I pretty much knew I was going to do something with it when I carried it the first time and my wife noticed the magazine was really printing. I really like how it turned out and will most likely bob the backstrap a bit more later.

[dusty10]

Looks great. Gutsy move. I wonder if you could do something like that with a TP45?

[frank_drebin]

Looks great. Gutsy move. I wonder if you could do something like that with a TP45?

I don't see why not. The Kahr Polymer is easy to work with.

[eastenn]

Nice job, I like it. Any updates to the project?

[frank_drebin]

Thanks. I ended up finishing it and trading it up for another gun which I then traded up to a PM40....... SO.... all in all I paid $350 for my PM40. :)