TargetTalk

I was planning to purchase a left hand grip for an FWB from Rink. It then says the lead time is 5 weeks. Does it really take them 5 weeks to do the job, or just a disclaimer? I would presume with modern technology like CNC one should not take 5 weeks to complete a standard grip. Anyone has experience dealing with Rink directly, and what is the lead time? Which model did you order?

Yes this is correct i have 3 Rink grips all took around 8 weeks , they also note on the web page that they do not hold stock of the standard grips,hence the turnaround time , well worth the wait ,cheers S

I have purchased over a dozen Rink grips including common and uncommon (Zeiganhahn Model IV and Walther FP) ones. Always worth the wait.

I bought several grips from Rink for my pistols and the ones of my wife (air pistol, standard pistol, free pistol).

I always ordered directly from him.

The delivery time is announced on his web site and depends of his work load. 5 weeks is short, it is usually longer (something like 8 weeks). The reason for these long delivery time is the work load of Rink, his grips have a lot of success and he has many orders. Seen the huge amount of possible models (pistol models * all values for all parameters), Rink has no stock.

After ordering, Rink gives the exact delivery date.

The delivery time of all grips I ordered was long, as said around 8 weeks, but all grips I ordered were delivered exactly at the announced date, never faster but also never longer.

Since I found the delay very long, I tried to order via a big German online shop, but the delay they could offer was similar to the one announced by Rink on his web site, even if they bought many grips from Rink, they had no possibility to have it faster (the way the online shop deal with Rink is different from an individual customer: they have a manufacturing slot allocated each month at Rink. They group all orders of one month and make one grouped order to Rink that manufacture all grips simultaneously and ship them grouped to the online shop that then dispatch the grips to the individual customer. The total delay, including shipment to me, was similar to the one obtained when ordering directly from Rink).

conradin wrote:Does it really take them 5 weeks to do the job, or just a disclaimer? I would presume with modern technology like CNC one should not take 5 weeks to complete a standard grip.

It doesn't take them anywhere near 5 weeks to make a standard grip, but they aren't actually sitting in the factory waiting to work on your grip. They do have a few others to work on before they get to yours.

As has already been said, 5 weeks is quite a short lead time for them. I see from their web site that they are closed at the moment as they are at the German Championships. It's a fair bet that they'll pick up many orders there, so expect the 5 weeks to grow.

Sometimes being a Manufacturing Engineer is a pain.....
Yes it can take 5 weeks even with cnc gear. I think it is a bit presumptuous to think that he has an empty spindle and material available waiting to make your grip without any tooling changeover time. he has decided to operate on a 5 week buffer, good for him.. He may have 2 weeks of work in hand , he may have more, but the buffer window is used to load the tools and processing equipment in a scheduleable manner. I see 120 day lead times on occasion from sheet metal part vendors.... It isnt rocket science, it is MRP... Welcome to the real world.....

Normally Thomas Rink has just a vending machine in his office, where incoming orders are simply transferred into beautiful grips - like you all know it from a coke vending machine. Unfortunately that machine broke down some weeks ago, and he had to go back to the ancient method of making taylor-customized grips by hand, when somebody comes to his company and has his wishes custom-fit into a prototype grip. Then (and not earlier) he can copy that grip into the desired wood (and customized grips will be around 80 or more percent of his orders, so he doesn't have those grips waiting on the shelf - and you wouldn't want those, also, I assume). The actual CNC-time is only a fraction of the time taking measurements from "real people", transferring delivered data from mails etc.

Seriously: Thomas Rink is, beside Nill, the most-wanted grip maker in germany. And he has a small company and takes care of all customized grips himself. In the recent weeks he was at the regional bigger championships with his mobile repair shop. The same for this and the next week: The german championships run over two weeks, he arrived with me last thursday to Munich (Walther runs a service station here for two weeks also). And - he still shoots in several competitions here and makes "live" promotion for his grips.

These are no excuses, but the difference between an out-of-the-box grip and a top level, customized one. It takes some tiime, but not too long...

Oh, I just saw, that it was conradin, who asked. I shouldn't have taken so long time for my comment...

Of course Rink doesn't know his business, he will surely be pleased to read your advice how to make production times faster... ;)

Yes, it's Conradin.

It just won't matter how long it takes Rink to send the grips; they will not improve Conradin's performance no matter how much he wishes to buy points (long known here as "The Impossible Dream").

One must first know what is wrong with one's current grips before spending one's beer money on, perhaps, worsening performance.

Rover wrote:Yes, it's Conradin.

It just won't matter how long it takes Rink to send the grips; they will not improve Conradin's performance no matter how much he wishes to buy points (long known here as "The Impossible Dream").

One must first know what is wrong with one's current grips before spending one's beer money on, perhaps, worsening performance.

Rover, this is getting out of hand. It is a well known fact that points CAN be bought and that the process MUST be repeated. When the Rink doesn't provide sufficient improvement, then it's time for a Nill and so on until one whose name need not be named finally sucks it up and flies to Europe for a private session with Ciro by which time his cylinders will have passed their expiration date....

william wrote:....and flies to Europe for a private session with Ciro....

.....IF you can find him ;-)

The last thing is true, Ciro isn't so easy to find.

But I personally believe, that Nill, Rink, Ciro, Morini, The real Morini (Cesare M at Match Guns) don't make much difference. The only thing to be sure before ordering: your shooting style and the angle to the target must be fixed as aresult from serious training. If you still change the angle from one shooting day to the next, a custom grip with also a fixed grip angle is too early.

"It is a well known fact that points CAN be bought..."

Ahh, William, you bring hope to so many on here!

Rover wrote:"It is a well known fact that points CAN be bought..."

Ahh, William, you bring hope to so many on here!

It's my basic kindness to extend the warm hand of hope - regardless of how utterly false - to the hopeless and/or the gullible.

Grip is not for me.

conradin wrote:Grip is not for me.

It'll still probably take 5+ weeks ;-)

It is perfectly possible to use CNC machine and AUTOCAD to program and make wooden grip. But there are limitations. Only normal standard non wrap around non customize grip will work. Variation such as asking for 10' as opposed to 0' will work.

But it will take someone who is extremely good at 3D printing to program it. The reason I asked if CNC is possible is because I want to order the most basic standard grip with no variation, essentially the same type gun manufacturers mass produce their plastic grip of, say a basic Glock 40.

Obviously if this is a one man operation using good old fashion way to do it, 5 weeks are incredibly fast even for a standard grip. If he hires someone who can do AUTOCAD CNC, the cost will be prohibitive because of the high starting cost.

For the record a friend of mine did AUTOCAD for a living and now he is a machinist and jeweler. Some of the stuff he made using a 3D printer is mind blowing. I still do not know how he managed to program something that has complicated curves of it. It takes him only one day to program that particular item. Maybe he is very good at Calculus. He did study nuclear science and engineering, unfortunately nobody told him that the job market was very small.

Thomas Rink has no problem with technology and automation.

You can even send him a grip and he will scan it, then produce copies even to fit other guns if you want.

The delivery problem is due to him being a very popular grip-maker because of the bespoke service he offers. If you want one of his grips then you just have to join the queue.

David Levene wrote:Thomas Rink has no problem with technology and automation.

Obviously he does; or he could mold the grip out of fairy dust, and teleport it to the friend of our friend in a matter of seconds.

I'm not complaining about the time, I was just wondering if 5 weeks are normal. It's not my grip and the need is just a standard grip. 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, does not matter me.