Does Rohrbaugh use an air gun to tighten grip screws?

[Reinz]

Do you apply the brake cleaner to clean the oil off the screw area or are you using it to some how desolve the loctite to remove the screws?

NO- don't put any brake cleaner on your grip area!  It will discolor them.

Pull your screws first, then use the BC to disolve the threads on the gun and screws.   Spray on a pipe cleaner, brush, Q-tip or whatever mehod, but not directly from the can.

[Buffalo]

Thanks for the answer

[sharp]

Wonder why the factory doesn't just use better quality screws to begin with...

[MRC]

It is not just the screw quality that is at fault.  The whole system needs an engineering modification.

- The screws are too small and low quality
-The holes are tapped directly into the alloy frame without a steel bushing or ferule
-The grip panels could be inletted into the frame (like Kimber does on the Solo) to take force off the screws
  when the pistol is fired

Pistols costing 60% of what the R9 does have these features.

[brihof]

I finally received my Blue/Gray VZ grips from Rohrbaugh on Friday, and remembered seeing these posts about how hard the set screws were to remove. I too had no luck removing any of the screws with my first effort. I did see a comment that after a couple dozen rounds at the range, the gun was warm enough to help with removal, but no range time this weekend for me. So I heated my oven to 150 degrees (using a thermometer-not the oven display), turned it off to prevent any overheating, and put the R9 on a towel in the oven for 5 minutes. (I removed the slide before doing this) Three of the four screws came right out, but the fourth seems to have been slightly stripped from the previous owner, and the hex wrench was too loose to break the Loctite that was found on the other screws. I figured I had one more shot before having to bring it to the local gunsmith, so back in the oven for one more heat cycle, and I tried a star tip just a little bigger than the now slightly rounded hex hole. A couple of light taps to seat the star into the hole, and the screw finally came out. I agree with several comments that it's better to just snug the screws after a range session rather than risk stripping the threads, so I cleaned out the Loctite residue, and put the new screws in with a normal torque. The grips look great, and I'm grateful to the experts on the forum for sharing their tips!

[tracker]

Glad it worked out for you; for future reference just apply a heated small tip soldering iron to each screw head.

[C0untZer0]

This is the only grip screw thread that I'm aware of so I'm posting my comments here.

I've heard it said that the grip screws don't loosen up except for firing (or a lot of dry firing).  But I've been carrying my R9 in 5.11 Select Carry Pistol Pouch and they have loosened up on their own.

First of all, I am in Illinois and we don't have concealed carry yet, but we do have something that is often referred to as container transport.  Container transport allows you to transport a firearm on your person as long as it is unloaded (empty chamber, no loaded magazine in the magazine well).

So I have been carrying my R9 in the 5.11 Select Carry Pistol Pouch a lot, including jogging and biking and the pack was really designed for larger pistol so the R9 is not quite as snug as it could be.  Certainly not as snug as it would be in a good pocket holster.  But even if the pistol was super snug - it gets a lot of vibration while biking, I know my body does so some of that must be transmitted to the pack and the pistol...

Anyway, the R9 has been in the pack for the last 30 days.  I've inspected it a few times for lint or dirt and haven't seen any but I didn't clean it or inspect the screws and when I took it out yesterday to do some dry firing I did check the screws and noticed that they were loose.

I ordered some alloy screws and O-rings, but I just wanted to share my experience.

[tracker]

There has been a lot of discussion on screws and whether they are too loose or frozen in place from corrosion or over torquing: my opinion is that they can always be tightened if loose but it can be a trip to the factory otherwise. Rohrbaugh must err on the side of too tight or the R9 may not function due to its design.

The O-Rings and alloy screws have positively addressed this issue, in my opinion.

[Richard S]

I agree with Tracker's remarks.

I have long advocated using O-rings under the R9's grip screws: 

http://www.rohrbaughforum.com/index.php?topic=2714.msg27786;topicseen#msg27786

http://www.rohrbaughforum.com/index.php?topic=6045.msg72956;topicseen#msg72956

Our member, Yankee, now offers O-rings through the Forum's Classified Section.


_{[Edited typos & added second link.]}