Making semi auto magazines

[Porterhouse]

I wasn't sure where to post but ask here;
Just how hard do you think making a batch of magazines from scratch? Assuming there is something to copy. Do any of you know someone makes things like this?
Any input will be greatly appreciated.

[mongoosesnipe]

Depends on what kind of equipment you gav access to but since your asking its probably safe to assume you don have access to injection molding equipment or stamping machines

Stamping would probably be easiest without high need equipment but you will still need a very strong press and a set of fourming dies and a welder the formin dies are the tricky part similarly the mold is the tricky part for injection molding

I put some thought into it when the market went haywire and determine the easiest corse of action would be to modify existing reduced capacity mags by adding to their length

[jmorris]

If you are talking about metal, You would need to have the blanks die cut or some laser cut them. Then you need dies to form them on a punch press or hydraulic unit. Many spot weld the two parts together many more use a TIG welder with a special fixture. So followers are sta,per from steel others are injection molded from plastics (another mold/machine) most have their springs made for them.

For plastic mags you just need the mold and injection molding machines.

[jmorris]

I put some thought into it when the market went haywire and determine the easiest corse of action would be to modify existing reduced capacity mags by adding to there lengthwe think alike I just received a few 71 round Soumi drum mags I am going to adapt to the top part of 9mm AR and MAC 10 mags.

[mongoosesnipe]

A 3d prototype printer would also be an option for making mags but they are slow and very expensive

[P.K.]

Followers would be fairly easy to do with stuff on hand at Hobby Lobby. Or you could play with a product called "Insta-Morph." When it hardens it's almost as dense as ploy, my 5 y/o can't break it. ;-)

Pic's of what my better half did with the stuff.
http://www.instamorph.com/ideas/custom-toy-playset/

[waksupi]

Some people make things too hard. If you have sheet metal experience, a magazine is a pretty simple project. With a plastic welder, so are the plastic magazines. As was said, the followers can be molded with FEMO or such, or formed from metal. The springs would be the tricky part, getting the proper temper.

[Bulldogger]

You can make one out of sheet. It will have to be custom-fitted to the rifle/pistol it will be used on, and boy would I want to test is A LOT if I planned to depend on it.

I bought some pre-ban 15rd CZ75 magazines during the last ban period. I bought 5 and could only get 3 to work at all after serious modifications for outer dimensions (wouldn't fit in the handgrip!) and feed lip and feed tweaking. Of those I only have 1 left due to routine misfeeds, even just plinking. I might have even thrown that 1 away.

It can be done, but I should have started from scratch instead of buying opportunistic 11th hour production overruns that shouldn't have been factory thirds, much less factory seconds.
Or even better, I whould have bought a 10rd and lengthened it in the areas that don't involve fit and feed. It is possible to make your own longer feed springs at home, however clumsy, and so far they haven't made music wire illegal!

Bulldogger

[Porterhouse]

Sounds like there is a hope! So finding a super good sheet metal guy is the key?

[GT27]

A 3d prototype printer would also be an option for making mags but they are slow and very expensive

http://defcad.org/

http://dailyslack.com/2013/01/unable-to-find-an-ar-15-30-round-magazine-just-print-one/

[Oreo]

Springs can be tempered by submerging in molten lead. Molten lead is easy to temperature control.

[Olevern]

I wouldn't worry about it; if they are banned AND IF the populace decides it is time for a second amendment based uprising; there will be plenty of firearms with magazines lying in the streets next to the bodies.

I suspect there will even be warehouses of supplies turned over to the resistance by armed forces and LEO's who will refuse to turn their firepower on fellow citizens.

Also keep in mind that this govt. can't even prevent tons of illegal drugs from entering the country monthly, so, in the event of a justified revolt (tyrannical govt. who ignores instead of upholds the Constitution) inventive import routes will be available for re-supply of the patriots.

don't stress, the time for armed resistance is not yet, at the moment, while she is badly wounded, our Country is still salvagable thru legal resistance.

That being said, who knows when the tipping point will be when true patriots can't take it anymore.

[Bulltipper]

+1 Olevern.

[Porterhouse]

Olevern,
I'm not worrying about the current situation. I'm just looking into the possibility of fabricating things like extended magazine, or slightly bigger magazine that maximize the magwell space for some custom project.

[jmorris]

How about just getting an old belt fed gun and a sewing machine?

http://m1919tech.com/26513.html

[historicfirearms]

Anyone played with one of those 3D printers that make things out of polymer? I wonder if you could print up a few PMags. Obviously you would need a spring.

[jmorris]

There are free downloads for AR mags for 3D printers and even lowers but they don't seem to hold up long.

[justashooter]

lots of metal fabricators have brake presses that can turn out mag bodies in a single stamping with a little imagination. music wire can be bent around wooden mandrels. WAG, with an air plasma table and a brake press i could make 100 mag bodies in a day. real forming equipment can turn out thousands in a day.

[Artful]

You know the last Ban a lot of bad magazines were turned out and some of us bought them and tried to make them work correctly/reliably - I don't think it's as easy as some of you make out.

[jmorris]

It sure is a lot easier to make a bad one than a good one.

[Artful]

It sure is a lot easier to make a bad one than a good one.

LOL - how true.

[izzyjoe]

i actually seen a home made sks 30rd mag the other day at a friend's pawn shop, it did'nt look that bad. i told him i'd like to take a closer look at it, and take some mesurements when i get time. i'd like to make one just to say i did it, failure or not.

[perotter]

There are free downloads for AR mags for 3D printers and even lowers but they don't seem to hold up long.

Seems that their mags hold up ok. 342 total with 227 of them full auto. Seems they have done some redesign.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/printed-magazine/

[jmorris]

I wouldn't call a few hundred rounds OK, if someone were selling them they would be known as junk or called a ***.

[perotter]

I wouldn't call a few hundred rounds OK, if someone were selling them they would be known as junk or called a ***.

Because they stopped at after shooting 342 rounds without having had a failure, doesn't mean it wouldn't have done 1000, 2000, 4000, 10000, 12500 or etc. Is someone upset because tech has changed in the last 20 years?

[perotter]

For plastic mags you just need the mold and injection molding machines.

I think the 1st eastern European ones were compression molded. I seem to remember some Swiss ones for STENs that cast with PE and fiberglass, but I don't know how good they were.

[jmorris]

Is someone upset because tech has changed in the last 20 years? Certianly not and FDM (3d "printing") started in the '80's.

I have also followed Cody Wilson's efforts. After his lower fell apart after 6 shots and the first mag failed at 50, for me the tech is getting closer but they don't have it yet.

When he was quoted saying
“You don’t need to be able to put 200 rounds through it," Wilson said. "It only has to fire once. But even if the design is a little unworkable, it doesn’t matter, as long as it has that guarantee of lethality.”


He set back his efforts as Stratasys sent a team to reclaim the printer he had leased.

[Artful]

Sounds like Stratasys may need some comsumer input to let them know freedom of speech and creation of magazines go hand and hand.

[jmorris]

I wouldn't be surprised if there is not a concern that they could inadvertently be named as the manufacture of the firearm (in the case of the lower) despite the fact that someone else hit the print button.

The BATFE tech branch has made other rulings like the ones than call a spring or even a short section of string "machineguns" that could have lawyers steering things a bit.

[midnight]

Maybe we should just put new baseplates on 20 round 223 mags. Then we would have 7 round Beowulf or 7 round 458 Socom mags. How about 243, 25, & 30 Olympic super short mags. Modifications are so slight you can't tell them from 223 mags.

Bob

[Whiterabbit]

fastest way to a california legal 30 round mag. Of course, the instant you push a 223 cartridge in there instead of a 50 beo you've committed the felony....

[I'll Make Mine]

Sounds like Stratasys may need some comsumer input to let them know freedom of speech and creation of magazines go hand and hand.

More likely their lawyers informed them they'd be sued into oblivion if someone was actually killed with a weapon printed on the machine they still owned -- if Wilson had owned the machine, the manufacturer taking it back would have been strong-arm theft, but with a leased unit, it's called "termination of contract due to breach of conditions."