"Supports" are akin to temporary beams used to hold a beam up in place as you build the rest of a building, they let the molten plastic set before it sags etc.
On some dual head printers (where you can print with more than one type of filament) they use PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol) as a support, then once the print is done, warm to hot water will dissolve the PVA and your supports are gone with no marks. More complex than printing everything in one filament though.
Ten hours and seventeen minutes later and I have what now appears to be the 3D printed Magazine I was after.
I actually attempted to print this latest iteration two days ago but it just would not print correctly by sitting it directly on the print bed. One of the corners of the print would want to curl upward no matter what temperature I set to print bed to. This would cause the print nozzle to catch that curled up corner and dislodge the entire first few layers which ruined the print before it even got started. I had to print it using something called a "Raft." A "Raft" is a thick initial few layers of print medium onto which the actual print sits in order to more securely adhere the actual print to the print bed. On my 3D printer those first few "Raft" layers are printed with the print bed temperature set at higher than normal temperatures to ensure that the edges or corners don't curl up.
It looks as though this re-orientation of the print was just the ticket for getting the rigidity needed to keep the cartridges from escaping past the Feed-Lips of the magazine under pressure of the mag-spring. The down side was the extended print time as well as the loss of surface finish like I got with the Carbon Fiber printed magazine body. I think I'm going to try to print out one last sample out of Carbon-Fiber and this time use the sideways orientation of printing. This may keep the Feed-Lips of my print from breaking off and hopefully give me a nice surface finish to boot.
I didn't get the black-satin finish with this latest ABS print that I did with the Carbon-Fiber print but, no matter. Functionality and reliability was first on my list of things to strive for. Even with a pristine surface finish, these plastic magazines get marred the instant you slide them into the Mag-Well so the surface finish was of secondary importance. You'll note in the pics below all the scrape and scuff marks on my samples. Most of these marks were caused by me filing, sanding and scraping these magazines in order to get them to fit snuggly into the Mag-Well; after which I'd go into my CAD models and tweak here and there to get them to print out without next time having to do any more filing and sanding.
Somehow these tweaks haven't had the full effect I was hoping for cause with each new print I've still had to file and sand the same areas that I thought I'd fixed with my CAD model tweaks.
That ten hour wait was a killer. I knew that at the end of the time I would either rejoice with a fully functional 3D printed magazine or I'd get to practice my foul-language skills in earnest. It's really looking like the re-orientation of my 3D Extended Magazine prints on the print-bed was the key for getting some more rigidity in the area of the Feed-Lips. This latest ABS print is holding a full load of cartridges inside the magazine with no problem thus far. It may be that in a hot gun that ABS plastic will again want to give way but if this is that case that magazine will be supported by the wall of the Mag-Well so there shouldn't be a problem with reliability. It's when the magazine is loaded and sitting on its' own outside the Mag-Well that the cartridges need to stay put.
HollowPoint
Last edited by HollowPoint; 08-02-2018 at 02:02 PM.
I just finished up the last 3D printed addon to my K31 rifle. I figured since I'd made a functioning extended magazine and a set of peep sights I should also try making myself some Stripper-Clips as well. I have two factory Stripper-Clips in my storage closet but they're getting on in years and each time I've used them they seem to feel more and more fragile.
At 100 percent infill each one of my 3D printed Stripper-Clips takes four-hours and a few more minutes on top of that but, I needed to see if I could get them to work. Right now I only have one printed up. If I find that they're reliable and will hold up for me I'll print a couple more.
After cleaning them up and de-burring the edges of the prints they appear to be working just as I'd hoped. Only time will tell how they'll hold up over the long run. The good thing about this is, if they crack or break I can just print up a couple more. I don't have the time to shoot my K31 as often as I used to so I don't really foresee them wearing out. If anything, the four little in-turned tension leaflets that keep the cartridges from just falling out of the bottom of the Stripper-Clips might be prone to breaking but I made it a point of printing them out so that the grain of the ABS plastic runs counter to the forces that might tend to break those little inward facing leaflets; similar to the way I printed the last two extended magazines I recently finished.
Now I can call my K31 3D Printed projects done.
HollowPoint
What a fascinating thread. Thanks!
"Is all this REALLY necessary?"
I started drawing up the CAD model for my Lee Enfield No. 4 Mk1 Extended magazine last night. I had never really taken a close look at that particular magazine before last night. It really is a little different from your standard rifle magazine, especially in the Feed-Lip area. It's certainly different from the K31 Magazine I just finished up.
In one of the previous replies I got on this thread someone mentioned he had problems with an Enfield magazine he had bought as a replacement or as an extra mag. I don't recall exactly but, he had to fiddle around with the Feed-Lips to get it to feed properly. With the K31 Magazine I modeled up I just sort of eye-balled the shapes and the curves of the Feed-Lips. I guess I got lucky cause other than the weakened material in the area of the Feed-Lips I didn't have to much trouble with feeding and ejecting my rounds.
I can see where this Enfield magazine might give me problems. Oh well; I still think it's doable. I'm going to give it a shot anyway. Since it will be an extended magazine I'm thinking it will have to have a bit of curvature to it to accommodate the rimmed cases; sort of like an AK magazine but, no where near as long. Since it's a double stack magazine I'm hoping to get 12-15 rounds into it but I'll just have to wait and see. It can't be to long because there is only so much room on my 3D printer's build platform. On top of that is the fact that I'll have to print it in an orientation that increases the strength of the Feed-Lip area otherwise I run the risk of cracking or breaking off the those thin Feed-Lips like I did on that Carbon-Fiber magazine I printed. That turned out to be 7-plus hours worth of failure. If it weren't for the learning experience it would have been a total failure. I'll be back when I have some CAD Renderings I can show you all.
In addition to that will be the problem of finding a long enough length of music wire that I can use to make my Mag-Spring with. With the K31 magazine I was able to use a three foot length of music wire just as it's sold at the hardware. That turned out to be the exact length I needed to make a single mag-spring. It was the perfect length. On this extended Enfield magazine I don't know if I'll be so lucky. I may be able to get a 36" piece of music wire to work if I just space the coils further apart. I'll just have to wait and see. I'm starting to get ahead of myself now.
HollowPoint
I'm on my fourth attempt at drawing my CAD model of my Lee Enfield extended magazine. Holy Cow! samuri46 was right. Now that I've taken a closer look at my own Enfield magazine and put my calipers to it to measure, these magazines are really more complicated than I realized before.
The left side wall is higher than the right side wall. The right side wall has a small notch cut into the rear-most feed-lip. The front most feed-lip on the right side is wider than the front-most feed-lip on the left side and the smaller feed-lip on the right side is not up as high as the one on the left.
The original plan was to give this magazine a bit of curvature like you seen on the banana-style magazines for those guns shooting rimmed cartridges but I was having so much trouble getting my CAD models to cooperate that I've resigned myself to making my extended magazine a straight up and down configuration with the follower having the slant needed to properly stack and feed the cartridges in the magazine.
I still believe it's doable. There are so many guns on the market today that come with plastic or "Polymer" magazines that it's difficult to think otherwise; it's drawing up the exact models needed to be able to 3D print them that's the hard part. (at least for me anyway)
I had planned on offering the STL files for any other 3D print guy to try printing one out for themselves but if what samuri46 stated is correct across the board, it may be that if I can get this model to print out and work in my Lee Enfield No.4 Mk1, it won't necessarily mean that it will work on someone else's Lee Enfield rifle. Those feed-lips may have to be tweaked for each individual rifle.
By this weekend I'm hoping to have a CAD model close enough to complete to be able to post a pic of a computer rendering so you know what I'm rambling about. I'll be back.
HollowPoint
Last edited by HollowPoint; 08-13-2018 at 02:24 PM.
HollowPoint, I wonder, would it be possible to make the feed lips a separate part? That would save some filament and time, potentially, as you or others seek for the proper configuration for those. Have the lips clip on at first - or use something like Elmer's Glue? (I've used it for plexiglass stuff, it looks like a regular glue but if you shear it by rapping the glued on piece along its' length, the Elmers will fall off one or the other parts enough to remove that part.) Or perhaps a small screw. Or metal retaining clip around the bottom of the magazine maybe? If you can get to where you only have to do a 1 hour print for the lips instead of a 4 hour print for the whole magazine, that's some savings. (Yep I know it's somewhat faster than that but I can't remember the times and "too lazy" to read back LOL)
I thought about doing that very thing but instead of printing the feed-lip section separately I was thinking more along the lines of printing the main body separately and fabrication the top-most part where the feed-lips are out of sheet metal of some sort.
I've seen some magazines made in this way where the feed-lips are made of metal and from there down is all plastic or polymer material. In my minds-eye I visualized the metal part having some slots cut into it that corresponded with some 3D printed embossing on the outside surface of the mag body to hold it in place and still be able to fit up into the mag-well.
I just have a few more tweaks before I print the first all plastic prototype. I think I'll stick with it for now and if I can't get it to work I'll think about trying the metal feed-lips with a plastic bodied magazine. The first prototype hasn't ever seemed to work out for me without having to go back and tweak my CAD models to get them to fit better. I'm thinking this time around will be no different. It's really the feed-lip area of these magazine projects that causes the trial and error steps in the completion of my projects so far.
I wish I owned a 3D scanner with enough resolution to just scan the existing magazine. That way I could just scan the shape of the entire magazine and then use just the feed-lip section while reconfiguring an extended lower portion of that magazine. If I ever win the lottery, a good high resolution 3D scanner will be one of the things on my "To-Buy-List; " that, and maybe a better 3D printer. Until then I'll just have to keep using the trial and error method of getting my projects to succeed.
HollowPoint
That'd do it and be tough to break as a bonus
3d scanners aren't quite as cheap / useful yet as 3d printers last I checked, but the tech changes so fast
On some things I prototype them in Cardboard first, for mags that's unlikely to work though! Great for a PDA stand or watch stand etc. though.
It's still a work in progress but I wanted to show you all what stage I'm at with this Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1 3D printed Extended magazine. I've actually already printed out two initial prototypes. Both fit nicely and locked securely into the mag-well. The problem I've encountered has to do with the rimmed cases.
Have you ever wondered why the Lee Enfield magazines only hold ten rounds? Well, I'm finding out the hard way that if you put any more than ten rounds into one of these straight up and down walled magazines, each new loaded cartridge moves farther and farther forward because each cartridge is loaded with the rim sitting just ahead of the previous cartridge rim. This means that what I'm having to do now is figure out the precise curvature to add to the lower two-thirds of my extended magazine design.
I started out with this in mind but I wasn't able to get my CAD models to cooperate with me so I thought I'd try it with just a straight up and down magazine body. I can get my 3D printed magazine to work but only with no more than ten rounds loaded at one time. Over ten rounds and the feed and reliability goes down the tubes immediately. Such is the life of a 3D print newbie.
HollowPoint
Last edited by HollowPoint; 08-21-2018 at 01:56 PM.
I finally got a chance to get to the shooting range to test that set of Peep Sight and the 15 round Extended Magazine I 3D printed a few weeks ago. I'm happy to report that both the Peep Sights and the Magazine worked like a champ. I did discover small areas where I could improve on the Peep Sight but that's just a simple tweak to my CAD Model.
One of those "Small Areas for Improvement" has to do with the little spring and detent bearing I was using to give the sight some click adjustments. I utilized the detent ball bearing so that the sight would hold its zero even under heavy recoil. It turns out that my zero never moved even though I didn't have the little spring or ball bearing installed. I think I'll just remove those two little details from my CAD Models so that it's two less components to deal with. It's just as well cause those tiny springs had to be hand made and the ball bearing was so small that I couldn't find any that small online or in the hardware store. What I used instead was the steel heads off of an 1/8" rivet. Although they weren't perfectly round, they were just the right diameter to fit the little holes where the little springs sat. It was tricky getting them in there but they went in OK and they actually clicked like they were supposed to but now that I know they aren't completely necessary, they'll be done away with.
The other area for improvement was my windage knob. As it sits on the receiver now, that windage adjustment knob clears the bolt knob by about a quarter inch. I can still cycle the action without a problem when I'm firing standard pressure rounds but if I happen to shoot a higher pressure round and the bolt got kind of sticky it might become difficult to get enough finger and palm leverage to pull back that sticky bold knob. By adjusting my CAD model so that the bolt knob itself is moved in by another 1/8" that would give me just enough clearance to wrap my index finger and my birdie finger around that bolt knob to draw it back with full force.
The 15 round magazine held all 15 rounds with no problem. I did notice that unlike a few days ago when I loaded that same magazine prototype with the full compliment of 15 rounds, all of those cartridges stayed put inside the magazine. Out on the shooting range however, after about the 13th round was loaded it tended to incite the remaining rounds to want to escape capture. It was holding all 15 rounds perfectly when I tested it at home. It wasn't cooperating at the range.
With the empty magazine inserted up into the mag well I could easily load all 15 rounds by hand or by stripper clip and they obediently stayed put until they were cycled into action so, I still call it a success. It's just that I couldn't get them to cooperate with me at the shooting range. I think unless I were to make this same magazine out of a more rigid steel it would work just fine. As it is, the ABS plastic it's made of has just a bit to much flex without the support of the mag-well walls to hold it in. It may have been the heat of the Arizona desert that betrayed me and the cooler airconditioned air in my home that made me look like I knew what I was doing before.
Something else about the extended magazine that I'm happy to report about. That is with the little side latch that holds the magazine in place within the mag-well. I was afraid that the little spring I made for that latch may have been to weak and possibly cause the magazine to drop out by itself under recoil. The loaded magazine stayed put so my concerns weren't completely unfounded but they were relieved by the non-failure of that side latch.
I did take my video camera with me and I will be posting the video proof of what I've just written. I just have to edit it all down to a one minute length of video so I can upload it to my Instagram account and my YouTube channel.
I'll be back.
HollowPoint
Here's the hastily and poorly made proof of concept video I put together for my Instagram account. Instagram only allows for a general usage video of about one minute long. That's way to short to show all of the particulars of my range time while testing these 3D printed components. This short video only proves to those who have been following my progress that these 3D printed components are a viable concept worthy of your consideration; and yet for others, I will never be able to produce enough proof to prove that perhaps their disbelief was unfounded.
Within the next few weeks I'll be reverting my K31 to it's native chambering. As some of you may recall, I got a wild hair up my butt a while back and I re-barreled and rechambered it in 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser. I grew to like that chambering so much that I bought a Tikka Hunter model rifle chambered in the 6.5 Swedish cartridge and I've now gotten that rifle to a tack-driving status so I figured there's no sense in having two rifles in the same chambering.
Anyway, here's that short clip.
HollowPoint
Last edited by HollowPoint; 08-23-2018 at 02:27 PM.
Here's a addendum or correction to what I've been referring to as my, 3D printed extended 15 round magazine. Since I started working on my most recent extended magazine for my Lee Enfield rifle, on the Enfield rifle I have indeed been working toward a 15 round extended magazine but on the K31, it was only a 12 round extended magazine. This is twice the capacity of the factory K31 magazine.
I'm afraid that I've been suffering from"15-Rounds-In-The-Brain" lately because of the two different project being done so close together. The K31 magazine I tested in this video holds only 12 rounds; not the 15 rounds I stated that it did. Sorry about that mix up. I was a bit over zealous and bit to much in a hurry in the making of that video.
The upcoming Lee Enfield mag will be made to hold 15 rounds. At least that's what I'm shooting for. Whether I can get it work for me is still yet to be seen but, I'm relatively confident that I can; even though the Enfield mag will be on the back burner till I finish the CAD model teaks I mentioned I'd be doing on my K31 Peep sight now that I've identified areas where improvements could be made, I want to take care of those tweaks and move from there.
This means that I won't be working as fervently on my Enfield mag project for a week or so.
HollowPoint
This past Wednesday I printed what I though would be the last prototype Lee Enfield magazine before actually printing the final working version. It turns out that I didn't put enough of a curvature on my 3D printed magazine so I got the same effect as I was getting with my straight up and down printed prototypes. You can imagine my frustration when you realize that it took just under 14 hours to print this prototype. I got up at three-o-Clock in the morning and started the print and then went back to bed.
The print was done around dinner time that same day. All the while during that print session I was hoping that nothing went wrong midway through the print, like a power outage or something like that. The print itself looked really good. I think I'm starting to get the hang of coming up with good print recipes, it's just that no matter how good the prints turn out, if they don't function as they're supposed to it's all for naught.
I did some research into some obscure and obsolete Lee Enfield high capacity magazines dubbed, "Trench-Magazines." I'd never heard of them before I did that desperation google search for Lee Enfield high capacity magazines. I was able to bring up a few pics that gave me a better idea of just how much curvature my 3D printed magazine body would need in order to get the double stacked columns of 303 British rimmed cartridges to stack neatly against the rear-most wall of my magazine.
I've also been studying every little ridge and curve on the rest of my factory Lee Enfield factory magazine and at first glance it all looks like it's just there to add rigidity to the side wall or to aid in some unknown way. To some extent this is true but, if you'll notice on your own factory mags, the vertical ridges at the front of the magazine don't go from the very top to bottom. They stop at a very specific level below the top edge of the magazine on either side. This is so that the shoulder of the cartridge as it hits the top of that ridge will bump the cartridge inward and out from under the front feed lips and up to align it to the chamber. The vertical ridges at the rear of the magazine don't go as high as those in the front of the magazine. This is so that the rims of the cartridges won't snag those ridges when they're being cycled into battery and tip the nose of the cartridge out of alignment with the barrel chamber.
For the life of me I still haven't figured out what that little cut out on the right rear feed lip is all about. It seems to serve no purpose that I can think of but, if all of those other details in the design of the factory Lee Enfield magazine are put there for a specific reason, that little cut out must serve some purpose. If any of you guys knows what that purpose is, please let me know cause I have no clue. Maybe it's there to facilitated manufacture or something. Who Knows?
I'll take a pic of all of the Enfield mags I've printed thus far and post them for you within the next couple of days. If I quit this project now those failed attempts could rightly be considered failures but if I keep going they become rungs in the ladder of success. So far all my print attempts have functioned but only with a limited number of cartridges loaded in each one of them. I already have a factory ten round magazine. I'm wanting to make one that will hold 15 rounds. I could even live with a 12 or 13 rounder if I had to just to prove the concept.
With these Lee Enfield project magazine I'm finding out also that the same forces that caused the cartridges of my fully loaded K31 12-round magazine to want to cough up those cartridges is making the loaded rounds in the Enfield prototype magazine want to do the same thing. The plastic/ABS walls of my 3D printed magazines don't have quite enough rigidity to keep those loaded rounds from wanting to expand the magazine's wall outward but, that problem disappears if the magazine is locked into the mag-well. This way the wall of my 3D printed magazines are held in their original dimensions because the walls of the mag-well will not let them expand any further outward; which in turn keeps the rounds from escaping out the top of the magazine past the feed lips.
I'll be back with more pics latter.
HollowPoint
Last edited by HollowPoint; 09-01-2018 at 12:06 PM.
3D printed Lee Enfield No.4 Mk1 Extended 15 Round Magazine Project.
So far I've attempted to print three separate iterations of this extended magazine design. The first two actually functioned but, unreliably and only when I loaded no more than ten rounds into them. This is because of the rimmed cases of the 303 British cartridge.
My third and most recent attempt also worked but only with ten rounds or less loaded. This time it was the lack of sufficient curvature to the lower two-thirds of the magazine that was causing problems. I underestimated the amount of curvature I'd need and ended up with a 14 hour print that didn't work as I'd hoped it would.
This third print attempt fit nicely and look pretty good but, all of that means nothing if I can't get it to hold the full 15 rounds I set out for and if it's not functioning reliably those 14 hours of print time were basically a waste, unless you count them as a learning experience.
That's a round about way of saying that this is a work in progress and I'll most likely have to go back in a few more times and adjust the curvature of the lower two-thirds of my magazine design in order to get it to work properly and be aesthetically appealing as a finished project.
I also wanted to show you all just how time consuming, frustrating, perplexing and ultimately exhilarating it can be once success is achieved. I thought I'd upload a pic of the many failures of my recent K31 12 round extended magazine and Peep-Sights projects.
HollowPoint
Last edited by HollowPoint; 09-01-2018 at 09:51 PM.
Eureka! I Think I've Stumbled Onto The Correct Cuvature of My Magazine
It took just under 15 hours to print this latest iteration of my Lee Enfield Extended 15 round magazine. I had high hopes cause I was able to arrive at some tentative measurements or dimensions based on an internet pic of an old SMLE with a "Trench Magazine" inserted in its' mag-well.
Based on this photograph, I guessed at the curve and the length I needed and went with that. Following is the internet link with the photo image I'm referring to:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?v...=59&ajaxhist=0
My 3D printed magazine body finished printing at about 8:45 last night. I left it sitting in the printer till today. After cleaning up the ABS plastic swarf I went about printing a new base plate and Spring-Plate; after which I assembled it to see if it was all going to fit together for me like the previous one did. I was using the same Mag-Spring I was using for the last prototype I made so I wasn't sure if it would work or not regardless whether I had gotten the curvature of the lower two-thirds of my mag-body right or not.
It all went together real nice and the follower with the spring pushing up on it felt just as soggy and springy as the factory 10 round magazine so I tried loading up the first ten rounds. I did get some resistance from the inner side walls of my mag-body against the sides of the follower so I took it back apart and did some judicious filing here and there and tried again.
The first ten rounds went in without to much trouble and they all stayed put inside the magazine; then I tried inserting the remaining five rounds to make it a full 15 rounds loaded. I got two more rounds in but it required some foul language and a bit more thumb pressure. I continued to feel more raspy feeling resistance so I took it apart again and smoothed out the inner walls of the lower portion of the mag-body. I also did a little more smoothing on the sides of the follower.
This time I was able to get thirteen rounds into the mag before I started to feel more resistance. I took it apart one last time and this time I did some smoothing on the rear-most inner wall of the magazine. You have to understand that the surface finish, because of the way the molten ABS plastic is laid down, creates a fine horizontally abrasive surface. With this abrasive finish running horizontally and my follower moving up and down, even the slightest burr or imperfection creates resistance when the follower reaches the level of those imperfections.
The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth rounds were a bear to get in but they went in; and all the cartridges stayed put within the magazine. If you'll remember with my K31 Extended 12 round magazine project all the rounds stayed in place as long the ambient temperature wasn't hot enough for the ABS plastic mag-wall to soften up and expand outward when the magazine was outside the gun's magazine well. Once the heat of the day applied it's heat to the plastic magazine, those loaded bullets made a break for it. I was afraid that I'd be dealing with the same situation with my Lee Enfield magazine but for the time being, in the cool climate inside my home all 15 rounds stayed put inside the magazine. That may change when I get to the range to range test this latest Lee Enfield magazine.
It's nice to be able to load all 15 rounds with the magazine outside the mag-well. My Enfield wears a scope so loading them one at a time underneath that scope could be a major pain. Another thing is the type of bullets I now have loaded in the cartridges. My test were being done with real short 130 grain cast bullets. Because of the ogive and the overall length of the cartridges, the bullets barley reach forward far enough to be held underneath the front feed-lips of the magazine.
I wish you could have seen the "Sh!!!+-Eating-Grin" on my face as I cycled all 15 rounds out of that magazine for the first time.It worked. It really worked. Honestly, I was sure I'd have to go back in and re-do the curvature of the lower two-thirds of this magazine at least a couple time more before I got it to work. I still think that perhaps if I added about a half-inch more of forward curvature to the lower two-thirds of the mag-body those last three rounds wouldn't give me as much resistance as they do as I'm pushing them down into the magazine.
I'll take some photos of this latest iteration by this weekend. I should have done it today but I was just so excited that I finally got it to work that I got ahead of myself by posting this update.
If I lay 15 rounds on my work bench in a double column as they would sit in the magazine I can clearly see that my latest 3D printed magazine is a bit on the long side. This tells me that if I add more curve to the mag-body, which will (I hope) reduce the existing resistance of those last few rounds, I'll be able to shorten that overall length of my magazine by just a bit so that it better fits the overall dimensions of a short rifle like the my cut down Lee Enfield No.4 Mk1.
It looks like one more 3D print will be in order just to confirm this theory. In the mean time I'll be posting some pics of my present success within the next couple of days. Once I get that last -more curved- prototype printed and tested, I'll then post a short video to prove that what I've just written in this long-winded post is all true.
I'll be back.
HollowPoint
Last edited by HollowPoint; 09-06-2018 at 05:35 PM.
Here are some quick pics that show the comparison between my previous 3D printed mag body and this latest attempt. The one with the more pronounced curvature is the one that I got to hold the full 15 rounds. Even still, those last few cartridges that made up the full 15 rounds were a bear to get loaded.
Now with the latest tweaks to my CAD model I'm pretty sure my next print will be my final working print. (that's what I thought last time, Ha.) Anyway, these two pics will give you an idea where I'm at with this 3D print project.
From a purely aesthetic point of view, after looking at the mag while it was installed I found that I wasn't to crazy about the sharpness of the lower front corner of this magazine in its present form. I'll be changing that up a bit so that it looks a little more like the bottoms of a common AK magazine. On those magazines both the front and rear bottom corners are pretty uniform. The finished 3d print I have pictured here just appears a bit to sharp for my liking.
I am happy that I'm making progress with this project. With any luck I might have it all done by next week so I can move on to the next project. You know? I'm starting to think I can make extended magazines for my 1911 and my Khar 9mm pistols too. It's amazing what can be made with these 3D printers. All that's needed is a little imagination.
HollowPoint
Imagination, and LOTS of hard work!
I finally finished the print of the latest design change to my Lee Enfield 3D printed 15 round extended magazine. It looks really good, it fits really good but, like the first three printouts, it only cycled reliably with no more than ten rounds loaded.
After fiddling around with the dimensions of the follower I was able to get a maximum of 12 rounds loaded into the magazine. I took a apart a few times to smooth out the various interior surfaces and I was still only able to get 12 max loaded into it. I've determined that because of the curvature of this latest mag-print I'm going to have to fabricate a magazine spring with a different configuration. I've been using the same home made magazine spring for all of the different print iterations I've made so far. (5, counting this latest one) The problem seems to be that the dimensions of that original home made mag-spring are not long enough front to back and not wide enough side to side as it sits in the mag-body. That original mag-spring functioned Ok with the mag-bodies that were closer to straight up and down but now with the curve added to this latest print the spring is not pushing the follower/cartridges up with enough force to keep the cartridges aligned in the horizontal position within the magazine.
I tried setting my existing mag-spring so that most of the upward pressure is focused at the rear of the follower but then the front part of the follower does not pivot up enough to support the front-most part of the loaded cartridges.
Making a correctly configured mag-spring isn't that difficult; what's difficult is finding lengths of music wire longer than the 36" stuff they sell at the hardware store. As it is right now with the magazine loaded with a maximum of 12 rounds, they will cycle and feed OK but there's a slight lag time that occurs as each successive cartridge is pushed upward by the existing spring. I need to find a source of music wire that's about 40 or 50 inches so that I can bend it closer to the dimensions of the inside of the mag-body and still have enough wire to go from the base of the magazine to the underside of my follower.
Do any of you guys know where I might find music wire in these lengths? I don't want to try buying pre-made mag-springs cause I know they won't be made in the shapes that I need. I suppose if I tried making a single stack magazine for these same cartridges like the one pictured in the link I posted a couple of days ago I might be able to just buy a premade mag-spring but, I was hoping to be able to make everything myself. If I were to make a single stack it would most likely be way to long for my liking.
I'll post pics of this latest 3D printed magazine by the week end. Maybe by then I will have come up with a work-around for this magazine spring dilemma.
HollowPoint
Last edited by HollowPoint; 09-11-2018 at 06:55 PM.
Congratulations on your success after hard work. It looks great.
I noticed Amazon now sells music wire. If they are not on your ignore list, you can find spools there for a very good price.
On the strength of print versus orientation, you might try a new Slicer program. For instance, the new version of Cura I downloaded a month or two ago is vastly changed from a few years ago. It allows you to select the pattern of the infill; you can print zigzags, herringbone, it's crazy the choices they give. It is well beyond the back and forth pattern that the early versions used.
I've also learned in practice, after some kind advice, that it is beneficial to my setup to print at higher temperatures that I would have otherwise. I now print ABS with my heated bed at 110C and nozzle at 235C now, and strength has improved.
So between those two, there might be something to help you get your mags even stronger.
Bulldogger
Originally Posted by HollowPoint
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| BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
| BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
| BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
| C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
| HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
| PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
| LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
| GC | Gas Check |
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