Anyone make a magazine?

[69daytona]

Have a early prototype John Martz 45 Luger, he made it to use 1911 magazines and I have one that came with gun.
My problem is lips were all bent and the base and follower he made only lets 4 rounds in.
Made my own base and bought a different spring and follower that let it hold 6.
Worked on lips for 3 weeks and can load six, first one always pops out of gun when cycled to chamber, after that the other 5 feed good.

plan on making a few more mags from newer mags, anyone have suggestions for cutting or grinding the spring steel on the magazine?

[Winger Ed.]

A die grinder with 3" wheels should do it.

[Bazoo]

I've cut 1911 mags easily with a dremel before.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Don't get them too hot or you'll ruin the temper and springiness. If you use a grinding wheel keep a pot of water handy to use for cooing, and dip it in frequently.

I briefly knew Mr. Martz, and he was the ultimate craftsman. I'm surprised to hear that he made some that used altered .45 mags, as all I saw used Luger mags. Even the mini-Lugers used altered original mags. Sounds like you have something very unusual, and should show us a couple of photos!

[arjacobson]

Check out and become a member of weaponsguild. They have great info on making mags.. Been a proud member for a few years now..

[country gent]

If possible block the inside of the mag. this stiffens the body and makes holding it a lot easier with out crushing deforming it. a form with the correct angle and radius helps to reform the lips if needed. Work slow and easy bending to fast or tightly can cause cracks and thin spots.

[HollowPoint]

I've 3D printed extended magazines for my Tikka rifles in two different chamberings as well as an extended magazine for my K31 Swiss rifle. I also started to do the same with my Lee Enfield rifle but I've since put that project on the back burner so I could finish up the easier to finish projects I had going on. Because of the rimmed cases of the Enfield cartridges it makes it a bit tougher to get just the right curvature of the double stack magazine.

None of those 3D printed magazines were pistol magazines but the Tikka mags were single stack mags so I figure the same could be done for a pistol magazine. You just need to model it to match an existing magazine using the correct print filament and it should be possible to print a pistol magazine as well.

I thought about doing a pistol magazine for my Kimber 45 but I already have two spares. That's more than enough for me. Same with my Khar arms 9mm.

HollowPoint

[Dimner]

HP, what filament did you use for your Mags? I imagine PLA would heat up too easily? Or would it be fine for firing 1 or 2 rounds in a bolt action?

I have a Tikka T3x in 270 i would love to try out printing mag for. But first, I would need to perfect printing with the filament before I ask you for an STL

Another magazine 3d printing project I have been meaning to start is a Magazine limiter for a gehwer 43.

[LAGS]

A couple of years back , I made an extended magazine for a friend's CZ 527 in 7.62x39.
I took two standard magazines and trimmed the top off one and the bottom lips off the other.
Then welded them together.
I did have to trim them off at an angle , so when welded together they created that Curve to fit the rounds so they fed easily.
Getting the curve correct was the biggest challenge because of the steep taper in the shape of the loaded rounds.
After I got the magazine functioning , I made a form out of wood and made a new magazine out of sheet metal using the wood as a form.
The springs were made out of piano wire formed around another wood form.
The magazine was made to increase capacity from 5 to 10 rounds and that rifle is only a single stack style.
I started on a 15 round capacity , but that project got put on hold .
I also had made him a Custom pistol grip stock with a Spare 5 round magazine holder in the bottom of the butt .
He had posted it before on this Forum , but I don't know in what thread.

[HollowPoint]

HP, what filament did you use for your Mags? I imagine PLA would heat up too easily? Or would it be fine for firing 1 or 2 rounds in a bolt action?

I have a Tikka T3x in 270 i would love to try out printing mag for. But first, I would need to perfect printing with the filament before I ask you for an STL

Another magazine 3d printing project I have been meaning to start is a Magazine limiter for a gehwer 43.

On all of the magazines I've made I've ended up using just ABS filament. With my K31 double stack project magazine I also tried using carbon fiber filament and it came out looking very good but being that the feed-lips were so thin, the upward pressure of the cartridges on those feed-lips caused them to just snap off after just a couple of firings. The carbon fiber filament was just to brittle. There was one other specialty filament that I had intended to try. It's called Nylon-6. It's supposed to be much tougher and heat, chemical and abrasion resistant. I just never got around to trying any of that filament.

Another issue I found out about was that on double stack magazine prints the walls of the magazines are thin enough that in warm weather they tend to bow out when they are fully charged and just sitting out on their own. When in the mag well of the rifle the walls of the mag well keeps the magazine walls from bowing out and coughing up all those loaded rounds but that wasn't a problem for me. I could just as easily load the mag when it was in the mag-well. On the single stack magazines of the Tikka rifles, the wall of that magazines are a little thicker; so are the feed-lips so the bowing problem didn't manifest itself.

At first I was printing them in the upright position in the slicer software. I decided to print them with the back of the magazine on the build-platform as it they were in print. This made the layers of the filament lay down in a vertical direction on the walls of the magazine. This was the best way to print them as far as mitigating the breakage of the feed-lips. Similar to the grain in a flat piece of wood, if the grain is running the length of that piece of wood it makes it harder to break.

I mis-spoke in my initial comment. I stated that I'd made extended magazines for two of my Tikka rifles. The mix up was in the fact that I made my extended magazine for my Tikka-Lite in 223. At the time I had just re-barreled my Tikka Hunter in 6.5x55, which was the same chambering in my K31 Swiss. All Tikka rifles are built on long actions so the one I made for my 223 should still work with some modifications to the inside dimensions of the magazine itself.

I too made my own mag-springs out of music wire. It took a couple of tries to get it just right but once I got the right bends and angles figured out it was relatively simple thing to do. I think I'll stop here. I'm afraid I've begun to sound like a thread hijacker. My apologies to the OP.

HollowPoint