A little over a month ago I finally got the money together to buy/invest in my first 3D printer. The learning curve is kind of steep but I've finally gotten to where I've started getting some decent prints out of it; not perfect prints just decent usable prints.
Thus far I've managed to design and print some new peep sights for my Umarex Gauntlet PCP air rifle, Peeps sights for my break barrel air rifles along with a replacement shroud/suppressor for one of these break barrel air rifles and now I've started in on some extended magazines for my K31 Swiss rifle. If I measured correctly it should have a capacity of between 10 to 12 rounds depending on how much room my mag-spring takes up; possibly one or two more rounds.
I printed the first prototype yesterday. The finish on it was actually very good but, I found out when I went to try to insert it into the magazine well that the K31 magazine is tapered toward the front end. My mistake was measuring the width at the back end and thinking that the front end was the same dimension. A rookie mistake if I ever saw one.
You realize how incredibly frustrating that was when you factor in the time it took to finish that print. My second prototype is printing even as I write this initial post. Would anyone care to guess how long it takes to print just the main body of the magazine? Anybody?
It took just under 7 hours to print just the main body of this extended magazine. I haven't made up the follower yet but I have finished the floor plate and the slip-on bottom cap. I'm wanting to first get the main body fitting right and then fiddle around with the side latch until I get that just right so that it stays put when the mag is inserted. I'm going to have to make my own mag-springs for this so that's going to take some trial and error to get it right but, that's just par for the course. I'm sure there's a mathematical formula for this kind of stuff but I SUCK at math so I'm stuck with trial and error.
I really hope I can get this home made magazine to work reliably cause I'd like to make one for my Lee Enfield as well. A short little banana-type of magazine for my Enfield shorty would be just the ticket to make it look unique. I was afraid that the weak link in such a 3D printed magazine would be the very thin walls of these plastic magazines but when printed at 100 percent infill they are actually fairly rigid. In order for it to break you have to make a concerted effort to break it. I'll also be making up a set of 3D printed Peep Sights for this same K31 as well. I need to find some exact measurements of one of those aftermarket Bolt-On scope mount for the K31. I want to use the same type of securing method that attaches to the right side of the reciever. I've found photos online of this scope mount but nothing that I can get any good measurements off of. If any of you guys have one of these laying around perhaps you'd be kind enough to send me some closeup pics with measurements mainly of the area where the screw goes through and attaches.
I'll post some pics once I get farther along. I've already posted a few pics of my 3D printed air gun projects over on the air guns section of this forum. If you get a chance you can take a look. I'll generally post my CAD renderings just to show what I was aiming for and then after I've had time to fine tune my 3D prints I'll post the finished product.
I'm not printing these things for sale. It just takes to long to print up anything I've designed so a profit motive of things I've made is out of the question but at some point I do intend to start offering the STL files for sale to other like minded 3Ders who are also gun enthusiasts.
Sorry to leave you with no pics this time around but they will be forthcoming.
HollowPoint