A robot made a Glock for me

[CleverNickname]

Do you want to build yourself a Glock-ish pistol? One option would be to buy a P80 frame. But there's another option, 3D printing. For those of you who aren't familiar with consumer-level 3D printing, the gist is that a computer-controlled nozzle melts plastic filament and then deposits the melted plastic in a specific pattern, producing a plastic part. The initial outlay for 3D printing is a bit more than buying a P80 frame, since you'll need to buy the 3D printer. Popular models are available for ~$300. The printer can also be used for a lot more things than making firearm receivers. (https://www.thingiverse.com/) This is PF though, so let's keep it gun-related. Try the Gatalog (https://thegatalog.com/) or Ctrl Pew (https://www.ctrlpew.com) for firearms print files.

For this thread, I'll be printing an FDMA DD19.2 Glock 19-sized pistol frame.

The print takes awhile to finish. This is about a third of the way through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvW1iJbSZIg

Final print time. The print is done in many small layers .15mm at a time.
70935

There's a lot of supports needed to hold the actual receiver while it's being printed. This frame is <$5 worth of filament, so if something goes wrong, no big loss.
70947

The supports break off fairly easily in about 5 minutes or so, using your hands and some sort of thin metal tool. I used a letter opener.
70937
70938

The underside of the frame was a little rough, but some 400-grit sandpaper smoothed it out.
70942

Same with the bottom of the magwell. Unlike a factory frame, there's no cavity behind the magwell, it's completely solid.
70943

Other than that, the frame is mostly the same as a factory frame, except there's additional space for the metal frame rails.
70939

Since it's not possible to print the frame around the rails, the design allows them to be inserted once the frame is finished printing. You may have noticed the extra hole shown in previous pictures, for the pin that holds the front rails. The rear rails are held in with the same factory pin that holds the trigger housing.
70940

Several different companies make rails that fit the FMDA frames, for ~$30 a set. The pin holes are printed ever-so-slightly undersized, and part of the assembly is to drill out the holes so that they're the correct size. It doesn't require a jig like a P80 frame though. Assembly is slightly more complicated than detail stripping a factory frame, but not much. The ZIP file that contains the print files also includes a detailed PDF with photos on the steps required for assembly. Other than drilling out the pin holes, the only other fitting my print required was hitting the hole for the mag catch slightly with a rat-tail file, so that the mag catch didn't stick.
70941

There's a small problem with the design, where factory G19 mags don't quite lock in the magwell. Apparently this is a known issue and will be fixed in a later revision of the design. I'll probably try dremeling a small notch in the magwell and see if that fixes it.
70944

G17 mags lock in just fine though. Whenever a newer version is released, I can just print that out, move all the parts over to the new frame, then cut up and trash this frame. Anyways, I want to try printing a frame with a different glass-fiber reinforced filament that is claimed to be stronger than the regular PLA filament I used.
70945

Gonna go to the range in the afternoon and try shooting it.

[jh9]

Chuck Schumer just had an aneurysm and he didn't even read this post.

[LOKNLOD]

Chuck Schumer just had an aneurysm and he didn't even read this post.

*puts printer on endless loop of hopes and prayers of this being true*

[HeavyDuty]

Hark! The sound of black helicopters warming up…

[olstyn]

Pretty cool that it's printed pre-stippled. I suppose on you could give it just about any custom texture you want that way.

[OlongJohnson]

The hard part would be you'd have to design the texture in the 3D model. Just like nobody's apparently bothered to fix the kittened bottom of the grip even though it's common knowledge it doesn't work with the magazines it matches in length, you need some decently powerful software and the skills to use it to move the ball.

[Paul D]

Are you actually going to hold it in your hand when pull the trigger for the first time? I'm not an engineer but I would mount it to a vise and pull trigger somehow from a distance. Of course Gaston Glock was holding his G17 proto-type in his non-dominant hand when he tested it out for the first time (in case...you know...kB)

[CleverNickname]

Pretty cool that it's printed pre-stippled. I suppose on you could give it just about any custom texture you want that way.
The black frame shown above is actually the second frame I printed. The first frame I printed was the original FMDA DD19.2 design, with smooth grips. It was done that way to make it easier to make modifications. Someone else made a modification of the original design to add the stippling, which is what I used for the black frame.

This was the first frame I printed.
70955


Are you actually going to hold it in your hand when pull the trigger for the first time? I'm not an engineer but I would mount it to a vise and pull trigger somehow from a distance. Of course Gaston Glock was holding his G17 proto-type in his non-dominant hand when he tested it out for the first time (in case...you know...kB)
I don't see why not. Everything other than the frame and rails are factory Glock parts; I'm not particularly concerned that it's going fail to contain the round going off.

[23JAZ]

Do you want to build yourself a Glock-ish pistol? One option would be to buy a P80 frame. But there's another option, 3D printing. For those of you who aren't familiar with consumer-level 3D printing, the gist is that a computer-controlled nozzle melts plastic filament and then deposits the melted plastic in a specific pattern, producing a plastic part. The initial outlay for 3D printing is a bit more than buying a P80 frame, since you'll need to buy the 3D printer. Popular models are available for ~$300. The printer can also be used for a lot more things than making firearm receivers. (https://www.thingiverse.com/) This is PF though, so let's keep it gun-related. Try the Gatalog (https://thegatalog.com/) or Ctrl Pew (https://www.ctrlpew.com) for firearms print files.

For this thread, I'll be printing an FDMA DD19.2 Glock 19-sized pistol frame.

The print takes awhile to finish. This is about a third of the way through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvW1iJbSZIg

Final print time. The print is done in many small layers .15mm at a time.
70935

There's a lot of supports needed to hold the actual receiver while it's being printed. This frame is <$5 worth of filament, so if something goes wrong, no big loss.
70947

The supports break off fairly easily in about 5 minutes or so, using your hands and some sort of thin metal tool. I used a letter opener.
70937
70938

The underside of the frame was a little rough, but some 400-grit sandpaper smoothed it out.
70942

Same with the bottom of the magwell. Unlike a factory frame, there's no cavity behind the magwell, it's completely solid.
70943

Other than that, the frame is mostly the same as a factory frame, except there's additional space for the metal frame rails.
70939

Since it's not possible to print the frame around the rails, the design allows them to be inserted once the frame is finished printing. You may have noticed the extra hole shown in previous pictures, for the pin that holds the front rails. The rear rails are held in with the same factory pin that holds the trigger housing.
70940

Several different companies make rails that fit the FMDA frames, for ~$30 a set. The pin holes are printed ever-so-slightly undersized, and part of the assembly is to drill out the holes so that they're the correct size. It doesn't require a jig like a P80 frame though. Assembly is slightly more complicated than detail stripping a factory frame, but not much. The ZIP file that contains the print files also includes a detailed PDF with photos on the steps required for assembly. Other than drilling out the pin holes, the only other fitting my print required was hitting the hole for the mag catch slightly with a rat-tail file, so that the mag catch didn't stick.
70941

There's a small problem with the design, where factory G19 mags don't quite lock in the magwell. Apparently this is a known issue and will be fixed in a later revision of the design. I'll probably try dremeling a small notch in the magwell and see if that fixes it.
70944

G17 mags lock in just fine though. Whenever a newer version is released, I can just print that out, move all the parts over to the new frame, then cut up and trash this frame. Anyways, I want to try printing a frame with a different glass-fiber reinforced filament that is claimed to be stronger than the regular PLA filament I used.
70945

Gonna go to the range in the afternoon and try shooting it.
what is the printing media? Is it the same type of glass filled polymer or whatever Glock calls it?

[CleverNickname]

what is the printing media? Is it the same type of glass filled polymer or whatever Glock calls it?
I used the Prusa PLA that I got when I got the printer. That doesn't have glass in it, but you can get glass-filled polymer which the designer of the FMDA DD19.2 claims will result in a frame which is roughly the same strength as a factory frame.

e: something like this
https://www.3dxtech.com/product/fibrex-nylon-gf30/

[olstyn]

There's a lot of supports needed to hold the actual receiver while it's being printed. This frame is <$5 worth of filament, so if something goes wrong, no big loss.

Is there some reason the model couldn't be rotated 90 degrees such that it was laying on its side vs standing up? That would seem to require a lot less support filament, no?

[AKDoug]

Are you actually going to hold it in your hand when pull the trigger for the first time? I'm not an engineer but I would mount it to a vise and pull trigger somehow from a distance. Of course Gaston Glock was holding his G17 proto-type in his non-dominant hand when he tested it out for the first time (in case...you know...kB)
Everything that could go wrong is contained in the slide. I suppose a rail failure might be a problem, but considering you can actually stop a 9mm slide from coming back on firing with just your thumb, that force isn't really that much.

[CleverNickname]

Is there some reason the model couldn't be rotated 90 degrees such that it was laying on its side vs standing up? That would seem to require a lot less support filament, no?
The FMDA DD19.2 instructions say to print it in that orientation, so that's what I did. I'm assuming they did it that way for a good reason.

[olstyn]

The FMDA DD19.2 instructions say to print it in that orientation, so that's what I did. I'm assuming they did it that way for a good reason.

Fair enough. It was just what immediately occurred to me in terms of wasting less material. I have zero experience with 3D printing. Maybe there's something about the orientation of the layers being laid down that impacts the strength of the final product?

[CleverNickname]

Maybe there's something about the orientation of the layers being laid down that impacts the strength of the final product?
Yeah that seems like a good assumption. "Taking less time to print" would be more of a plus for me than "wasting less material", though.

[olstyn]

Yeah that seems like a good assumption. "Taking less time to print" would be more of a plus for me than "wasting less material", though.

Those are sort of one and the same, aren't they?

I wonder if flipping it 180 degrees so that it was upside down would be viable. That would have the layers in the same orientation and probably save quite a bit of material/print time.

[CleverNickname]

Maybe. But you'll notice that the bottom of the frame I printed is sort of rough where the supports were attached. Printing the frame upside down would mean that there would need to be supports underneath the part of the frame where the slide rides, which would make that part of the frame rough when the supports were removed. I'm guessing that keeping that part of the frame smooth is more important.

[Caballoflaco]

Fair enough. It was just what immediately occurred to me in terms of wasting less material. I have zero experience with 3D printing. Maybe there's something about the orientation of the layers being laid down that impacts the strength of the final product?

Wild ass guess, but I’m betting that the pistol grip/magwell prints best in a vertical vs horizontal (laying on its side) position and it’s easier to clean off supports on the outside of the frame vs inside the magwell. The pistol grip is quite thin on the sides and you can’t really stack layers over that kind of a horizontal span. With additive manufacturing you need your layers to overhang the layer below, much like building an arch out of bricks or stone.

[boing]

I’ve been surprised with the ability of FDM to bridge flat areas without support. I think the mag well wouldn’t be too much of a problem there, but the fine detail areas that have to mate with small parts will benefit from being printed “detail side up”.

I like some of the enhanced PLA varieties for (slightly) improved strength and ductility, like ST-PLA and PLA+. There may be others under specific brand names, but that’s what I’d look to for an application like this.

Now print an Arduino firing hand. Might want to make some extra fingers while you’re at it. :cool:

[CleverNickname]

Just got back from the range, and since I still have all my fingers, goal #1 was achieved.

Goal #2, "have a functioning gun", a bit less so. It functioned, but not as well as I hoped. I shot about 20 rounds of factory and 80 rounds of my reloads. For some reason it had what appeared to be six or seven light strikes, with both the factory and reloads. If I had been thinking ahead I would've brought the factory frame that I took the barrel and slide from, to see if the problem followed the barrel and slide, but I didn't. The factory gun has been sitting in my safe for years and I don't know the last time I shot it, so the problem could very well have been with that gun and not the printed frame. I took the slide apart and nothing appears to be broken, and the slide appeared to be in battery every time it failed to fire, so I'm not sure what the cause was.

[octagon]

Just got back from the range, and since I still have all my fingers, goal #1 was achieved.

Goal #2, "have a functioning gun", a bit less so. It functioned, but not as well as I hoped. I shot about 20 rounds of factory and 80 rounds of my reloads. For some reason it had what appeared to be six or seven light strikes, with both the factory and reloads. If I had been thinking ahead I would've brought the factory frame that I took the barrel and slide from, to see if the problem followed the barrel and slide, but I didn't. The factory gun has been sitting in my safe for years and I don't know the last time I shot it, so the problem could very well have been with that gun and not the printed frame. I took the slide apart and nothing appears to be broken, and the slide appeared to be in battery every time it failed to fire, so I'm not sure what the cause was.

You may want to check that the tip of the striker is clearing the rest of the trigger bar in front of the interface of sear area and striker. I have heard others have this be a bit too high in the frame.

I picked up a Ender 3 V2 for the same stuff but haven't done a frame yet. Mostly working at getting good prints and not over supporting prints. Nice to see your work.

[whomever]

"Is there some reason the model couldn't be rotated 90 degrees such that it was laying on its side vs standing up?"

I think I'd rather be cleaning support material off the non-functional outside than the functional inside parts, or inside the magwell.

Someone mentioned bridging, and yes that works but IMHE the bottom of the 'bridge' doesn't have as good a surface finish as a vertical surface.

[CleverNickname]

I think my problem was that the hole in the frame for the slide lock spring wasn't quite deep enough, which resulted in the slide lock spring not putting quite enough pressure on the slide lock. This resulted in the slide not locking up in exactly the right place every time, so sometimes the trigger bar couldn't actuate the striker. The slide lock felt a little loose and too easy to move. It was the same way on both the black and gray frames I printed, so I think it's an issue with the design.

There's two versions of the DD19.2 frame: one which uses the normal leaf-style slide lock spring and another which uses a coil spring. I printed out a copy of the coil spring frame version and it's been flawless so far in dry fire. The spring pressure on the slide lock is much firmer than on the leaf-spring style frames and feels more like a factory frame.