New and Improved - 3D printed safe storage solutions

[Gert Odendaal]

Excellent printing work.. It seems this is the future to a lot of rifle related aspects ....What is the possibility of printing a cartridge to reload in a .308 caliber or 9mm pistol to shoot as ammo? A complete cartridge with primer hole so it can be readily reloaded as ammo????

[RobZ]

Really cool idea, need to add that to the printing backlog! -- Regarding printing a cartridge - No, No - hell no

......

(but) I did print bullets based on 147gn FP (from frontier) And then proceed to test them through my 17.

- I started (and ended) with only a primer as propellant.

The first bullets I printed were with 25% infill - that is the printer forms a sort of honeycomb inside the printed object to save weight (and material) - the skin of the bullet remained behind (in the barrel) and the core was spat out as very small pieces of plastic.
Next I printed @ 75% infill - the same thing happened (but with slightly bigger shrapnel)
then I printed at 100% (i.e. solid plastic) ... and at 3m distance (with a primer as propellant) the bullet penetrates 7 layers of (IDPA) target cardboard!

Any volunteers for man on man ?

[Zillard]

Ok, took a while longer than i hoped, but managed to get a Glock mag one done. This one is for 6 mags, but i can make up to 11 mags in total on the printer.

The hanger:



With some glock mags, and 1 Sig P250, which also kind of fits, although a bit more loosely:





Mags sits quite well on the hanger.

Any of you interested, let me know.

LOL, i need to take better pictures.

[Zillard]

Excellent printing work.. It seems this is the future to a lot of rifle related aspects ....What is the possibility of printing a cartridge to reload in a .308 caliber or 9mm pistol to shoot as ammo? A complete cartridge with primer hole so it can be readily reloaded as ammo????

Thank you.

Its doubtfull you will be able to print a safe, usable cartridge. Due to the layered structure of the prints, the wall thickness required for the print to be strong being larger than normal brass cartridge wall thickness, and most probably lots of voids in the material, the cartridge wont be near as strong enough to withstand the contained explosion from the powder. And it would be a one shot solution im afraid, with a lot of clean up afterwards. Im sure it will melt.

As RobZ pointed out, you could print projectiles if you were so inclined. But not worth it in the long run.

[The Beast]

Thank you.

Its doubtfull you will be able to print a safe, usable cartridge. Due to the layered structure of the prints, the wall thickness required for the print to be strong being larger than normal brass cartridge wall thickness, and most probably lots of voids in the material, the cartridge wont be near as strong enough to withstand the contained explosion from the powder. And it would be a one shot solution im afraid, with a lot of clean up afterwards. Im sure it will melt.

As RobZ pointed out, you could print projectiles if you were so inclined. But not worth it in the long run.

If you wanted light projectiles it's much better to just cast then in a mold with a glue gun. This works well for revolver with just a primer. they are reusable as well. Pistol obviously would not cycle...

[geopat]

Just a thought but could you print a P mag?

[Zillard]

In theory yes, but it wont be near as strong/resilient as the real thing im afraid. You also would need to get a spring that will work.