Printable Lowers and mags

[S_K]

My thoughts also. It would give you good precision and be a lot easier to work with than wax. Also no need to keep molds laying around getting ruined.

[CJ]

My thoughts also. It would give you good precision and be a lot easier to work with than wax. Also no need to keep molds laying around getting ruined.

right, you can go straight to a final fine cast media. Hell, if you stack your mold properly you may be able to keep machining down to a minimum.

[Ruffdaddy]

Melting point is all over the board depending On material...

I've seen casting frequently made from sls parts. As CJ mentions...functional areas are obviously machined down. I'm sure some sla parts will work as well. I think v process casting commonly uses sls positives.

But in saying that...a good home cnc is still cheaper than a good home 3d printer

[goofygrin]

My 3d printer was ~$600. It prints with ABS, which gets soft @ 100*C (flexible). I'd feel comfortable printing and using followers, but I've got no interest (other than "neato") in printing a lower or mag [and actually being forced to use it].

[CJ]

My 3d printer was ~$600. It prints with ABS, which gets soft @ 100*C (flexible). I'd feel comfortable printing and using followers, but I've got no interest (other than "neato") in printing a lower or mag [and actually being forced to use it].

The problem with ABS for a lower is it warps and flexes on complex/low tolerance things. At least, that's my experience with it. I don't think you can print fibrous polymers like magpul uses with one of those, they are too high heat, right?

I've never really given much time to 3d printing because for what I need things for it really doesn't do anything. I have built CNC machines before and they are awesome. They are just so damn time consuming to build, configure, dial in, and get to manufacturing. Not to mention how expensive decent controllers and motors can be.

[Ruffdaddy]

My 3d printer was ~$600. It prints with ABS, which gets soft @ 100*C (flexible). I'd feel comfortable printing and using followers, but I've got no interest (other than "neato") in printing a lower or mag [and actually being forced to use it].

Then it's an FDM printer with limited resolution. Let me guess...makerbot? We've used one for a few prototype parts but there's only so much you can do with hot fishing line. It's also very limited in size capacity.

[goofygrin]

Solidoodle. It's great for rapid prototyping for fit, clearancing, etc... it definitely sucks for robustness.

Makes cool kids crap though

[Ruffdaddy]

Solidoodle. It's great for rapid prototyping for fit, clearancing, etc... it definitely sucks for robustness.

Makes cool kids crap though

Yeah that's similar to the makerbot we use. Cool but the parts aren't nearly as pretty or crisp as a high end 3D printers. We considered getting a nicer one but decided to save for shopmaster or tormach small scale CNC. For 5-10K I think it's hard to beat for prototyping.