3D Printed Lower

erwos · Sep 7, 2016

If you want to learn to print with ABS really well, the Charon is absolutely a good project to take on. The rear of the buffer tube and the magwell that you see in this picture are getting reprinted... I was printing WAY too fast early on. I learned my lesson, and dialed it all in.

Once I'm satisfied with the parts quality, I'll ABS bond it all together, slap an LPK and buffer assembly in it, and then devise some safe way to take it for a test drive. Assuming the lower and I survive that, the next step is to print out an LPK and see how much of this I can make out of ABS. (FCG pins and selector... probably. Detents... probably. FCG... probably not.)

Boss94 · Sep 7, 2016

Interesting looking! ! I'm not so sure about the stock end . But then again I'm looking at it on my phone.

erwos · Sep 8, 2016

Back of the stock is missing the cap and buttpad. It'll be a little nicer once I'm done printing those. I'd guesstimate that continuous print time for the entire parts set is something like 60 hours, maybe even more.

Boss94 · Sep 8, 2016

Wow that's some serious time! ! We have a few of them at work. I call then the easy bake oven lol

chesapeakeIRON · Sep 8, 2016

Im not seeing how that is supposed to be "lower." I see the trigger guard and the magwell, but the rest does not look like a normal AR lower, is it going to be bullpup? Do you have a pic of what the final product is?

ok....answered my own question, via google...Im excited it complete!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(gun)

Tihsho · Sep 8, 2016

I wanted to get one of these together to slap my AR57 upper on it. But, with other projects and life a 3D printer is on the queue of toys for a later date. Too bad, unlike most 3D items, you can't just send the design to a place and have them print it for you and send it to you... Cause then that would be breaking ATF rules

erwos · Sep 8, 2016

Wikipedia doesn't even show the V4 parts, some of which I'm using...

Basically, there's a two-piece buffer tube on top, which sits on the stock and grip. The magwell is multi-piece, and attaches to the grip. I'm printing the "Kommando" stock for this build (on the far right in the picture), which can hold a spare magazine (ala the FAB Defense GL-MAG stocks). I am not terribly impressed with it - the side walls are thin, so I've had a bit of layer separation, and the mag catch/release for it is hard to print without HIPS or PolySupport. All of that is fixable, but I'd try the solid stock next time.

And, yeah, it's a huge amount of effort to nail the exact print settings and then print all the pieces correctly. The DEFCAD guys implied to me that very few Charons had been printed, and I'm seeing why... lotta work compared to just buying an aluminum lower for fifty bucks. No way it would ever be economical as a print-to-order item, unless the other party already had done the hard work already.

Tihsho · Sep 8, 2016

What's the overall dimensions? Could this be printed as a single piece?

erwos · Sep 8, 2016

Tihsho said:
What's the overall dimensions? Could this be printed as a single piece?

Not sure about overall dimensions; probably similar to a carbine stock setup at setting 3. You can print a spacer to make it longer in a pinch.

There are a few problems with a one-piece print - I assume you mean with all the parts joined in final positions:
1. There are no consumer-level printers with a big enough print bed to do it.
2. Big prints are super hard to do without warping, especially with 100% infill.
3. The lower is essentially hollow inside, which means you'd need to put in oodles of support material, and then, worse, dig it out. Post processing would be a nightmare.

You could probably try to print more individual parts in a single print, but see (2) for why that's not a great plan.

Tihsho · Sep 8, 2016

Is there a reason this isn't a clamshell design? Looks like there will be a lot of fitment issues based off of cooling time vs. part size. If everything was the same thickness and identical surface area then they would cool at the same rate, that is unless they were all printed during the same duration and were forced to cool at the same rate (by keeping the parts at the same temp via an oven and backing off the temperature.)

OrbitalEllipses · Sep 8, 2016

New Frontier Armory makes a polymer LPK: https://newfrontierarmory.com/shop/polymer-lower-parts-kit-lpk/

Most of it is metal, but there are key components in polymer.

GeorgeSSR · Sep 8, 2016

All I want is somebody to mass produce a p-90 stock to put on a standard lower receiver. I know the WarFairy pack has a 3D printable one, but so far I haven't seen a good looking one.

Give me something like stock in the attached picture and I'd throw it on my SBR in a heartbeat (minus the prostate tickler).

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