Thread: Mags

Bit of a left field question, but given ive been looking for a Swiss K11 mag for ages and the chances of getting one in the near future seems at best wishful thinking, how hard would it to be able to get one made or 3D printed parts made?

Not hard if you have the dimensions for the CNC controller for the printer.

@Tertle - mate, your perseverance is admirable. I never thought of going down that road but if I did now, I would talk to Aidan from VTP to see if he will/can make one for you. You will need a corresponding K11 mag for him to copy to make it easier for him.

@Trigger Mate she’s a neat rifle, im thinking of getting a CAD styled design and just getting it made, even if it was a simple sled styled solid mag, thinking of the “suppleness” of the media as to absorb, but if i can make it, hell ill just get another made.

Just so frustrating that we cant get these old girls back out and running

Perseverance……..hmmmm bloody pig headed stubborn! Lol

I have 3d printed a bunch of mags for various different rifles, center-fire and rimfire. I have found it generally takes at least 5 or 6 versions to get the geometry perfect, and that is with an existing magazine to copy. The next hardest part is making or buying a spring, again it helps to have an original on hand to copy and measure. After that, material selection is important. You need a very stiff yet tough material for center-fire magazines, especially relatively small mags that cram lots of rounds in. Single stackers are easier than double stack single feed. Good quality ABS is fine for rimfire mags but you will probably run into stiffness issues in the feed lips for center-fire mags. I have found nylon to be too flexible, even when carbon reinforced. I have done a little experimentation with Carbon PETG and that seems promising.

For rectangle coil springs (most modern mags) you can get spring wire from hobby stores and bend it with a couple of pairs of needle nose pliers. It takes some time and practice but you can get a usable spring. This type of spring will take some set eventually if it is over compressed and will lose its "spring" your better off purchasing something off eBay where there is a huge variety of rectangle coil springs available very cheap. But it's good to make a few by hand first to get an idea of exactly what dimensions and wire size you need.

If it is a leaf type spring, they are much harder to make and source material for as the spring thickness and width has much more impact on the spring rate, so must be more accurate.

If you don't have the knowledge and access to a CAD system and 3D printer, it will cost you a fair amount of $$ to get someone else to do the design and testing for you, there is a lot of time involved in getting 3D printed magazines to work properly. Saying that, once the design is sorted and a commercially available spring sourced, they are piss easy and cheap to make.

Im going to keep it as simple as possible, flag having a spring in place, solid block or sled type follower so that a round can be fed in and cycled, sort of like with a single feed NRA, it’s just such a neat rifle and trying to get a mag is just silly, so it would just be great to get it out and being able to be used!!!

so if thats the case,could you not make up blank follower with wood/plastic/alloy and fill mag well with...plastercene??? and see if it is going to do what you want,and just use it.
would be sort of like the mag block slide on the old SMLE....

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

so if thats the case,could you not make up blank follower with wood/plastic/alloy and fill mag well with...plastercene??? and see if it is going to do what you want,and just use it.
would be sort of like the mag block slide on the old SMLE....

Your not just a pretty face!!!!!

That is an option, im going to start with trying to find a mag! Or an existing STL or similar format of an already scanned mag……..yes i live in hope

@Trigger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeMaB5u2qTg

im getting there

@Tertle Awesome! Let me know how you get on

@Trigger mate, knowing my luck, ill get a door knock at some ungodly hour!!!!!!

@Tertle you shouldn't open the door to strangers even if they are holding candy.

PM Hamish at tactical imports/Milsurps nz and he may be able to assist you in finding one for the right price