Glock frame printing

Sharkposter

there's a lot of interesting exotic filaments I have been reading about but they are waaaay to expensive for me to give it a go, hopefully the costs come down on some of the more unique ones. I was reading a bit more on the fiberon PET-CF I have and it seems good up to 70C without annealing which is fine in a hot car where im at, but im also curious as to how much heat transfer there is between the frame and slide/barrel during firing. I dont think it could be too much as really the only true contact area is the rails/locking block and the guide rod (I don't think the barrel directly contacts the frame but I could be mistaken). would annealing the PET-CF be needed? from what I read it mainly just affects heat resistance but ends up making the print more brittle?

PRNTY

I've seen multiple people online claiming to have 3000+ rounds from high quality pla+ glock frames, whether you believe that is up to you, I haven't had much time for testing, Hoffman said in a video about a month ago the best filament for most lowers was Bambu labs Pet-cf, I wouldn't anneal because most of the failures I've seen have been from cracks or tears in the locking block and rails area and I think lowering impact resistance is a failure waiting to happen and a liability, especially when it means your slide is barreling through the air directly at your teeth.

PRNTY

PRNTY I want to clarify that I haven't personally printed a Glock lower in Pet-cf, yet, but its the most reliable on paper and in most other platforms.

hoffmantactical

The failure mode with pistol frames is almost always layer adhesion. And the filament with the most adhesion is PLA+. That is, without a heated chamber. PET-CF has lower adhesion, and could suffer failures. My EDC printed frame is PLA Pro, I'm carful to keep it cool.

Sharkposter

hoffmantactical
this is exactly what I experienced, the layer adhesion with the PET-CF (at least from polymaker) was so bad I was easily able to break them by hand and it was always a clean break on the layer line. the PLA+ seems fine for the 17,19 and 26 but I cant get PLA+ to work for the 43x, the side walls are too narrow and flexes too much rendering the trigger inoperative as the trigger bar just pushes out against the wall instead of working against the plunger. I am currently trying some PA6-gf10 and we will see how that holds up. otherwise I do have some PAHT-CF PPA-CF but im not sure my k1c can get hot enough to make decent prints, my hotend maxes out at the minimum specified temp so we shall see

MooringGrey

Sharkposter My PLA+ 43X seems to be working alright so far. I use the Neutron Nick G43X frame and IIRC I used Duramic PLA Pro. The P80 rails for the Neutron Nick frame could be a little tricky to track down if you don't already have them though.

hoffmantactical

I need to look into the adhesion of PPA-CF. It might make it a great option. Also, Bambu PET-CF has significantly higher adhesion, but the 0.6 mm nozzle requirement rules out thin pistol frames.

MooringGrey

hoffmantactical I came to make a post asking about my PET-CF and PA-Cf G43X frames cracking along the layer lines no matter what I do, but this thread seems to have answered my question that it's probably best to just stick with PLA+ for now on those. Bambu PET-CF has held up great so far for my larger MP5 and AR frames though with the same print settings. I will add that I have gotten away with using a 0.4 mm nozzle with Bambu PET-CF. I did clog one nozzle, but after replacing it, I now do a few high temp (_280C) purges of the nozzle with PLA between prints. So far this seems to keep the nozzle clean enough to continue using the 0.4mm nozzle.

wolfblack

hoffmantactical u cant print glock frames with a 0.6 mm nozzle ?? did not know this !

Sharkposter

MooringGrey
I actually found the neutron nick file a few days back and printed one only to find that the riptide rails didnt work (I have a problem with reading instructions), the p80 rails makes more sense now as I was looking all over trying to find a different type of rail but never thought to look at p80, I really like that frame so I may try to find a set if I can. in the meantime I ended up finding another file ( I was using DD43x rev.1 which was the one with walls too narrow) the PP43X mkII. its thicker in the frame so its a bit ugly but it works at least as far as a standard function test goes.

lawrencecaroll64

That’s a pretty common challenge when you start experimenting with parts that need higher heat resistance, and focusing on material behavior rather than specific firearm components is definitely the safer path. For long-term durability in any demanding environment, filaments like nylon or polycarbonate tend to hold up far better than PLA+ because they handle heat and stress much more reliably. Annealing always risks distortion without controlled airflow. By the way, I’ve also been comparing materials while browsing cars on https://www.autobidmaster.com/en/search/salvage-cars/porsche/, which oddly helped me think more about structural integrity.

hoffmantactical

wolfblack Its possible, but very hard. Simply too thin.