Looking for recommendations on what would be a good first project. I’ve got a Bambu X1C so I can print with pretty much any material.
harlot is also a good first build imo, very basic but gives you some understanding of tolerances n such. n tbh the harlot can be kinda addicting once you get them working, so many variants and you gotta have em all
Lot’s of people recommend Glock clones, but to me they’re really not the ideal starter project …
- Relatively expensive. A quality slide and barrel and OEM parts kits cost as much or more than just buying a good used Glock.
- Obviously not an option in places that restrict the sale of gun parts.
- Too easy to slap all the parts together with zero understanding of how the thing actually works.
- You don’t learn much. You’re printing one part and buying everything else.
My advice is start with the Decker 380 (https://guncadindex.com/detail/RELEASE-Decker-3.0.1:d). So cool to be able to post links! Low cost, easy to print (you can actually print every part without any supports), easy to understand, and quite innovative. You can buy a barrel (no need to ECM) but that’s the only gun part you need – everything else is hardware store material. The design is quite safe, and doesn’t demand a lot of manufacturing skill or experience or any special tools.
It’s also fun to shoot (the release even includes an optional designed-in Recoil Assisted Reset trigger) and a real attention grabber. I had a new development version at the range Friday for testing and the ROs were literally lining up to take pictures of it :)
Thanks, I’ll look into it!
Not a glock might be cool for you It has relatively good documentation
I’m looking it now. It may only be 22 LR but the fact that it’s 99 percent printable is crazy. I wonder how long it would hold up for.
The NAG is a pretty advanced build. I’ve seen very few people get a successful build and most of them have a lot of experience.
Well I’m printing it now so I may as well try it. Just not sure where to source the pins from.
One of the easier starter projects is a glock-esque clone, those are super easy to start and get your bearings on
How DIY do you wanna go? Easiest is typically Glocks and M-11/9 builds because the territory’s well-tread, most comprehensive total-DIY project is easily the FGC-9 MkII, but you’ll be tooling up for ECM, which is a fairly tall upfront cost of time and discipline.
Don’t need to go crazy on the DIY. I’d really like to build something like the FGC9 but I’m not sure I have the technical know-how in order to do it. Assuming by ECM you mean electrochemical machining, no I don’t think I’ve got the necessary capital or space for such a project.
Gotcha. In that case: any Glock build if you want a handgun, any M-11/9 build if you want a carbine. You can also do an AR lower, but if you’ve built a rifle up from a stripped lower before, it’s not really any different.
If you want goofy, the Recession Ruger and 3011 are wacky and still surprisingly competent guns.
I’m quite interested in building my own PCC so I will look into the M-11/9. Thanks!
