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3 mo. ago

  • Any of the "engineering-grade" materials (PA6-CF, PA612-CF, PA12-CF, PPA-CF, PPS-CF, etc.) can work well for suppressors assuming:

    1. Your printer can handle them.
    2. You can properly dry the filament (drying at > 80 °C).
    3. You get the print settings right.
    4. You can properly anneal the parts (annealing dry at > 100 °C).

    Technically, achieving good layer adhesion is the biggest challenge. You need a somewhat controlled environment so you don't overcool the layers and you need a printer that can maintain extrusion temperatures of 300 °C or more with margin. Process-wise, people often try to take shortcuts on drying and annealing resulting in poor strength and lack of heat tolerance.

    What you'll get with the advanced materials is reduced baffle erosion thanks to the greatly improved heat tolerance. But it's still fairly easy to melt one down with high-volume, high-rate fire.

  • Not nearly as quiet as a big can like the FTN, but I don't have any way to quantify. It does take some of the "edge" off but it's not hearing safe. If I had to guess, it brings the 9mm down to about the level of an unsuppressed 22LR, so probably a 10 - 15 dB reduction.

    The advantage the Khrizantzema has is that it's a flow-through design so you get a lot less backpressure than a traditional baffle can like the FTN series. On simple blowback PCCs, that beats up the gun less (you don't get a big increase in bolt opening velocity) and puts less additional gas out the ejection port. On a bullpup like the Urutau where your nose is literally right above the ejection port, that's a big win.

  • It's originally designed to run in the same rifle with just a barrel change so it has to be more similar than different. But shoot supers out of a <9" barrel and you will immediately know it's not 5.56 by virtue of the fact those around you aren't threatening to beat you with your rifle 🙂 Shoot subs suppressed and you'll likewise know it's not 5.56 by virtue of it actually being quiet.

  • Attach the stock to the dovetail. Put a nut in the recess in the stock. Put the spring and release button in place. Put the bolt through the hole by the hinge, capture the release button with it, and thread it into the nut in the stock.

  • There are no magic settings that work for all printers in all environments. In general, start at the top end of specified temp range, no fan, and max volumetric flow no more than half the specified max. From there it's just standard tuning process.

  • Generally, things don't become a crime retroactively. If the making wasn't a crime at the time, new laws can't change that.

    You may not be allowed to continue to possess things that you already made, but they aren't going to come looking for you unless you do something to draw that attention. At that point whether you bought rails doesn't matter. You're either in possession of a prohibited firearm or you're not.

  • Bottleneck cartridges usually need two reamers. Unlike straight-wall pistol cartridges, rifle cartridges require opening up the chamber to a much larger diameter than the bore. A rough reamer is used to aggressively remove material to get the chamber near the correct size and then a finish reamer is used lightly cut the chamber to the final dimensions. The same rough reamer is often used for both .223 Rem and 5.56 NATO (and .223 Wylde). The finish reamer will be specific to which chamber dimensions you want. Either way you will need two reamers.

  • If you're not in a hurry you might want to consider the Decker 9. It's currently in beta but it will be very similar to the 380 version that's available now. It's a very easy (and inexpensive) build and has some cool options like side feed or top feed, different fire control groups, etc.

  • Fully DIY 9mm handguns aren't viable yet. Simple blowback designs like the FGC9 don't scale down because you need about 500g of bolt weight. Until someone comes up with a viable locking mechanism, PDW size is about as compact as you can get.

    More modern DIY alternatives to the FGC9 include Rogue/Rebel and Urutau. The Rogue/Rebel designs are very full-featured, but making the bolt is more work than other designs. Urutau is a pretty easy build and a really enjoyable gun to shoot.

    We'll hopefully be able to add the Decker 9 to that list soon.

  • The roughing reamers can be the same but the finish reamers are different.

  • The printed mags usually feed more reliably (when new) than surplus. The problem with the printed mags is that the feed lips are really thin so you have to print with a stiff low-creep material (PET-CF works well). Even then they wear quickly.

    With surplus mags you'll need to verify the feed lip geometry (they're often bent/stretched) and you will probably have to tune the location of the mag catch adapter.

  • There's no difference in the rifling. The differences between 5.56 NATO and .223 Remington are all in the chamber dimensions.

  • Looking good! I have a 19 slide collecting dust in the safe so I'm eager to see this sail.

  • When bitlocker was enabled, you were given the option of saving a recovery key to your Microsoft account, a USB drive, or a printout. You may have missed it -- MS bombards you with so much "do you want to enable a free trial of X?" garbage on every upgrade that people get used to just clicking through as fast as they can to get it out of the way. If you didn't avail yourself of one of these options, getting around it is effectively impossible.

    As someone who has been using Linux since the 90s, my recommendation for new users is almost always Linux Mint ( https://linuxmint.com/ ). It's an easy GUI install, and their Installation Guide is well written and concise. Once installed, using it isn't that much different than using Windows. There's a Software Store app that will let you click-to-install most popular Linux desktop applications. System settings are managed through a "control panel" like app. File manager will feel familiar and you can have just about any major web browser you want.

    At some point you may have to learn about the "guts" of the OS, but just as you shouldn't need regedit on a new Windows install, you should get a perfectly usable LM system without ever dropping to the command-line.

  • Philosophically, we shouldn't reward Reddit's bad behaviour by making it easier for people to stay there.

    Technically, a two way mirror is likely to get the Reddit subs banned. We don't have to walk on eggshells here, so it would be easier to slip up in mirrored posts. And a one way mirror would just draw people back into the Reddit tarpit.

  • I'm not sure what you're really looking for? All printed Glock frames have to be designed to take one of the common rail designs (PY2A, FMDA, P80, etc.) or there's no way practical way to mount the slide.

  • What are you building? The diagnosis will be very different for a parts kit pistol build and something fully DIY like the Decker.

  • You can't make any conclusions just from the fill percentage. Differences in the polymer formulation will likely outweigh everything else. Given the exact same formulation, you would expect the CF20 to be stiffer, more brittle, and have worse layer adhesion. But it's never really apples to apples, so look at the TDS and independent test results.

  • With good support settings, orientation (rails up vs down) doesn't really matter as long as it's horizontal and not some weird angle. Rails up is less likely to have warping on the dust cover, rails down uses less support material (and is therefore a little faster).

    But you really don't need to do multi-material to get clean support removal. Tune your support settings and your cooling and you can get clean support removal without wasting a bunch of time and material. Here's one I printed a few days ago, rails-up, in 3D Fuel Tough Pro PLA+.

    I didn't do any clean-up other than just removing the supports. I could have probably gotten it even cleaner if I slowed the print down a bit, but this was only intended as a test mule.