I’m looking to build a 3d-printed glock 19 as my first build. I was wondering if you guys had any tips on how to prevent malfunctions and ensure that it feeds properly and doesn’t have any hiccups.
My plan is printing rails-up to make sure everything fits with no issue and will of course calibrate the filament. Regarding the lower parts, how important is it to get an OEM LPK? Is it absolutely mandatory for reliability?
For rails and a locking block, I plan on using Aves or any other reliable vendor. For the magazine, I’m gonna use a Magpul magazine.
What about slide? I’d prefer not an OEM since aftermarket OEM glock slides cost almost as much as a glock itself. Do you guys have any suggestions on aftermarket slides that are reliable? I was thinking maybe a PSA dagger slide, or even an RXM slide, since they are both cross-compatible.
Many of the reported functional issues are trigger related and trace back to the quality of the LPK. I personally wouldn’t use anything other than an OEM LPK unless I was planning to run a reputable 3rd party trigger (the whole trigger assembly, not just the shoe).
Quality of slides (and slide parts) tends to have more bearing on longevity than function. Most people aren’t putting 10k rounds a year through a printed Glock clone, so the legendary OEM durability isn’t really needed. Dagger slides are generally reliable and you have PSA’s warranty to cover you if you lose the QC lottery.
You can get away with cheap LPKs but only if you understand how the glock FCG functions. The cruciform and connector can sometimes need adjusted with slight bends, or the housing may be out of spec and require adjusting.
However for those that don’t know those components and how they should interact they should definitely buy OEM and save themself the trouble and risk of an ND.
As an example: The cruciform holds back your striker which is under spring pressure, bending that cruciform up and down very slightly changes the engagement of the striker, too much and it wont fire, too little and the striker can slip. Add onto that, many cheaper kits have weak springs, and the odds that the slipped striker could bypass the drop safety increases, which results in the gun going off in a holster or when dropped. Id highly suggest watching JohnnyGlocks videos for anyone interested as he’s a true expert when it comes to glock triggers.
There are a lot more things that can go wrong beyond the cruciform angle. And bending the cruciform can screw up the contact surface angle with the striker extension which can negatively impact trigger feel. You’re also going to induce metal fatigue unless you have the ability to anneal and then re-heat-treat the metal. Connector angle and how it matches the “shape of the bird’s beak” on the trigger bar also affects trigger feel and weight and often the cheap LPK makers know nothing about this so you may end up with a heavy, creepy, or gritty trigger or may have a weak reset and may even jump the connector. Then there’s the safety plunger extension on the trigger bar which may not be long enough or angled correctly to fully depress the safety plunger which can lead to apparent light primer strikes.
Yes, all these things can be fixed – but it’s going to take knowledge, skill, time, and possibly money. As someone who does have the ability to troubleshoot these kinds of problems, I’ll gladly pay the extra $50 for an OEM LPK so I don’t have to.
Printing rails-down will provide better external finish. It’s easy to do if you calibrate your printer & filament. Nowadays, you can use Orca’s Calibration Suite to do this. If you’re interested in why, you can also check out Ellis’ Print Tuning Guide. You’ll also want to calibrate support settings so they come off relatively easily with the interface so you’re not scraping it out. These are my support settings
You’ll mainly want to tweak the top/bottom z distance. You also may lower the tree support branch angle if you find them failing at large angles.
I would also recommend learning to place supports manually to save filament & time, but auto mode usually works fine. My process for this is basically just checking how the printer prints overhangs in the preview tab. If an overhang starts in mid-air, it usually needs either a support or the Counterbore holes option in Orca.
Next, you can do a calibration for XY dimensional accuracy. The Califlower (paid) or Calistar (free) work well for this.
Once you do these calibrations, all of your prints will come out better. You can just cut the frame in the slicer to only have the rails if you want a test print for it without having to print the entire frame.
OEM LPKs are recommended because they’re known to be reliable. You can have reliable 3rd party LPKs, but OEM is what is known to reliable so its recommended. Magazines are kind of the same thing. You can also print a menendez mag v3 if you want to try out a printed one :)
Aves and Riptide are great for rails. MAFCorp sells them a lot cheaper, but I’ve found them to sometimes need a little convincing to get into frames.
I usually use PSA dagger slides for mine, but it’s kind of the same thing as with the OEM LPKs. People know daggers and OEM slides are reliable so they get recommended.
Thanks for this thorough response. I probably should of mentioned that I’m not a noobie when it comes to 3d-printing fundamentals, calibration, etc.
