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.
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.