McJackal
New Member
Hey y'all, new Member first post
Recently developed an interest in WH40K and got a 3D printer and I decided for my first project I wanted to make a Realistic bolter that cycles and ejects. It was a worm that latched onto my mind so now I have to see it through. I wanted to document and share my progress here.
I enjoy firearms and have a pretty good understanding of their different interacting mechanisms, but having to actually design one is a rather enjoyable challenge
It is mildly frustrating but also funny how inconsistent and disproportional the lore is around the bolter so I've been taking a few liberties. First I designed the cartridge and built everything around that. I was inspired to kickstart this project after rewatching a video of the closed real life analogue to the Bolter, the Inzuki PAW aka the Neopup. I designed a 20 x 42mm bolter round and went from there. Why 20mm? because .75 cal is 19.05mm and I decided to round up, it sounds cooler.
After that I designed a 20 round double-stack double-feed box magazine. a 30 rounder would've been way too long, even the 20 rounder is slightly pushing it, I also have plans to make a 15 and 10 round version just to test out different proportions.
The original magazine was printed 1.5mm thick but unfortunately the stress of 20 rounds under tension caused cracking at the feed lips so I redesigned to to be 3mm.
I used the 3mm as the baseline for the build so the upper and lower receiver will be 3mm thick minimum
I then designed the mag well and lower receiver, ambidextrous mag releases, trigger, fire selector with detent pin, takedown pin etc.
The barrel had me stumped for a while, trying to get the length somewhere proportionally correct and also making it fit within my 250mm print volume so as to not misalign the rifling during assembly. Originally the barrel was 14inches plus another 2 for the chamber, I then shrunk it down to 9.8 and separated it from the chamber. Then the bolt and locking lugs became their own pain. I went with a 5 lug rotating bolt design which I hope will satisfy my vision. I worry that the feed ramp angle is too aggressive and might cause jams. Bit the round seats well in the chamber, the extractor works, and the bolt can rotate in the chamber well. So far no fitment issues.
I think the next step is to design the bolt carrier itself.
If you guys have any questions, advice, or design suggestions I'd love to hear them! I'll keep y'
all posted
Recently developed an interest in WH40K and got a 3D printer and I decided for my first project I wanted to make a Realistic bolter that cycles and ejects. It was a worm that latched onto my mind so now I have to see it through. I wanted to document and share my progress here.
I enjoy firearms and have a pretty good understanding of their different interacting mechanisms, but having to actually design one is a rather enjoyable challenge
It is mildly frustrating but also funny how inconsistent and disproportional the lore is around the bolter so I've been taking a few liberties. First I designed the cartridge and built everything around that. I was inspired to kickstart this project after rewatching a video of the closed real life analogue to the Bolter, the Inzuki PAW aka the Neopup. I designed a 20 x 42mm bolter round and went from there. Why 20mm? because .75 cal is 19.05mm and I decided to round up, it sounds cooler.
After that I designed a 20 round double-stack double-feed box magazine. a 30 rounder would've been way too long, even the 20 rounder is slightly pushing it, I also have plans to make a 15 and 10 round version just to test out different proportions.
The original magazine was printed 1.5mm thick but unfortunately the stress of 20 rounds under tension caused cracking at the feed lips so I redesigned to to be 3mm.
I used the 3mm as the baseline for the build so the upper and lower receiver will be 3mm thick minimum
I then designed the mag well and lower receiver, ambidextrous mag releases, trigger, fire selector with detent pin, takedown pin etc.
The barrel had me stumped for a while, trying to get the length somewhere proportionally correct and also making it fit within my 250mm print volume so as to not misalign the rifling during assembly. Originally the barrel was 14inches plus another 2 for the chamber, I then shrunk it down to 9.8 and separated it from the chamber. Then the bolt and locking lugs became their own pain. I went with a 5 lug rotating bolt design which I hope will satisfy my vision. I worry that the feed ramp angle is too aggressive and might cause jams. Bit the round seats well in the chamber, the extractor works, and the bolt can rotate in the chamber well. So far no fitment issues.
I think the next step is to design the bolt carrier itself.
If you guys have any questions, advice, or design suggestions I'd love to hear them! I'll keep y'
