GasMaskSaxon
New Member
Everyone knows the Colt M1911; it was the U.S. Army's standard issue sidearm for more than 40 years and it's been in so many movies I'm not even going to try and list them all. I've actually made one before, but I didn't pay much mind to the tolerances needed for parts to move past each other, and it ended up as one solid piece. Time for round 2!
I started in the same place as before. I used the 3D model in this Instructable as a base for the pistol I would make. There were a few problems with it though. I wanted the end result to not only look and move like the real thing, but actually come apart like it too. This meant I had to modify or add quite a few parts to get things like the recoil action and magazine release to work properly.
Once that was done, it was onto printing. I print on a heavily modified Printrbot Maker's Simple 2013 Edition which I affectionately call Mendel. This was printed in ABS with a 0.4mm nozzle, large parts at 0.2mm layer height, smaller pieces at 0.1mm. There were a few instances when I had to reprint a part because it broke or I ruined it or it wasn't working properly etc. Eventually I had a full compliment of parts and could start finishing and painting.
There was nothing special about the finishing process. I used Polyfilla to fill any holes that shouldn't have been there, a layer of XTC-3D to get rid of most of the print striations, then just prime, sand, prime, sand etc. until all the parts were smoother than a baby's ass. This time, however, I was careful to make sure the layers of finishing didn't stop the parts from moving past each other. As a result, most of the contacting faces between the frame and the receiver are actually unpainted.
And then it was finished! Working slide mechanism, both the slide stop and the safety lock work, the magazine is totally removable with a working magazine catch and all the disassembly works. Let me know what you think!
I started in the same place as before. I used the 3D model in this Instructable as a base for the pistol I would make. There were a few problems with it though. I wanted the end result to not only look and move like the real thing, but actually come apart like it too. This meant I had to modify or add quite a few parts to get things like the recoil action and magazine release to work properly.
Once that was done, it was onto printing. I print on a heavily modified Printrbot Maker's Simple 2013 Edition which I affectionately call Mendel. This was printed in ABS with a 0.4mm nozzle, large parts at 0.2mm layer height, smaller pieces at 0.1mm. There were a few instances when I had to reprint a part because it broke or I ruined it or it wasn't working properly etc. Eventually I had a full compliment of parts and could start finishing and painting.
There was nothing special about the finishing process. I used Polyfilla to fill any holes that shouldn't have been there, a layer of XTC-3D to get rid of most of the print striations, then just prime, sand, prime, sand etc. until all the parts were smoother than a baby's ass. This time, however, I was careful to make sure the layers of finishing didn't stop the parts from moving past each other. As a result, most of the contacting faces between the frame and the receiver are actually unpainted.
And then it was finished! Working slide mechanism, both the slide stop and the safety lock work, the magazine is totally removable with a working magazine catch and all the disassembly works. Let me know what you think!
