Thread: 3D Printing

Originally Posted by OBRIEN

I've been playing about with my 3d printer and have made magazine designs for the Howa Mini Action,
I've managed to reduce the size of the 5 round magazine from about 85mm down to 65mm so now it doesn't stick out so far under the action,
after a dozen design revisions and prints I've got it to where it fits and feeds as good as a factory howa,
and I've even eliminated a problem I had with the bolt running into the back of the factory mags preventing feeding when the factory magazine was pushed in too far,

i'm not a dealer so in keeping with the law, I'm not selling or otherwise supplying these so if interested don't ask only made them for myself.

here's a few photos and a link to more for those that are interested in the build, with some photos of the factory howa mini mags thrown in for comparison.
printer was a Ender 3 pro V2, with PLA filament cost coming in at $2.57 for the mag base and follower, springs came from aliexpress, 1.3mm x 8mm x 51mm x 155mm costing a hefty $11.17, would really have me questioning how the factory mags cost about $90 to buy but hey that's capitalism we take the bad with the good,

That looks awesome, well done.
Do you have issues with the feed lips bulging out when fully loaded? I never got 10rd Howa Mini mags to work with anything but expensive PETG carbon filament because of that issue. I guess there is a lot less pressure in a 5rd magazine.

Originally Posted by SixtyTen

That looks awesome, well done.
Do you have issues with the feed lips bulging out when fully loaded? I never got 10rd Howa Mini mags to work with anything but expensive PETG carbon filament because of that issue. I guess there is a lot less pressure in a 5rd magazine.

I did on some of my first attempts when I tried to simply recreate the factory mag dimensions, I think the ABS they use is just more ridged, but I beefed up the side walls and increased to thickness of the feed lips themselves and that solved that problem, to be honest the springs I have are far heavier and longer than they need to be and still its not a problem any more, I've also made functioning 10 round version but prefer the way the 5 round sits.