Issue #2: Super Safe All The Things
Casting Super Safeties at home, Super Safe Macs, Triton-9 and more!
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Let’s get right to the gun stuff!
New Releases:
In this section, we cover new file releases that we find notable. If something catches your interest, go download and start printing!
Super Safe Mac Builds:
There must be something in the air, because in the last few weeks we saw three different releases that modify a Mac design to support the Super Safety!
Developer Remnants is the originator of the technology used to make the SS work with Mac bolts. This technology uses a new, longer Super Safety lever, as well as a “trip bar” that runs the length of the frame.
The Mac bolt interacts with the SS CAM and the “trip bar” in such a way to enable super safe functionality. Some small modifications to the Mac upper are required and printed jigs are provided to help with this.
Remnants first applied this technology to the MacDaddy v2, and the resultant SS Mac recently received a Gatalog release.
This Super Safety tech has also been applied to the DB Alloy through a collaboration bewtween Marsbluff_creations and Phoenix DesignWorks. Some of their DB Alloy versions were tested in the SS Mac beta, and are included in the SS Mac release, while additional versions can be found on Phoenix’s Odysee.
[Note: an earlier version of this article mistakenly implied that the DB Alloy conversion work was performed by Phoenix Designworks alone. I have since updated to clarify that Marsbluff_creations was also involved in the Alloy work]
Remnants’ tech is applicable to other Mac designs, and Marsbluff_creations has also applied it to both the Mac n’ Cheese v2.5 and the Unseenkiller Rook.
(Another user is also working on a Mac n’ Cheese SS frame, which will be described in the Beta section)
The Super Safe Mac project is an excellent example of development technology spreading through the community. Keep it up, guys!
Casted Super Safety + Excellent Casting Guide:
Continuing on the Super Safety theme, we have some new developments on making your own Super Safety CAM at home.
This is the Super Swanky, a design from RedneckInsurgency for a Super Safety mold (both CAM and lever) that is cast in a nickel aluminum bronze alloy.
Having reviewed the project and its extensive documentation, I can say that this is the best released work I’ve seen yet on casting 3D2A parts.
A full hardware list for setting up a small backyard / garage forge is provided, and the entire thing can be set up for a few hundred dollars. The nickel aluminum bronze alloy can be created from commonly available materials (brake lining, copper shot, beer cans)
RedneckInsurgency takes you step by step through the casting process in the documentation. Great care and testing was clearly put into this release, and it’s very much worth your attention.
I hope to see people take this casting tech and use it for other parts!
Triton-9 Bufferless 9mm PCC:
The Triton-9 by DB Firearms is released! This design can best be characterized as a “professional” 9mm bufferless PCC. It is visually evocative of the FGC-9, and shares some components, but is designed to utilize many professionally machined / commercial parts.
This means that a Triton-9 build will likely be far easier than an FGC-9, and more reliable / durable, but without the fully DIY aspect. Although, as will be seen below, it actually does appear that most of the Triton-9 can be DIY’d!
At time of writing, there is no single parts kit for the Triton-9 - the various parts must be purchased individually. Some of these parts are required purchases, others can be DIY’d. We detail them below:
Required Purchases:
Riptide FGC-9 MKII Enhanced Bolt
Note that many of the subsequent Riptide parts can be conveniently added to the bolt purchase at checkout, or purchased individually
Optional Purchases (Printable equivalents available):
Riptide Charging Handle - can also be printed
Riptide Feed Ramp - can also be printed
Riptide Mag Catch - can also be printed
Riptide FCG Reinforcement Plates - can also be printed
AR fire control group - while not mentioned in the documentation, I expect that a DIY AR FCG will work here.
Optional Purchases (Non-printed DIY equivalent available):
FGC-9 Barrel - while not specifically mentioned in documentation, I am pretty sure that a ECM barrel can also be used here.
Triton-9 Hardware Kit - sold by DB Firearms, this contains all the hardware store parts for the build if you don’t want to source them yourself.
Riptide MP-17 Collapsible Brace / Stock Kit - while no DIY element is described in the documentation, the metal flats in this kit are modeled in the STEP, and I believe they could be SCS’d or even made at home. You can also simply run a Triton-9 without a brace.
As can be seen, the only closed source part of the build is the Riptide bolt. I encourage them to complete the package by sharing the bolt CAD!
vz.61 Trigger Guard Bending Jig
Many vz.61 parts kits (including our own) arrive with trigger guards broken or missing, a consequence of the process used to destroy the receiver before import. Developer K1RBY has created a bending jig to allow you to bend your own trigger guard to replace the broken one.
Also included is a template you can use to cut your own flat from sheet metal.
Once again, this project is interesting just as much for the techniques it uses as for its particular application of these techniques. Printed bending jigs are starting to appear more frequently in guncad, and I welcome them as a way to expand skillsets. Go check this release out!
New Betas:
In this section we round up recently opened betas. Help support development by joining these betas and testing!
PrintYour2A LR308 Lower Open Beta:
PY2A recently dropped beta files for his .308 AR lower, reinforced using bent sheet metal just like his standard 5.56 AR lower. This is a DPMS pattern lower, meaning it should be compatible with commonly available DPMS pattern uppers.
The sheet metal reinforcement is available for sale at PY2A’s webstore. The beta files also include printable dies for bending your own flats, although I was not able to find any blueprints or DXFs to assist in making the flats themselves. Hopefully PY2A will release this data as well!
No-Drill SCSSS:
In our last issue we posted about the SCSSS (Send-Cut-Send Super Safety), a Super Safety cam that is mostly printed and reinforced with a titanium plate from SCS. We now have an improved version from rucksichtslos that eliminates the need to ream out the holes in the SCS plate, a rather tricky maneuver given the plate’s small size.
While the No-Drill SCSSS does not announce itself as an alpha / beta, the original SCSSS proclaims itself as such, and so I have categorized this remix as a beta as well.
CoreVent Linear Compensator:
I missed this in the last issue and so I now announce it here. DecimalDot is testing a series of linear comps at the Gatalog, with variants available for 9mm, .300BLK, .22LR and .223 / 5.56.
Details and a testing video can be found here!
SS Mac n’ Cheese v2.5:
In addition to the Marsbluff version mentioned above, Phoenix Designworks has also dropped a Mac n’ Cheese v2.5 lower modified to be Super Safe compatible. It appears to use the Remnants trip bar approach, although the trip bar’s design appears different at first glance.
Phoenix has specifically listed his design as a beta, so please provide feedback if you print this version!
Coming Soon:
This section lists announcements or previews for projects that have not yet hit open beta. Keep an eye out for further news about these projects!
PVS-69 Update:
This week we got the first update in over a year on the PVS-69 DIY night vision project from developer Vaughngina69!
I recall that the PVS-69 was originally advertised as a printable housing for analog tubes. It appears that since that time support was added for more accessible digital tubes that you can build yourself.
DIY NVGs experienced a real burst of popularity a few years ago, but have since been less visible in the guncad community. It appears that Vaughn has been continuing work on these projects in his own Discord community.
Kits for this and other DIY NVG projects are available at Vaughn’s website.
Staaker Mostly DIY .22LR Semiautomatic:
We’ve been watching this one with interest over the past two weeks. As the name implies, the Staaker uses a bolt made from stacked SCS plates - it appears to have a printed core sandwiched between several SCS plates on the front and back, with additional SCS pieces serving for a firing pin and extractor.
This is quite reminiscent of the 3DP90 bolt, absent the poured Cerrosafe for extra weight.
As can be seen, the upper is a piece of aluminum tube with sections cut where necessary (ejection port, charging handle slot, etc.) I’m surprised that I haven’t seen this technique used more often, exciting to see it used here!
The developer has shared his progress in real time, first reporting cycling issues and then resolving them, along with listing several other improvements he plans to make.
I quite like these frequent progress reports, and I hope they continue!
More from the Staaker Dev:
While researching the Staaker, I saw this stacked-plate MOD9 bolt in his post history and thought it was interesting enough to share. And he reports that he got it working!
“Laminated” designs like this in initially strike me as a little crude but they seem to be getting the job done. If it’s crude, but it works, then it’s not crude. I’d imagine this technique could be applied in many interesting ways.
There is an obvious concern with using laser-cut plates in fully DIY designs, which is that these plates cannot realistically be made at home, relying instead on a third party cutting service. What does this mean for non-US persons? While I suspect laser cutting services similar to SCS are available worldwide, aren’t there PERSEC risk of using these services to produce parts like this?
On the other hand, are those risks more significant than those inherent to purchasing hydraulic tubing or other telltale materials? I don’t have a great answer, and I’d be curious to hear my readers’ comments on the matter.
News:
In this section we’ll review major news events either originating in the 3D2A space, or particularly pertinent to this space.
Wired Prints a FMDA19.2
Andy Greenberg of Wired, a longtime reporter on 3D2A, did a piece replicating the printed FMDA19.2 (and FTN suppressor) allegedly used by Luigi Mangione to assassinate UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He was assisted in this by PSR and James Reeves.
Greenberg, while clearly not a gun guy, attempts to present a mostly neutral stance on DIY guns, which I think is not too far off his actual position. I appreciate his willingness to speak with PSR and Reeves, and I would encourage Greenberg to engage with other aspects of the community beyond those putatively tied to scaremongering headlines.
Guncad Index Now Fully Available on Tor
TheShittinator continues to add features to the fantastic Guncad Index, and the latest feature is particularly cool - the ability to access the Index over Tor without exiting the network.
Shittinator says: “[W]henever you visit the Index via Tor Browser, depending on your settings you'll now either be automatically redirected to the Onion link or shown its availability in the address bar of your browser. Visiting via Onion link means your traffic never leaves the Tor network, achieving utmost privacy”
I’ve tested this using Brave’s Tor browser and confirmed it works - note that I had to click the “onion” button that popped up in my URL bar after visiting the Index to switch over to the Onion version.
Great work as always Shittinator!
Other Links:
This section, new for Issue #2, will collect any other links I find interesting. These may be older designs I want to share, releases I find notable but don’t have much commentary on, or anything else that catches my eye.
The Dissident, a printable bufferless AR, released recently. This design is based around the CMMG Dissent bolt, which is housed inside a printed upper. Cool!
I only recently learned about Proof’s Defiance AR Lower, but I quite like the approach to a printed buffer tower and feel it’s worth boosting. No hose clamp or U-bolt required!
The Lilium is a 3D printed Mac upper reinforced with SCS plates on both the sides and the front. It’s paired with a printed lower, but it’s the printed upper that is the most interesting to me, as I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since AWCY’s Carbon Alloy. If I see broader testing on this, I’d be quite interesting in featuring it in a future issue!
Fallout fans will enjoy the N99SF, a printable Glock lower and slide cover meant to evoke the Fallout 3 / New Vegas pistol design. It’s a 9mm right now, but the developer is working towards 10mm for even better accuracy to the games.
About the Guncad Digest:
Thank you for reading this issue of the Guncad Digest! Please send us your feedback and suggestions for improvements on the issue.
The Guncad Digest is sourced using the very excellent Guncad Index, from /r/fosscad, and from readers like you. If you know of a project you think should be featured, send it our way!
This issue was compiled and authored by Alyosha from 3D Print Freedom. We sell high quality parts kits for some of the best DIY guns available - if you’re looking for your next gun build, come check us out!
definitely looking into the super safety casting
bretty good so far. Look forward to future issues