Author Archive: pilotgeek

ScoutXL! A Double-Sized Scout32!

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While my original Scout32 design is gets over large obstacles remarkably well for its size, it’s still a bit limited by being so small, especially outdoors. So, I decided to build a bigger one! How did I do this? Well, I basically just scaled the entire thing up by exactly two.

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Chimera .410 – Hybrid Metal and 3D Printed Shotgun

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After the relative success of my 3D printed revolver, the Maverick, I decided to leverage the power of 3D printing to design an improved version of my shotgun. What I ended up with is the Chimera, a successor to my old design, and a hybrid of both 3D printed and Metal parts. It’s a very simplistic break action shotgun, sacrificing features in favor of being highly modular and very simple to build. Due to the large size, the design is split up into a few modular components, each of which clamped to a steel frame consisting of square tubing. I wanted to keep the design cheap and easy to source parts for, so no gun-specific parts are used, opting for commodity hardware.

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G22 Grizzly

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The Grizzly is a 3D Printed 22 caliber break barrel survival rifle. First and foremost, this was not designed by me, but by Mussy, who is a large contributor to the printed firearms community, with literally thousands of designs on Thingiverse. The G22 caught my eye for being a very simple but versatile platform. Almost the entire thing is 3D Printable, and functions using a simple break action and lock, with a striker similar to my own PG22 designs. The allows for some fairly neat Pistol designs, but the Grizzly survival rifle really caught my eye, as I had always wanted a compact folding survival rifle, but couldn’t justify the cost of some of the common production models.Continue reading→

PG22 Maverick V2

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Like the original Maverick, the V2 is a compact pepperbox style revolver, chambered in 22 short. The Maverick V2 improves upon the original by altering the grip angle and appearance to be more pleasing, along with adding a linkage to automatically rotate the cylinder when cocking the striker. This allows a much higher rate of fire by operating more like a single action revolver.

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GeoBook – The Failed Budget 386sx Laptop in an era of Pentiums

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The GeoBook NB60 – A unique little laptop introduced in the late 1990’s to provide a low-cost alternative to the rising popularity in laptop computers. During this time, an average laptop computer would set you back anywhere from $2-$5k, far too much for the average home user or student to justify. This left a space in the market for ultra budget laptop computers, for those consumers who were not sure how useful a more expensive laptop would be, or for those who simply needed a cheap word-processor for school or personal use.

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PG22 Maverick Revolver – How I Built my own 3D Printed Gun Design

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The PG22 series is my attempt at a 3D printed firearm. There have been a few variations, each trying to build off the previous ideas which worked. The current iteration, the PG22 Maverick, is a 6-shot .22 short single-action revolver. Functionality is similar to a Pepperbox Revolver.

Thank you for your interest, I will not be publicly sharing the files.

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Pilot Trak 3.0 – Final Design Update

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Well, it all fits together! Just add receiver and a battery, and it could be up and running, though I still want to try making my ESP32 wifi fpv control unit work. Chassis / Cab / Rails print in 3 pieces and snap together, wheels screw on.

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PilotTrak V3

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So I think one of the biggest challenges in getting into a Tiny Trak is cost and complexity. I previously used N20 gearmotors, but the cost of them plus an ESC is a little overwhelming. Not to mention, having to buy hardware / screw kit to assemble. I'm working on a TinyTrak design which will be 100% 3D printable including TPU tracks, without use of screws or tools for assembly. All axles clip into the frame, and all frame parts are designed to snap together.

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PGR – 3D Printed Revolver

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Still in development, a few light primer strikes, but works mostly okay! Have since lengthened the firing pin to account for variations between cylinders. This isn't designed to be practical or useful (it's neither), more of an engineering challenge to myself. 3D Printed designs are a bit of a challenge for something like a gun, because plastic really doesn't have very good tensile or shear strength, so you have to overbuild components, and carefully design parts that support compressive forces. This generally leads to pretty bulky designs, but with a bit of metal in the right places, a compact design is possible, albeit with less features than a standard revolver. Ammunition is currently only 22 shorts, but a larger frame and a metal insert for the breech face could change that. 22 Shorts are my favorite test ammo because when a part fails, it's usually less catastrophic than larger, more powerful ammo.

Non Plastic Parts used: Drill bit (Firing Pin) Steel tubing (Cylinder Liners) Springs (Striker & Cylinder Indexing) 5/16" Ball Bearing (Cylinder Indexing) M3 Screws (Front Sight, Trigger Assembly, Rear Sights) M5 x 65mm Screw (Cylinder Center Pin)

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