FGC-9 MkII Guide

The GataLog
PRESENTS
FGC-9 mk II
Powered by weaponized autism™
1
Published by
The GataLog
April 16 th , 2021
Document version: 1.5
Author of this document:
JStark1809
E-Mail: JStark1809@protonmail.com
Co-Designers of the FGC-9 MkII:
JStark1809
IvanTheTroll
3socksandcrocs
Website: https://thegatalog.com/
Special thanks to:

- An unnamed individual
- All members, fans and supporters of Deterrence Dispensed
- Designers whose creations inspired and influenced the FGC-9 MKII
- In particular Derwood for coming up with the Shuty AP9 design,
on which the FGC-9 MkI and FGC-9 MkII core mechanisms are based on
2
SAFETY ADVISORY
When firing your FGC-9 MkII always take proper safety precautions!
Wear safety glasses, hearing protection, and keep your hands away
from the ejection port of your FGC-9 MkII when shooting.
Don’t use damaged or defective ammo. Always inspect your ammo before
loading it into your FGC-9 MkII. Be sure the ammo is proper 9x19mm.
The FGC-9 MkII is a safe and reliable firearm only when made properly
with the latest specifications and instructions that are detailed in
this guide.
Do not blindly use components and materials in your FGC-9 MkII without
first having made sure their dimensions and properties fulfill the
intended design specifications of the latest available FGC-9 MkII
guide.
It is important to realize that the FGC-9 is an improvised firearm.

Thus, it lacks some of the safety features that modern firearms have
in trade-off for easier manufacturability by individuals that lack the
access to advanced tools and firearm fabrication skills.
To eliminate potential issues right from the beginning,

thoroughly read this guide multiple times, especially the
Troubleshooting section on page 178 onwards.
It is utmost critical to understand the shortcomings of

this improvised design and how to ensure safe and reliable
function regardless of the lack of modern safety features.
You must read and understand especially this section!
3
Contents
Technical specifications and features ............................... 5

Message from the author ............................................. 7
3D-Printing ......................................................... 8
Tools, materials and parts ......................................... 18
Materials ........................................................ 22
Fire control group components .................................... 29
General parts .................................................... 30
Recommended accessories .......................................... 36
Ammunition ......................................................... 37
Visual overview of the components .................................. 39
Making the barrel .................................................. 40
Suppressor ......................................................... 42
Making the charging handle ......................................... 47
Making the firing pin .............................................. 51
Melting in the thread inserts ...................................... 66
Making the bolt .................................................... 68
Drilling the lower bolt rod ...................................... 69
Welded Bolt Option ............................................... 74
Weldless Bolt Option ............................................. 92
Drilling the charging handle recess ............................. 110
Preparing the Fire control group .................................. 114
Modifying Chinese Glock Mag Springs ............................... 124
Assembling a magazine ............................................. 128
Assembling the lower .............................................. 131
Assembling the barrel assembly .................................... 144
Assembling the upper .............................................. 147
Assembling the stock assembly ..................................... 154
Main assembly ..................................................... 158
Testing cartridge feeding ......................................... 163
Adjusting the firing pin protrusion ............................... 168
Final bolt assembly ............................................... 173
Test firing and maintenance ....................................... 175
Troubleshooting ................................................... 178
Troubleshooting Failures to Extract ............................. 179
Firing Pin Troubleshooting ...................................... 183
Troubleshooting Feeding Issues .................................. 186
Out-of-battery discharge ........................................ 194
4
Technical specifications and features
FGC-9 MkII
Type: Pistol caliber carbine
Designers: JStark1809, IvanTheTroll, 3socksandcrocs
Designed: 2020-2021
Mass(without magazine): 2.2kg
Length: 520mm
Barrel length: 114mm
Cartridge: 9x19mm Parabellum
Action: Closed bolt straight blowback
Feed system: 25 round box magazine, 33 rounds with OEM Glock magazines
5
Non-reciprocating charging handle with bolt-hold-open position
Single-point sling mount
Ambidextrous 3D-printed SEMI/SAFE

magazine release fire control group
Pistol grip with acessory compartment
NATO accessory rail
M-LOK slot
NATO rail
Extended length
magazine relase
3D-printed
25 round magazine
6
Message from the author
“What we do now,
echoes in eternity”
– Marcus Aurelius
I hope that you appreciate the time and effort that was put
into this project as well as the risks that were involved.
If you had success in producing your FGC-9 or simply

appreciate the effort of empowering the common man with
firearms, consider donating to the developers of this
project.
Even a tiny donation will be appreciated. Any funds donated

help with future developments and improvements.
DONATION LINKS:
JStark1809
Bitcoin donation page:
https://ctrlpew.com/donate-to-jstark/
XMR(Monero) Address:
424fanLpuQXTR65cFG7WD3VM4dfi1bGC9ffKM7
cwy7u6adQLT9oXsKcisZibmoa5Jv1
GNmuNCXhi9ezWjGsCTcjJTfieKJZ
IvanTheTroll
https://ctrlpew.com/donate-to-ivanthetroll/
Donation links of other developers of the community:

https://ctrlpew.com/donate/
https://defcad.com/partners
7
3D-Printing
If you have never used a 3D-printer before and/or have never owned one
refer to appropriate guides for beginners that include recommendations
on what 3D-printer to buy and further relevant information:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTN6jtB5mqk
- https://www.enblocpress.com/guide/
- https://ctrlpew.com/the-complete-getting-started-guide/
Once you’ve figured out how to print basic things that you can
download from sites like thingiverse.com, you can go ahead.
The next pages contain the general suggested settings for your printed
parts. You can deviate from these settings based on your 3D-printer,
consistency of PLA filament and general experience with 3D-printing.
These settings were optimized for Creality Ender 3 printers in

combination with the use of the Cura slicer program (V4.8.0).
The FGC-9 was designed to be printed in PLA or PLA+.

Printing it in a material other than this could result in an
unreliable, fragile or unsafe firearm. Consider this your warning!
Recommended Filament type: PLA (Recommended PLA brands on page 22)

Nozzle size: 0.40mm
Layer height: 0.16mm
Infill density: 100% (99% when using Cura, for shorter print time)
Nozzle temperature: 230°C +-5°C
Bed temperature: 60°C
The orientation of the parts in the slicer program will load up as

intended. Do not change the orientation of the .stl models inside
your slicer program unless you know what you’re doing.
For Cura users, another recommended settings change is on page 17.
After printing each part, make sure to get rid of any edges and
artifacts that result out of the nature of 3D-printing. Before you
install any 3D-printed components make sure to insert and remove items
from their destined place on the receiver multiple times to make sure
that they move smoothly if they are intended to do so, which is the
case, for example, for the bolt housing. So if a part does not fit or
move in the manner you would expect, try to smoothen the surface of
the 3D-printed object and get rid of any squished edges with your
craft knife.
Do not re-use any parts that you may have from a FGC-9 MkI build.
All components have undergone changes, thus re-using MkI parts may
lead to malfunctions and less than ideal operation of your gun.
8
Printed parts list
Use this section as a checklist to ensure you’ve printed all parts.
Charging Handle
Fan Speed: 100%
Generate Support: ☑
Support Overhang Angle: 45°
Build Plate Adhesion Type: Skirt
NOTE:
Charging Handle Bushing
Fan Speed: 100%
No support
Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim
NOTE:
Barrel Retainer
Fan Speed: 80%
NOTE:
9
Drilling Jig Solid Half
Fan Speed: 100%
No support
NOTE:
Drilling Jig Hole Half
Fan Speed: 100%
No support
NOTE:
Recess Jig
Fan Speed: 100%
No support
NOTE:
Headspacing Jig
Fan Speed: 100%
No support
NOTE:
Only for this part

Infill Density: 20%
10
Welding Jig
Fan Speed: 100%
No support
NOTE:
Only print for weld option
Bolt Housing
Fan Speed: 50%
NOTE:
Only print for weld option
Weldless Bolt Grinding Jig
Fan Speed: 80%
No support
NOTE:
Only print for weldless option

Needs to be printed twice(2x)
Weldless Bolt Housing
Fan Speed: 50%
NOTE:
Only print for weldless option
11
Feed Ramp
Fan Speed: 50%
No support
NOTE:
Ejector
Fan Speed: 0% / OFF
No support
NOTE:
Magazine Catch Bar
Fan Speed: 100%
No support
NOTE:
Magazine Catch Button
Fan Speed: 100%
Only for this part,

Support X/Y Distance: 0.5mm
REVERT BACK TO DEFAULT VALUE
AFTER YOU PRINTED THIS PART!
12
Magazine Catch Pivot Pin
Fan Speed: 100%
No support
NOTE:
Disconnector
Fan Speed: 20%
NOTE:
Fire Selector Drum
Fan Speed: 20%
No support
NOTE:
Fire Selector Lever
Fan Speed: 20%
NOTE:
13
Hammer
Fan Speed: 20%
NOTE:
Trigger
Fan Speed: 20%
NOTE:
Pistol Grip Lid
Fan Speed: 100%
NOTE:
Pistol Grip
Fan Speed: 80%
NOTE:
14
Lower Receiver
Fan Speed: 50%
NOTE:
Upper Receiver
Fan Speed: 50%
NOTE:
Buffer Tube
Fan Speed: 50%

The support rod printed with this part
should be kept on hand, as it will be
used in the assembly of the firearm.
Stock
Fan Speed: 80%
No support
NOTE:
15
Buttplate
Fan Speed: 80%
No support
NOTE:
Top Rail
Fan Speed: 0% / OFF
No support
NOTE:
Magazine Locking Tab
Fan Speed: 35%
No support
NOTE:
Magazine Base Plate
Fan Speed: 35%
No support
NOTE:
16
Magazine Follower
Fan Speed: 35%
NOTE:
Magazine Body
Fan Speed: 0%
NO Support
NOTE:
Only for this part,

Wall Line Count: 8
REVERT BACK TO DEFAULT VALUE
AFTER YOU PRINTED THIS PART!
If you use Cura, make sure that you deactivate the following setting
for all parts: “Use Adapative Layers” -> ☐ (Unchecked/Deactivated)
17
Tools, materials and parts
NOTE: A 3D-Printer and related tools are assumed to be already in your possession
Tools
Digital caliper
- A digital caliper that is able to give

you accurate measurements
It should be able to display the
measurements in millimeters
It is recommended that you buy
a high quality caliper such as:
Mitutoyo 500–196–30
Recommended source: Amazon, Ebay,
Aliexpress, Local hardware store
Vise
- A proper full-size vise mounted to a

sturdy table
Recommended source: Amazon, Ebay, Local

hardware store
Power drill
- A power drill
Ideally it should be made by a good

manufacturer and be as powerful as
possible

18
HSS-CO drill bit set
- HSS-Cobalt drill bit set with sizes:

1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 3.5mm, 4mm,
4.5mm, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm,
7.5mm, 8mm, 8.5mm, 9mm, 9.5mm, 10mm
The alloy the drill bits are made out of
needs to be:
At least:
HSS-Cobalt M35 (5% Cobalt)
Ideally:
HSS-Cobalt M42 (8% Cobalt)
Recommended source: Amazon, Local

hardware store
Extra long 3.5mm drill bit
- 3.5mm HSS drill bit with a length of

at least 110mm, ideally longer
Ideally HSS-Cobalt

hardware store
Metric socket and bit driver set
- A driver and wrench set that contains

metric socket heads and metric hex bits

hardware store
Metal file
- You need at least one metal file,

ideally, you'd get a set of files
The metal file should have a 1 or 2 cut

ideally
This means it should have a fairly
coarse checkering pattern

hardware store, Aliexpress
19
Safety glasses
- Safety glasses to protect you

especially during usage of the angle
grinder

hardware store
Angle grinder
- Vital to make cutting thicker steel

stock manageable
Make sure to buy the appropriate metal

cutting disc for your angle grinder
hardware store
Dremel tool/Rotary Rool
- Dremel or rotary tool with various

inserts. You have to buy the appropriate
metal cutting discs!
Metal cutting discs may also be included

when purchasing the tool from Chinese
brands. Make sure to check.

hardware store, Aliexpress
Soldering iron
- Needed to melt the thread inserts into

the upper receiver
Any soldering iron will work, ideally

you have access to various tips, of
which one should work better for the job

hardware store, Aliexpress, Banggood
20
Needle-Nose pliers
- Nose pliers for bending wire

hardware store
Wire cutters
- Wire cutter to cut steel wire

hardware store
Slot screw driver
- Any slot screw driver of small to

medium size is appropriate. This will be
used to help you remove supports on the
3D-printed parts
Recommended source: Local hardware store
Craft knife
- This will be used to help you remove

supports and print imperfections on the
3D-printed parts
Recommended source: Local arts and craft

store, Local hardware store
Tool with a handle

smaller in diameter than 12mm
- During the production of the firing

pin spring you will need a tool to push
against the firing pin. Use any tool
that has a handle with a mean diameter
of less than 12mm, to push into the back
of the bolt assembly. Read the pin
protrusion adjustment pages to make
sense of this.
21
Materials
PLA filament
- 2x 1kg spools of 1.75mm diameter

Regular PLA filament (black)
Recommended brands:
Chinese:
Hatchbox, eSUN, Sunlu
European:
Prusament, DasFilament, 3DJake
American:
Fusion Filament,3DFuel,Atomic Filament
Use standard matte black filament as it is

produced and used the most, thus the
scrutiny in terms of feedback on the
quality by the customer is higher on the
black PLA of any particular brand
Store sealed as long as possible
Round steel stock (18mm,3mm)
- 1x 50mm long and 1x 216mm long

or one piece longer than 300mm,
18mm diameter +-0.1mm
(Ideally you'll have multiple of those
pieces in case you make mistakes or want
to make multiple bolts. So buy a round
steel stock bar of 18mm diameter that is
longer than 300mm at least, and then cut
it with your angle grinder into pieces as
you need it)
- 1x 200mm long or as a longer piece,

3mm diameter +-0.01mm
IMPORTANT FOR BOTH: The round steel stock

has to be non-hardened, so no tool steel
for example! Uncoated! Use carbon steel
(regular steel)! Any other steels are not
recommended. For the Ø3mm stock, stainless
steel is acceptable.
Recommended source: Ebay, Local industrial

metal supplier
22
JB Weld
- 2x packages of JB Weld
This is a two-part epoxy that is used to

glue materials of all sorts together
especially metals. Get the regular JB weld
version
If you can't get JB weld try to find a

similar product that is a two-part steel
bonding epoxy/glue

hardware store
Threadlocking fluid 243/242
- Small bottle of Loctite 243/242
Recommended source: Amazon, Local Hardware

store, AliExpress (Last resort)
AliExpress link:
aliexpress.com/item/4000015095892.html
Sand paper
- Get multiple sheets of coarse to fine

grain sand paper
Recommended source: Local hardware store,

Amazon, Ebay
Razor blades
- At least 1x disposable thin razor blade
This is potentially needed to install the

3mm shaft collars in case they come with
slot instead of hex key screws
Recommended source: Local grocery store,

Local drug store
23
Cutting fluid
- At least 1x spray can or bottle of

cutting fluid
It is used to cool and lubricate during

drilling, threading and other processes
that remove metal

hardware store
Grease
- 1x small container of grease for

mechanical lubrication applications

hardware store
Tooth picks
- 1x small container of tooth picks
This will be used to mix and apply JB Weld
Recommended source: Grocery store, Local

drug store, Local hardware store
24
Welded Bolt specific tools and materials
(ONLY NEEDED FOR WELDED BOLT OPTION):
Sheet metal plates
- 1x 3-5mm thick sheet metal plate, at

least 500x500mm big
Put that plate on any regular table to

have a table ready to be used for your
welding
You will need that sheet metal plate on

top of a regular table in case you don't
have a welding table that has been
specifically made for welding
- 1x 1mm thick sheet metal plate, at

least 700x700mm big. Put that plate on the
floor around the part of the regular table
you will weld to protect the floor.
- 1x 3-5mm thick, 20mm wide sheet metal

strip cut to 100mm length to help you
align the bolt pieces during welding
NOTE: These sheet metal materials are not

necessary but highly recommended if you
are new to welding and did not have the
facilities and tools to weld.
Recommended source: Ebay, Local industrial

metal supplier
Stick welding electrodes
- Assortment of welding electrodes
Ideally 2.5mm in diameter.
BUY DIFFERENT TYPES OF STICK WELDING

ELECTRODES FROM DIFFERENT BRANDS!
Some steel welding electrodes might work

better than others for the steel you are
working with. This is key.

hardware store.
25
Stick welding unit
- A cheap and simple stick welding unit

that is also known as SMAW(Shielded
Metal Arc Welding) or simply arc welding
unit
They can cost from anywhere between 50

and 100 USD

Welding helmet
- A welding helmet is important to have

to be able to weld without going blind
Welding gloves
- Purpose made leather gloves to prevent

burning your hands during welding

hardware store
26
Welding apron
- An apron to protect you against

burning yourself while welding. Made out
of leather or leather substitute

hardware store
Welding clamps
- 1-2x welding clamps to help you during

the welding of the bolt. Make sure the
welding clamp is of the type you see in
the picture

Aliexpress
Slag hammer
- Hammer to help you get rid of the slag

that forms during the welding process

Aliexpress
Metal wire brush
- Brush with metal wires to help you

clean welding seams
Recommended source: Amazon, Ebay, Ali
express
27
Weldless Bolt specific materials
(ONLY NEEDED FOR WELDLESS BOLT OPTION):
Extra 3mm drill bit
- At least one extra 3mm drill bit
Square steel stock
- Square steel stock 10x10mm

Get a bar of at least 100mm length.
Woodworking clamp
- A woodworking clamp that is

similar to the example in the picture
Recommended source: Ebay, Amazon,

Hardware store
28
Fire control group components
In regards to the fire control group you have two options.
For most people the FGC-9 is intended to be built by, you will most likely rely
on the printed fire control group but if you have access to proper firearm parts
it is recommended you buy a commercial AR-15/M4/M16 compatible fire
control group. A proper commercially made AR-15 fire control group will be
safer and vastly more reliable. So if you can get one, go with a proper AR-15
fire control group. Depending on your choice, you will have to buy different
parts.
Parts for use with the 3D-printed FGC-9 MkII fire control group:
In order of image shown above, from left to right:

- 1x AR-15 Hammer spring
- 1x Steel Dowel Pin, 4mm diameter, 28mm +-2mm long,
Recommended Spec/Type: DIN 6325 or DIN 7
- 1x AR-15 Trigger spring
- 1x AR-15 Fire control group pin
- 1x AR-15 Disconnector spring
- 1x AR-15 Fire selector spring
- 1x AR-15 Fire selector detent
AR-15 parts available from Aliexpress:

www.aliexpress.com/item/32916890199.html
www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001538560272.html (21 pcs option)
www.aliexpress.com/item/33008262340.html (T070 option)
www.aliexpress.com/item/33018833744.html (21 pcs option)
Buy 4mm diameter, 28mm long pin on Ebay/Fastener Shop/Aliexpress
Additionally, 1x Slot head screw and 1x Socket head screw are needed
for the 3D-printed fire control group. Info is on the next pages.
29
General parts
Shaft collars DIN 705
- 3x Shaft collars DIN 705, 16mm

Inner diameter: 16mm
Outer diameter: 28mm
Width: 12mm
- 1x Shaft collar DIN 705, 3mm

Inner diameter: 3mm
Outer diameter: 7mm
Width: 5mm
(Should include a set screw)
Alternatively, equivalent shaft collar:

Inner diameter: 3mm
Outer diameter: 7mm-12mm
Width: 5mm
Recommended source: Ebay, Regional online

fastener supplier
Cup point set screws DIN 916
- 3x Set Screw M6 DIN 916, 6mm
Recommended source: Ebay, McMaster,

Regional online fastener supplier
Main Buffer Spring
- 1x AR-15/M4 Buffer Spring
Recommended source: Aliexpress, Ebay
Available on Aliexpress:
30
Firing Pin Spring Stock
- 1x Compression spring
Outer diameter: 6mm

Wire thickness: 1mm
Initial length: 25mm +-1mm
Recommended source: Ebay, AliExpress, McMaster
McMaster Link(Option for Americans):

https://www.mcmaster.com/8969T748/
You will cut this spring stock into a firing

pin spring later on when you have nearly
completed your FGC-9 build.
Mag Catch Spring

- 1x AR-15 Mag Catch spring
(Most likely already included in your fire

control group spring kit ordered from
Aliexpress)
Cut shorter at your own preference as the

mechanism might be too stiff at full length
OR
1x Compression spring
Outer diameter: 7mm

Wire thickness: 0.5mm
Length/Cut to length: 20mm
Secondary Buffer - 1x Compression spring:

Spring
Outer diameter: 17mm
Wire thickness: 2mm +-0.5mm
Length: 80mm +-10mm
DIN 2095 option: Outer diameter:17mm

Wire thickness: 2.25mm
Length: 75mm
Recommended source: Ebay, AliExpress
Available on Aliexpress:
31
Hex head screws DIN 933
- 6x Hex Head Screw M3 DIN 933, 40mm
- 4x Hex Head Screw M3 DIN 933, 20mm

Socket head screw DIN 912
DIN 912 Socket Head Screws:
- 10x Socket Head Screw M3,16mm

Cut to 28mm length
(Only needed for the 3D-printable
Fire Control Group)

Slot head screw DIN 84
- 1x Slot Head Screw M4 DIN 84, 6mm

(Only needed for 3D-printable fire
control group)

32
Washers DIN 125
- 10x Washer M3 DIN 125

Nuts DIN 934
- 4x Nuts M3 DIN 934

Lock washer DIN 6797
- 1x External-Tooth Lock Washer M6 DIN

6797

33
Thread inserts
- 4x SL-Type M3 Thread Inserts

"Brass Hot Melt Inset Nuts SL-Type”
M3 Thread, Diameter: 5mm, Length: 7mm
“M3 X D5.0 X L7.0”
Available on Aliexpress and Ebay:
OR
Generic Thread Inserts M3

(With diagonal knurling)
Outer diameter: 5mm
Width/Length: 5-7mm
Extended G17 Mag Springs
- (7x+) 1x per Mag that you want to make
Available from Aliexpress:

(“For G17/Color B” Option)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001268513
095.html (“Glock 17” Option)
385.html (“Glock 17” Option)
NOTE: These springs are only compatible

with 17rd and 25rd
3D-printed magazines
With high likelihood you will need to

modify the springs before they work in the
25rd 3d-printed FGC-9 MkII magazine.
The modification guide is on page: 128
34
Hex/Allen L-Key Size 5mm
- 1x 5mm Hex/Allen L-Key

You might have to cut the longer leg

to meet these dimensions:
Overall length: 82.5mm +-2.5mm

Short leg: 25mm+
Neodymium Magnet
- 1x Neodymium Magnet 20mmx10mmx2mm
Recommended source: Ebay, Amazon
35
Recommended accessories
Silicone spray
- Silicone lubricant spray for the surface of

all 3D-printed parts that interact with each
other
Recommended source: Ebay, McMaster, Regional
online fastener supplier
Gun oil/lubricant AND Cleaning kit
- Lubricant:NATO S-761/ NATO S-758/ W18

Important to prevent rust inside barrel
Source: Ebay, Amazon, Car oil shops
- 9mm cleaning kit

Example link: AliExpress
NOTE: DON’T USE THE COPPER WIRE BRUSH TIP
Red dot sight
- Red dot sight

Suggested option:
.html
9x19mm Laser Bore Sighter
- 9x19mm Laser Bore Sighter
Use to roughly adjust your sight without

needing to fire. Adjust your sight with it to
a distance of 10,25 or 50 meters.
Watch Youtube tutorials for instructions.
Recommended budget option: Banggood
Weapon mounted flashlight
- Weapon mounted flashlight

Suggested option:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32864902300.h
tml
Single point bungee sling
- Ideal sling for the FGC-9 MkII

Suggested option:
9.html
36
Ammunition
You will most likely not have access to 9x19mm ammunition, thus you
will need to assemble/reload your own 9x19mm cartridges.
Europeans at time of the publication of this document,

are still able to buy all necessary components and tools
without the need for any licenses.
For assembly/reloading you will need reloading tools.
Included with the files is a guide written by IvanTheTroll that

explains how to assemble your cartridges with improvised tools, but if
you are able to buy the reloading tools, you should use the proper
reloading tools instead for reliability and faster production rates.
The following components are needed for 9x19mm cartridges:
Projectile Case Primer Source of Powder
To help you find these components in the case that you live in Europe,
use the following terms in your search:
• Projectiles, Shipped from Czech Republic, Austria or Germany:
(9mm/.355/.356 ) ".355 FMJ RN" or "9mm FMJ RN"
• Cases, Shipped from Poland: “Łuski 9x19mm" or "Łusek 9mm"
Cases, Shipped from Germany: "Hülsen 9mm" or “Hülsen 9mm gebraucht”
Cases, Shipped from UK: “Deactivated 9x19mm”
Cases, Shipped from Czech Republic: “Nábojnice 9mm”
• Small Pistol Primers, Shipped from Italy: “Inneschi primers IT”
• 6.8/11 RED HILTI blanks: “Hilti 6.8/11 Red”
Contain 0.23grams / 3.5 grains of NC powder per blank !
Buy hundreds at least, better thousands if you can !
NOTE: If you are unable to acquire proper primers, you will need to
resort to reloading the “indented” / already fired primers inside old
cartridge cases. This means, if you can’t buy primers you will need to
make sure that the cases you use, have the already fired / indented
primers still inside the pocket, because you will have to resort
“reloading” them with primer compound harvested from the Hilti blanks.
This is explained in the included ammunition guide by IvanTheTroll.
NOTE: Regarding the amount for loading 9mm cartridges with HILTI powder, don’t follow
the suggestion to use 3.5gr HILTI powder. The ammo guide is outdated in that regard.
37
For ideal operation of your FGC-9 you should use 9x19mm cartridges
with either 147grain RN(round nose) bullets or 124grain RN bullets:
147 grain Round Nose
- Ideal for Suppressor use

- Full Metal Jacket or Plated
- Use 0.28 grams / 4.3grains
of powder harvested from
HILTI 6.8/11 RED nail gun blanks
- Load to Overall length (OAL)
of the cartridge: 28.90mm +-0.05
124 grain Round Nose
- Better suited for long distance fire

- Full Metal Jacket or Plated
- Use 0.27 grams / 4.2grains
of powder harvested from
HILTI 6.8/11 RED nail gun blanks
- Load to OAL: 28.90mm +-0.05
For those who are able to buy reloading tools, here a recommended setup:
LEE Breech Lock Press 90045 LEE 4-DIE Carbide Set 9mm 90963 LEE Powder Measure 90058
LEE New Auto Prime 90230 LEE Shell Holder #19 90023 Scale with 0.01gram accuracy
Learn via Youtube tutorials extensively before starting. Watch this

video as an introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXh4GpmdJOg
38
Visual overview of the components
Upper
Bolt
Charging Handle
Firing Pin
Barrel
Lower
Stock
Magazine
39
Making the barrel
You have three options to produce your FGC-9 barrel.
• Electro-Chemically Machining a hydraulic pipe

Buy a 16mm Outer Diameter, 8-8.6mm Inner Diameter
Hydraulic Pipe / “Explosion-Proof-Pipe”, out of hardened steel
and use “ECM” to bore, rifle and chamber it according to the
included instructions. (USE THE INCLUDED ECM GUIDE)
Recommended option, All necessary information is included
Don’t be intimidated by this process.

This process is very easy to reproduce even as a lay person
thanks to the help of the included instructions.
The tools that are necessary are cheap and available worldwide.
• Using a simple steel pipe chambered with a drill bit

Buy a 16mm Outer Diameter, 9mm Inner Diameter steel pipe and
cut it to at least 114mm length and
then use a 10mm diameter drill bit that you cut flat beforehand,
to ream the chamber to a depth of 15.95mm +-0.05.
Make sure to add a radius to the entrance of the chamber.
• Machining a barrel out of a rifled barrel blank

Hire a gunsmith to do the following or do this yourself:
- Buy a rifled barrel blank for 9x19mm

( In the US, for example on Brownells )
- Cut a 114mm+ section from the long piece
- Turn down the piece on the lathe to the OD of 16mm +-0.02
- Use a 9x19mm chamber reamer to ream the chamber to a depth
of 15.95mm +-0.05
- Make sure to add a radius or a chamfer with rounded edges.
- (Optionally) Follow instructions on page 43 for muzzle thread
If you decide to machine a barrel from a rifled barrel blank

yourself, you can buy the same tools shown on page 43 for this.
The only additional tools you will need is a

9x19mm chamber reamer with a square shank and
a M5/M6 - M20 adjustable tap wrench.
The basics of the chamber reaming process are illustrated in

this video: https://youtu.be/27Xz_oMZbbI?t=199
40
41
Suppressor
For tactical purposes during the usage of the firearm and for being
able to practice shooting and test fire in environments in which you
need to be quiet, you might consider the use of a suppressor.
There are a multitude of suppressor options that can be freely bought

and only need minor modification for use with your firearm.
They key issue that you will face with your FGC-9 is how to attach
your suppressor to your barrel.
At the moment you have effectively two methods of attaching a
suppressor to you FGC-9.
One will only require you to purchase an adapter that will let you
attach the suppressor while the other option is more involved and will
require access to a lathe.
Going with the more advanced option has the benefit of keeping the
length of your suppressed setup as short as possible, as well as
making sure that the suppressor is securely attached to your firearm.
A suppressed setup with the adapter will require caution during use,
as the adapter and thus suppressor might get knocked off your barrel.
1. Adapter option:
Buy this exact 1/2x28” adapter that allows you to mount it to 16mm OD
barrels: www.aliexpress.com/item/4000800532350.html (For 16mm Barrel)
- To make sure the adapter is

properly secured to your barrel
YOU NEED TO BUY ADDITIONALLY:
2x Cup set screws M3 DIN916, 4mm
- The set screws that ship with

the adapter are useless! Don’t
use them ! Use the ordered
M3 DIN 916 set screws instead!
- YOU WILL NEED TO DRILL THE

INSIDE OF THE ADAPTER TO AN
INNER DIAMETER OF 9mm with your
9mm drill bit !!!
DON’T FORGET THIS STEP!
42
2. Robust and more compact option:
- Buy a mini lathe such as the SIEG C2
or a 7” x 14” Mini Lathe
Example Link
- Buy a MT2 / MK2 live center tool

Example Link
- Buy a 8x8mm carbide tool holder and

compatible carbide inserts (CCMT060204)
Example Link
- Buy a Thread Alignment Tool ( TAT ) for

1/2" x 28 thread for use with 9mm
Example Link 1 Example Link 2
- Buy a 1/2" x 28 thread die that has an

outer diameter of 1.5” / 38mm
- Buy an adjustable die holder for use with

1.5” / 38mm OD dies
NOTE: Do not install your shaft collars

onto the barrel until you have completed
the muzzle thread cutting process.
Reducing the last 15mm section on your

barrel to an OD of 12.58mm with the lathe:
1. Set up your lathe with the live center

and one of your carbide tools.
2. Insert the chamber end of the barrel
into the chuck and have the muzzle butt
against the live center mounted in the
tailstock of your lathe.
3. Turn the 15mm section near the muzzle
to an outer diameter of 12.58mm +-0.04.
4. Take many light cuts, do not remove too
much material at once and make sure you
measure the OD after every few cuts to
prevent reducing the OD too much.
43
Cutting the muzzle thread with your threading die and TAT tool:
1. Screw the TAT about 4-5 threads into

the back of the die with the pilot
sticking out in front.
2. Insert die and TAT into handle,

preferably lettered towards you and
aligning at least one of the tightening
screws in the handle with the divots in
the die OD.
3. Secure the barrel vertically in a
padded vise.
4. Apply a good cutting fluid/oil to
the die teeth and start cutting.
It will take a little bit of vertical

downward pressure to get started. Apply
even downward pressure and rotate the
die slowly.
5. Repeatedly advance the die about 1/8
turn, then back it off to break up the
shaving (chips).
Do not allow the face of the TAT to
ever reach the barrel face.
This could strip the teeth out,

possibly damaging the TAT and ruining
the few threads that you have cut on
the barrel.
6. Once you have cut about 4-5 threads

remove the TAT tool.
7. Resume threading as above, breaking

the chips and applying cutting fluid as
you go.
44
Suppressor selection:
There are two kinds of suppressors you have access to.
One are the so called monocore suppressors and the kind that have
multiple cups and a spacer inside, here referred to as cup supressors.
The smaller the bore of a suppressor is the more effective at
suppression it will be.
Monocore suppressors offer the advantage that you don’t need to drill
cups, but they have bores with diameters of around 12mm.
The suppressors that come with cups will require you to drill through
the cups with a 10.5mm drill bit.
Thus these monocore suppressors are less effective at suppressing the

sound of your shots than the cup suppressor options.
Note that any suppressor choice will need to have an outer diameter of
at least 1.2 inch, as those that are slimmer in diameter tend to be
not suited for the pressures created by the 9x19mm cartridge.
When it comes to length, the longer the suppressor is, the more
effective at sound suppression it will be. A longer suppressor may
become an issue though when handling your firearm inside buildings.
Ensure that you use subsonic 9x19mm ammo. If your projectiles are
traveling faster than 1100fps/340 m/s, your shots will still be loud.
You can use a chronograph to check the speed of your projectiles.
If you are loading your own ammo with HILTI powder with the amounts
recommended on page 38, your bullets should travel at the appropriate
speed of 1050fps. Only if you are adamant being absolutely sure your
ammo is subsonic, while keeping the lethality as high as possible,
would you need to doublecheck the speed of your bullets with a
chronograph and then adjust the amount of powder for your ammo.
Cup Suppressor – 10 inch MOST EFFECTIVE SUPPRESSOR OPTION
Current recommended source:

(Option: “1 2-28 Black”)
NOTE: You will need to drill open all
cups with a 10.5mm drill bit. Make sure
that you drill perfectly through the
center. If the endcaps have no hole of
at least Ø10.5mm, drill those as well.
45
Cup Suppressor – 6 inch
Current recommended source:

(Option: “1 2-28 black”)
NOTE: You will need to drill open all cups

with a 10.5mm drill bit. Make sure that you
drill perfectly through the center. If the
endcaps have no hole of at least Ø10.5mm,
drill those as well.
Monocore Suppressor – 10 inch
Current recommended sources:

Less effective than cup suppressor options!
Recommended for cup suppressors: To increase the suppression effect of your

suppressor cut out an appropriately size disc out of a 3mm sheet of “Polyurethan
sheet PU90° Shore” and insert it into the endcap. Cut the disc just slightly larger
than the inner diameter of the inside of the endcap to push it in to have it stay
stuck inside. After the first shot, your bullet will create its own exit hole.
Make sure you don’t use any hollow point bullets for the first few shots.
If you cut threads into your barrel with the “lathe+die” option, consider:
Muzzle thread protector (15mm length)

Example links:
www.aliexpress.com/item/32903441874.html (Choose:.223)
46
Making the charging handle
Gather the barrel retainer, charging handle, charging handle

bushing, the 20x10x2mm magnet, 5mm Allen key and prepare the
JB weld mixture.
Apply the JB weld mixture to the bend of the Allen Key.
47
Making sure the JB weld mixture is applied
primarily in the area shown in the picture,
shove the bushing over the Allen key and make
sure that you push it AS FAR AS YOU CAN, before
letting the charging handle dry.
48
Once you have the bushing pushed up on the bend of the Allen
key you can then apply JB weld into the cavity of the
charging handle knob and then push it over the shorter leg
of the Allen key in the orientation shown in the picture.
Let the charging handle dry for at least 6 hours before

further use.
Note: When using the charging handle you might at first chip away some
material from the corner of the barrel retainer. This is normal.
49
While the charging handle is already drying, you can
apply JB weld into the charging handle slot of the
barrel retainer and then drop the magnet in.
Make sure you clean the main surface of the magnet
with a cotton swab or something similar to simply
have that surface stay clean from any JB weld before
letting it dry.
50
Making the firing pin
Cut off a 70mm long piece from your 3mm DIA

steel bar with a Dremel tool
/angle grinder with a steel cutting disc.
Make sure to remove any nasty edges by

using sand paper or your metal file before
inserting it into the power drill in the
next step.
51
Put the bar into a power drill and rotate it
while holding a metal file against it to form
a chamfered circular end at the tip that is
about 1.5mm in diameter.
Then use sandpaper to finish the shape of the

tip so that it looks like in the picture.
52
Measure the diameter of the face on the tip.
Grind the firing pin tip against sand paper

to reach a diameter of around 1.75mm.
You can deviate by about 0.25mm.
Anywhere between 1.50mm-2.00mm is fine.
53
Use your caliper blades to scratch a line
around the circumference of the bar at a
distance of 58.35mm from the tip.
At that exact distance you will have to

drill a divot into the pin later on so make
sure you have that spot marked by having a
clearly visible belt at the distance of
58.35mm from the tip.
54
Put the bar into a vise and use the edge of
your metal file to create a flat section
around the previously marked position.
Only file so much that you have a flat area
to drill into for the divot later on.
55
Use your power drill and a 1mm drill bit and
then afterwards go deeper with a 2mm drill
bit, to create a divot deep in the bar that
is in the center of the flat area you
created, that is aligned with the previously
created line which is 58.35mm from the tip.
Instead of the 1mm drill bit you can also use

a punch and a hammer to mark the spot before
using the 2mm drill bit.
Note: The divot is not center in the picture.

You should do a better job than that ;)
56
Remove the grub screw from the shaft collar
and put the shaft collar onto the bar
aligning the hole of it with the divot to
get an idea where the shaft collar should
be for the later steps.
57
Mix up some JB weld with a tooth pick.
58
Remove the shaft collar and put some JB Weld onto the flat
area that you filed and fill up the drilled divot.
Then slide the shaft collar to that position and try to line
up the hole with a tooth pick through the hole of the shaft
collar.
Try to remove the JB weld out of the shaft collar screw hole
so you can see that the shaft collar hole is centered with
the divot.
59
Once you have made sure the shaft collar
screw hole is lined up with the divot you
previously created by probing with a
toothpick, you can fill the hole with JB
weld. Be careful not to move the shaft
collar away from its position at this
point.
60
Take a razor blade or the appropriate hex key depending
on your type of 3mm shaft collar and screw the grub screw
into the JB Weld-filled shaft collar screw hole.
You can apply a tiny droplet of grease to the end of your

tool/razor blade, to have the set screw stick to the
tool, if you have trouble screwing the set screw in.
After the set screw is completely screwed in, cover the

entire shaft collar and the area behind the shaft collar
with JB Weld.
61
Clean the flat side of the shaft collar that is
towards the tip from any JB weld.
Be sure to have only a minimal amount of JB weld on

the backside of the shaft collar.
After you have applied JB weld and cleaned it from

the places that should be free of JB weld, as you can
see in the picture, let the firing pin cure in a
vertical position for at least 24 hours.
62
Use a metal file to shorten the firing pin by
grinding the back end of the firing pin and reach an
overall length of 67.50mm.
Make sure to do this carefully and measure often

during the process.
63
After you reach the final length, round off the edges
at the end of the back a little, as you see in the
picture.
64
65
Melting in the thread inserts
Prepare all four thread inserts as well as

the upper receiver and lower receiver. Get
your soldering iron and pre-heat it to at
least 220°C. Put the thread inserts with the
tapered side into the holes on the back side
of the upper and lower receiver.
66
Making sure the inserts can go down in
straight, use your soldering iron to push in
the thread inserts about 1-2mm past the
entrance of the hole. The inserts should not
stick out of the hole. Sand around the edge
with sandpaper if material sticks out.
67
Making the bolt
The bolt of the FGC-9 will be the most complex part to
produce and will be at the heart of the firing mechanism.
You will have two main ways of attaching the steel stock
pieces together that make up the steel portion of the bolt.
Either using a stick welder to attach the two pieces or
using JB weld and a piece of square steel stock.
Along with these differences, how the round pickup is added
will differ. The rest of the process to build the bolt will
be the same. You can choose one or the other depending on
your budget and other limitations that have to do with the
nature of welding. If you have the tools / environment to go
with the option to weld the two steel pieces together and
make your bolt that way, it is recommended you do that.
A bolt made with welding will result in a more robust

construction that you can have complete confidence in and
you will need less manual labor to finish it.
For both paths you will need to begin with drilling the
firing pin channel and end with the same recess drilling
process. Be sure to read the following pages before starting
either process, to get an idea how the options differ.
68
Drilling the lower bolt rod
Get your power drill ready with the long 3.5mm

diameter drill bit, as well as both drilling jig
halves and the 50mm long 18mm bar. Put the short bolt
piece (18mm diameter, 50mm long) in between the
drilling jig halves.
69
Put the drilling jig with the bolt piece inside, in
between the jaws of your table-mounted vise.
70
Spray cutting fluid into the hole before starting to
drill. With ample of forward pressure start drilling
into the setup.
71
Drill a few millimeters into the hole and then remove
the steel chips and add new cutting fluid, then drill
again. Repeat this until you can feel that you got
through the entire bolt piece.
72
Request for feedback / Help improve the drilling jig:
If you properly followed the instructions using this jig and later on
found out that the firing pin indentations are not center but somewhat
off-center, note the deviation, by using empty cases and remember in
what orientation you inserted the case into the chamber. Then let the
firing pin hit the empty case / already struck primer and note whether
the off-center indentation is towards the 12 o’clock or more towards
the 6 o’ clock relative to the center. Measure how far off your
indentations are in millimeter and note the relative o’clock position.
Send me your findings via E-Mail: JStark1809@protonmail.com
73
Welded Bolt Option
Before you continue make sure
that your 50mm bolt piece has been drilled correctly.
The firing pin channel that you have drilled
needs to be straight and in the correct position.
To make sure this is the case,
take your 50mm bolt piece and put it
into the bolt housing.
Rotate it so that the firing pin channel is
at the 6’o clock position on the bolt piece.
If on just one side it appears that the hole is

at the center, use that side for the bolt face.
Meaning whatever side has the hole at the
“correct” spot, have that side be the face end.
If on both sides of the bolt piece

the hole is not at the center of the opening
when looking at it from the back of the housing,
you need to make a new 50mm bolt piece
or rotate it and re-drill it.
You then can later on weld the failed hole shut.
The drilling jig might not work for you,

so take the 50mm bolt piece and paint
one end of it through the opening
of the bolt housing and then mark
the center of that circle.
This should be the correct spot to drill into.
Getting the firing pin channel to be straight

without the drilling jig will be significantly
more difficult. Doing it without the jig might be
a good alternative only if you are using a drill press.
Prepare the tools and materials that you need for the welding process:
- 1x 50mm long, 18mm diameter steel rod piece

- 1x 216mm long,18mm diameter steel rod piece
- Digital Caliper
- Welding table or sheet metal to weld on
- Welding helmet, gloves and welding skirt
- Welding device powered up and connected
- Welding clamp(s)
- Welding Jig
74
Put the welding jig onto the face end of your 50mm
bolt piece where the hole was at the correct
position, aligning it via the firing pin channel
hole.
Use the bottom corner of your digital caliper or a

similar metal device to scratch along the slot of the
welding jig.
75
You should now have a clearly visible line on the side of the lower bolt
piece that you want to be the bolt face of your bolt.
Now put the 50mm long bolt piece as well as the 216mm long bolt piece and
put them next to each other as close and straight as possible.
The firing pin channel should be at the 3 o clock position, while the longer
bolt piece should be laid at the 9 o clock side of the shorter bolt piece.
Just look at the image to see how it should look like.
Use the depth rod of your digital caliper to align the firing pin hole to be
perfectly at the 3 o clock position as you see it in this picture.
You do this by measuring the distance of the line to the bottom of the plate
you have the bolt piece on. Since the bolt piece has a diameter of 18mm, you
need the distance of the scratched line to the bottom to be exactly 9mm.
76
After you have made sure that the drilled hole in the shorter bolt
piece is exactly halfway between top and bottom (at the 3 o'clock
position) use your welding clamp to fix the two bolt piece perfectly
into position as you can see it in the upper picture.
Measure the 9mm distance again to confirm that the firing pin hole is
still perfectly at the 3 o’ clock position. Make absolutely sure that
the front faces/ends of the bolt pieces are absolutely flush.( LOOK AT
THE UPPER PICTURE). Meaning on the front/bolt face the ends should be
in line and one bolt should not stick out more than the other.
You can now go ahead and connect the contact of your welder to
the welder table and turn on your welding device.
77
Turn on your arc welder and then set the appropriate amperage
which you can find on the packaging of the electrode you will be
using, for example when using some 2.5mm diameter electrodes you
will need to set your arc welder between 65 and 80 amps.
Be sure to wear welding gloves, welding apron and a welding visor
before going ahead.
Attach the negative contact from the arc welder to the metal
plate on which the bolt pieces are laying.
Hold one of your electrodes with your electrode holder which is
plugged into the arc welder device and use some scrap sheet metal
strip to try to start a bead, meaning you will have to get the
feel to start welding. Imagine what it feels like to strike a
match. In a similar fashion you need to strike slowly but fluidly
the metal with the tip of the electrode.
After you have successfully got a bead and even a weld line going
on a piece of sheet metal, you can go ahead and run the electrode
between the two bolt pieces to fill the gap with material.
If you can’t manage to get a good bead / seam going try to use
other kinds of stick welding electrodes, as they might be better
suited for the steel you are working with.
78
After the first few blobs that you put into the gap, you can
remove the clamp and work with the bolt pieces just laying on the
metal plate. You will struggle to keep it going consistently but
that doesn't matter, keep going at it until the gap on each side
looks like in the image.
Once you have filled both gaps on both sides like you see in the
picture, use your file to remove as much of the welded material
until it can fit into your printed bolt housing.
79
It will probably take some time until you have filed enough
material from the filled gap as well as accidental weld blobs
that prevent the bolt from going into the bolt housing.
Make extensive use of your metal wire brush and slag hammer to
remove as much slag from the welded seam before you spend much of
your time using the file.
80
Eventually you should be able to slide the bolt into the bolt
housing. Don’t try to use too much force getting it in. Try to
look meticulously on the bolt for excessive weld material that
might prevent the bolt from getting into the housing. You also
will probably have to remove material from the steel bolt pieces
themselves, especially on the sides to get it to fit in.
81
Once the welded bolt fits inside the bolt housing use a sharp metal
object, a pen or something similar to scratch the outline of the
cutout on the bottom of the bolt carrier onto the bottom of the
50mm bolt piece as you can see it in the image.
82
Using one of your partially spent welding sticks that is shorter,
add blobs of weld material. Add a blob, let it cool off and then
add another blob on top of it until the tower of blobs looks
similar to the picture.
83
Once your blob tower is high enough and wide enough to cover the
cutout you can go ahead and use your metal file to shape it in
such a way where it becomes a square that fills out the cutout on
the bolt housing.
84
It doesn’t have to be perfect but the sides of the square you are
creating should follow the sides of the bottom geometry on the
bolt housing as you can see it, in the picture.
85
The behind of the square shape will determine how far you can
shove the bolt inside the bolt housing. Remove material from the
back side of the square shape, so that you can shove the bolt
into the bolt housing.
Do not keep removing material from the back side of the square
shape, once the bolt face is only sticking 0.1–1mm out, and
more importantly when a gap already appears in the circle
shown in the bottom of the picture. If the gap has appeared but
the front face of the bolt is still sticking out more than 1mm,
use sand paper to evenly reduce the protrusion of the steel face.
86
Once you have managed to file the square into shape so it
roughly fills out the cutout on the bottom of the bolt
housing and the bolt fits inside the bolt housing well while
not sticking out too much, you then can go ahead.
87
Prepare the steel bolt, the bolt
housing, JB weld and the tools to apply
it and clean the excessive JB weld off.
88
Mix the JB weld very well and then
apply it to the steel bolt to the
extent that you see on the picture.
89
Push the steel bolt into the bolt housing
with the JB weld applied on it.
Make absolutely sure that you don’t have
any JB weld on the backside of the lower
bolt rod. It has to stay clean!
90
Be sure to clean the bolt assembly up
to the extent you see in the pictures,
before letting it dry.
Let the bolt dry for 24 hours before

going ahead with the next steps.
91
Weldless Bolt Option
Text and pictures by IvanTheTroll
Step 1: Prep Work
Remove all supports from your printed parts. Your Bolt Cutting Jigs
should have four upright posts that act as integrated supports – use a
screwdriver or pliers to remove these four posts, as you don’t need
them in place. You don’t need to be very precise, just get the posts
out of the way. It’s fine if a little of the post stays stuck to the
jig itself.
Jigs before removing posts
Jigs with posts removed.
92
You will also need to take your 10x10mm bar stock and cut a ~17.75mm
long section from it. Use a hacksaw, your grinding tool, or whatever
other tool you used to cut your bolt rods to length. The length of bar
stock is beneath the bolt rods in the following picture:
Bolt rods cut to length with bar stock cut to length.
Step 2: Creating Weldless Lower Bolt Rod

For the next step, you will need to make sure you have your bolt rods
cut to length (refer to the FGC-9 documentation for this exact length)
and your firing pin channel drilled (again, refer to the FGC-9
documentation for the jig and tutorial on how to drill the firing pin
channel). I will stress that it is *very* important to get your firing
pin channel drilled as straight as you can – It’s also a good idea to
mark which end of the lower bolt rod you drilled into, as this end of
the lower bolt rod should become your breech face. Use a punch or
screwdriver to make a small mark on this end of the bolt rod.
Note: I recommend you do these next couple steps outdoors if you are
using a power tool to grind. If this is not an option, try and use a
room that has tile floor and is easy to sweep in – this process makes
a big mess since you are grinding away a lot of metal.
Take your lower bolt rod, one of your cutting jigs, and the same drill
bit you used to drill your firing pin channel. Insert the lower bolt
rod into the jig BREECH FACE FIRST with the firing pin channel lined
up with the larger of the two holes in the front of the cutting jig.
It is important that you insert the breech face first to ensure things
line up. The breech face is whichever side of the lower bolt rod that
you drilled into first when drilling your firing pin channel, or
whichever end of the rod lines up the best. If your firing pin channel
is too far misaligned and you can’t get the firing pin channel to line
up with the hole in the jig, make a new lower bolt rod and be more
careful when making your firing pin channel.
93
Insert the lower bolt rod into the jig fully – make sure it is inserted as far as it can go.
Assuming you inserted the lower bolt rod with the firing pin channel
aligned, take your drill bit and insert it from the front of the jig.
It may be a snug fit, but if you can get it to go in (you can tap it
in gently with a hammer if needed) then your firing pin channel is
close enough to work correctly.
Insert the drill bit you used into the larger of the two holes – the one that lines up with the firing pin channel.
Double check that the bolt rod is still pushed as far into the jig as
it can possibly go – this is very important. After checking this, take
your vise grips/clamp/vise and clamp down on the end of the jig – this
will lock the bolt rod in place. Make sure this is quite tight – don’t
worry about deforming the jig, you want to keep the bolt rod totally
still. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR DRILL BIT IS STUCK IN FROM THE FRONT OF THE
BOLT – you can’t see mine in the picture, but you must make sure it is
inserted.
94
Clamp down tight!
Next, you are ready to start removing material. This will get a little
messy, and if you are using power tools you should use safety glasses.
Safety squinting and looking away won’t work here, as you have to
closely inspect how much material you have removed. Get your grinding
tool ready and find a comfortable way to control both the clamped bolt
rod and the grinding tool – I used one hand on the grinder and one
hand on the vise grips, but since your set up may vary, take the time
to find a way that you can keep the clamped bolt rod and grinding tool
under control.
Now you are ready to remove some metal – you will need to use your
grinding tool to make a notch in the bolt rod that follows the shape
of the cutout in the jig – about 10mm wide, about 5mm deep. Take
frequent stops to check how much metal you have removed, but try to
work quickly – removing this much metal makes lots of heat, and your
jig will start to melt. I’ve made four of these bolts at time of
writing this, and using the grinder pictured I am able to remove the
material before the jig gets totally melted. If you are using a Dremel
tool, you can take breaks to let everything cool – if you don’t ever
get the metal red-hot from heat, you can use water to cool it. But if
you do get the metal red-hot, DO NOT use water to cool it off – this
can cause weird local heat treating to occur, which could lead to a
weak bolt.
95
Be sure to control your tools! Don’t lose control of them and grind something you aren’t supposed to.
Once you have removed at least 90% of the metal from the slot, you can
remove the jig from the bolt rod. If it is getting melty, wear gloves
and use a screwdriver to try and pry the jig off. You can also use a
punch to drive the bolt rod out of the jig using the small hole in the
front of the jig. Because this jig has been overheated, it isn’t
reusable, so don’t be afraid to break it.
Take your 10mm bar stock and test how it fits into the slot. Usually
it won’t quite fit right away – you can use a Dremel tool or metal
file to remove just a little more metal and get the bar to fit. I
don’t recommend using a grinder, because removing too much metal can
ruin your bolt rod. You will want the bar to fit close to snug in the
slot, with about half of the bar stock sticking up out of the slot.
96
Test fit the bar into the slot in the bolt rod.
Use a metal file to square up and fine-tune the slot in the bolt rods. File a little, test fit the bar, file some more, etc.
97
Step 3: Creating Weldless Upper Bolt Rod
Without going into too much detail, you will make the upper bolt rod
just like you did with the lower bolt rod – only you won’t need to use
a drill bit to align the firing pin hole, since there isn’t a firing
pin hole on the upper bolt rod.
Take your rod, insert it fully into your second cutting jig, clamp it
in place, then use your grinding tools to cut the slot into the rod.
Follow the same steps as in Step 2 with regards to cleaning up the
slot after you have removed most of the metal.
As a reminder, a snug fit on the bar stock is ideal (the less it can
wiggle towards either end of the rod the better), and half of the
height of the bar stock should be sticking out of the slot when the
bar is placed into the slot.
Correct fitment of the bar stock into the slot
98
Step 4: Assembling the Bolt
Once you have slotted both bolt rods, take your bar stock and both
rods and lay them out like seen in the picture below. Your bar stock
might not sit perfectly flat/straight, but so long as the top of the
upper bolt rod touches the bottom of the upper bolt rod, then you’ve
cut your slots properly. If the bolt rods have a gap between each
other because the bar stock doesn’t fit deep enough into the slots,
you will need to make the slots a little deeper.
No gaps between
the upper and
lower bolt rods
Layout of the weldless bolt. Make sure there is NO gap between the bolt rods. If there is, you need to make the slots deeper.
After ensuring that the bar stock can fit between the bolt rods
without any gap between the two bolt rods, you are ready to do a mock-
up fit of your bolt assembly. Take your metal parts and your bolt
housing. Insert the metal parts into the bolt housing as shown in the
picture below. Make sure that your bar stock is centered when it
passes into the bolt housing. If you didn’t make sure that there was
zero gap between the top and bottom bolt rods, you won’t be able to
get the metal parts to fit inside the housing – go back to the
previous step and fix this. It may be a little hard to get your metal
parts inserted the first time – the bolt housing is intentionally
tight to help align the metal parts.
99
Carefully guide the metal parts into the bolt housing. You might need to tap them in gently with a hammer the first time.
After fully inserting your bolt rods, I recommend you take the drill
bit you used to drill the firing pin channel, your FGC-9 headspacing
jig (make sure you’ve read the FGC-9 documentation to understand this
tool), and your FGC-9 barrel, as well as a spent/fired cartridge (you
can use a live cartridge but be careful). With the cartridge in the
chamber and the drill bit sticking out of the firing pin channel, use
the headspacing jig to check how the firing pin channel and
cartridge/primer align. If the drill bit in the firing pin channel
points right at the middle of the primer, you’ve done well. If it
doesn’t line up, you will probably have to make a new lower bolt rod –
pay close attention when drilling your firing pin channel.
100
Checking firing pin alignment
Get up close and check – this firing pin channel is well-placed.
After checking alignment of the firing pin channel, you are ready to
JBWeld your bolt assembly into the housing. This step will be messy –
don’t wear any nice clothes, do not work near carpet, and you may want
to wear gloves. Start by mixing a large amount of JBWeld – about 1/3
of each tube should be used for this step. When using large amounts of
JBWeld like this, you will need to mix the two parts for about 5
minutes to ensure it is fully mixed.
101
The minimum amount of JBWeld you should use. Mixing more than this amount is a good idea.
After mixing, use a cheap screwdriver, popsicle stick, or other tool

to smear JBWeld on the inside of the bolt housing. Apply lots of
JBWeld, but try to leave an even coat – you don’t want big blobs, you
want it spread out on the inside of the housing.
Apply JBWeld to the inside of the housing. Use your tool to spread it out.
Next, I recommend you use brake cleaner/degreaser to clean all the

metal parts – this isn’t required but will help make a stronger bolt.
After cleaning the metal parts, fill the slots in the upper and lower
bolt rods with JBWeld. Make a big blob, and ensure the slots have as
much JBWeld in them as you can fit.
102
Fill the slots.
Place the bar stock into the lower bolt rod – JBWeld will squish out.
Try not to wipe this up – you want to leave it squished out. Squish
the lower bolt rod and bar stock into the upper bolt rod – more JBWeld
will squish out.
Squish the rods together.
Now, insert the bolt rods into the housing. As JBWeld squishes out,
try and guide it into the crevasse between the bolt rods and the
housing. You want to cram as much JBWeld between these parts as you
can
103
Smush the bolt rods down into the housing. Smear any JBWeld that squishes out onto the bolt rods and back into the
housing.
Push/pull the metal parts until they are fully seated into the bolt
housing. Shove any JBWeld that squishes out back into the gaps between
the bolt rods and the housing.
Pulling the bolt rods until they are fully seated. Smearing excess JBWeld back into the gaps.
Take your extra 3mm drill bit and coat it in JBWeld – build up lots of
JBWeld on the drill bit, fill the flutes with JBWeld. After coating
the drill bit, you will insert it into the slot at the bottom of the
bolt housing. Insert it until it stops – some of the drill bit will
still be sticking out, this is fine for now.
104
Apply lots of JBWeld!
Smooth out the JBWeld along the bottom of the drill bit/bolt with your
finger. Make sure plenty of JBWeld is smeared over the bottom of the
drill bit/bolt, as seen in the following picture.
At this point, most of the messy work is over. Use a rag to wipe up
any JBWeld on the exposed section of the upper bolt rod. Clean up any
JBWeld that you got on the sides of the bolt housing. Finally, you
will need to clean out any JBWeld that you got into the firing pin
channel/firing pin housing. I usually just use a rag and a screwdriver
for this. Use the screwdriver to guide the rag into the rear of the
bolt and mop up all the JBWeld that you see. Try and get as much of it
out as you can.
105
This JBWeld needs to be cleaned out.
Mop up all that JBWeld!
You’re finally done making messes – set your bolt upright for at least
24 hours to let the JBWeld set up. I recommend you use a clamp on the
outside of the bolt housing while the JBWeld sets up (the clamp
doesn’t need to be very tight, just holding everything steady).
106
Bolt assembly clamped in place while the JBWeld cures.
After the JBWeld has cured for 24 hours, use a hacksaw or Dremel tool
and a file to cut the 3mm drill bit off – you will need to make sure
you cut it off perfectly flat with the face of the lower bolt rod. I
recommend you cut 90% of the length of the drill bit off with your
hacksaw or Dremel tool, then use your metal file to file down the
firing pin until it is flush with the face of the bolt. You may also
have to take the drill bit you drilled out your firing pin channel
with and drill any JBWeld out of the firing pin channel itself.
Dremel off most of the drill bit, then use a file to make it flush with the bolt face.
107
Drill bit filed flat with the bolt face.
Side view – note that the face of the bolt is flat and the drill bit does not protrude.
With this step complete, your bolt is done. If you are making an FGC-9
MKII, you will need to drill the recess for the charging handle into
the upper bolt rod – refer to the main FGC-9 MKII documentation for
the process on doing this.
108
Weldless Bolt FAQ/Troubleshooting
Q: What sort of round counts should I expect? What ends up breaking?

A: While this bolt is by no means stronger than a proper welded bolt,
I have put 500 rounds through one and experienced no issues. If I had
to guess, either the drill bit will come loose and the bolt will lose
it’s ability to pick up rounds out of the magazine, or the JBWeld
holding the bar stock in place will crack and the bolt rods will
become wobbly. If this happens, STOP USING THE BOLT– I’m sure the gun
won’t feed right if this happened, so if you have a weird malfunction
and the bolt feels wiggly, consider the gun out of commission.
Q: What sort of reliability should I expect?

A: Reliability has been great with the bolts I’ve made – on par with
the welded bolts. It’s pretty amazing how well the setup itself works,
I did not expect it to work as well as it has.
Q: Why am I getting light primer strikes or failures to extract?

A: Refer to the main FGC-9 MKII documentation/troubleshooting tips for
issues like this. It is very important that you headspace weldless
bolts per the instructions in the documentation because of the
possibility of the two bolt rods not being perfectly aligned when
making a weldless bolt.
Q: Can I just use a 3mm rod instead of the 3mm drill bit when
JBWelding it into the bottom of the bolt?
A: Maybe, but it will not be as strong as using a drill bit. You can
get a set of 10 3mm drill bits for around $5 most places – cheap
Chinese ones are fine for this application.
109
Drilling the charging handle recess
Prepare your power drill, upper receiver, bolt, drill recess jig and a
7mm diameter drill bit. Insert the bolt into the upper receiver.
Insert the drill recess jig into the front of the upper receiver.
Making sure the bolt does not fall out, clamp the long bolt steel
piece between the jaws of your vise. Have as much as you can of the
bolt clamped in the vise while still having the bolt be at the end on
the inside of the upper receiver.
110
Apply cutting fluid spray and then use your 7mm diameter
drill bit to drill into the opening in the recess jig. Push
the power drill forward with force trying to drill as
straight as possible at the same time.
Only drill a millimeter or two at the beginning to get an

idea of how fast you are removing material while drilling.
Be sure to constantly remove steel shavings with an air
spray can or simply use your cutting fluid spray and a brush
of some sort.
111
Your goal is to drill into the bolt face so that you end up with a
recess that is 6mm +-1 deep at the EDGE of the bottom of the recess.
Measure this by using the depth rod of your caliper and have the
bottom of that rod butt up against the bottom at the edge of the
recess. When you measure at the center of the recess you might measure
around 8mm, the reason is that drill bits have a 118° degree tip
usually, hence the difference in dimensions center vs edge.
112
To help the charging handle go into the recess during
operation, use sand paper to deburr/ add a radius
to the edge of the recess entrance.
113
Preparing the Fire control group
BEWARE:
YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT THE PARTS
FOR THE 3D-PRINTED FIRE CONTROL GROUP ARE
PRINTED PROPERLY ON A CORRECTLY ASSEMBLED PRINTER.
FOLLOW THE ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY!
AN IMPROPERLY PRINTED OR INCORRECTLY INSTALLED
FIRE CONTROL GROUP CAN LEAD TO
UNSAFE FUNCTION OF THE FIREARM
INCLUDING ACCIDENTAL FIRING OF THE FIREARM.
When taking these 3D-printed fire control group parts off

the print bed, be very careful.
Do not damage the sear surfaces. Refer to the photo if you

are not sure where the sear surfaces are.
Take your time removing the support material.

These are delicate precision parts, treat them as such.
Refer to the included support removal videos.
114
Use a 4mm drill bit to drill out the holes of the
trigger, hammer and the disconnector. It is important to
drill straight. Drill as little as possible.
Drill carefully, stop and test whether the pin can pass
though the holes without excessive resistance before
drilling again.
You do not want the pins to be too loose.
This is especially true for the trigger and disconnector,

as the AR-15 trigger pin that will go through these two
components will be slightly smaller in diameter than the
DIN pin for the hammer.
115
Clear out the support material from the internal
channel of the trigger, take extra care to
remove the brim.
The disconnector must be able to move freely

inside the trigger channel without getting
stuck, this is very important, use sandpaper if
needed.
Again, do not damage the sear surfaces while you

clean up the parts.
116
If your disconnector spring does not fit into
its designated recess inside the channel of the
trigger because it is wider on the bottom, use
your 4mm drill and carefully remove some
material from the sides of the trigger channel.
117
Before going ahead take the DIN 84 screw and screw it
partially into the cavity on the face of the hammer,
once you made sure it does screw in, screw it out.
Mix up some JB Weld and use something like a nail or

toothpick to apply it into the hole. Add some JB weld
to the threads of the screw and screw it into the
hammer. It does not have to be completely flush with
the face of the hammer.
Don't screw it in deeper than the face of the hammer.
118
Add a good amount of JB weld to the top of the
screw.
After 12 hours of letting the JB weld dry, take
sand paper or a finer file and sand/file the
excess dried JB weld off the top of the screw so
that the front surface of the hammer is flat
again.
119
Take your safety selector drum
and the safety selector lever and
drill out the holes on these
parts with an 3mm diameter drill
bit.
120
Ensure that you remove any print debris or brim from
the drum, so that the locking / alignment tabs on the
levers can fit inside the slots on the drum.
Attach the lever to the drum. The correct orientation
is important, refer to the photos.
Insert the M3 30mm long socket head bolt through the
safety lever and drum.
Use a M3 nut to secure the two parts but do not over-

tighten the nut or the drum might get deformed.
121
Use a dremel tool with a metal cutting disc
to cut off the part of the socket screw
that is sticking out of the nut.
Remove the nut afterwards and then add some

JB weld to the threads on the end of the
screw.
122
Now screw the nut back on and then
add some more JB weld onto the nut.
Let the JB weld dry for at least 12

hours before further use of the fire
selector.
123
Modifying Chinese Glock Mag Springs
Text and pictures by BoostWillis
Instead of leaving it flat like in the

picture on the left,
bend the top coil with your pliers upward

to match the pitch of the coils below it
like shown in the right picture.
124
As you can see from the red guide lines, the
spring in its initial state on the left has a
bias toward one side.
Refer to the marked yellow boxes for where to

bend the spring with your pliers to correct it.
You want the top narrower coils to be centered

on top of the spring.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
125
Overall the spring is too wide causing unnecessary
friction inside the mag and robbing you of useful
spring pressure.
This is where the vise comes in.
Compress the spring in the vise as shown in multiple
spots along its length.
126
Ignore the narrower coils toward the top of the
magazine, but focus on the full width coils that make
up the main section of the magazine spring.
Use the magazine body as a guide.
If you slide the spring into the magazine body and
turn it upside down, you should be able to shake it
out without too much effort.
You don't need to get it so narrow that the tube

drops free.
Afterwards look down through the spring and identify
any coils that might have rotated out of alignment
with their neighbors and bring them back into
alignment.
127
Assembling a magazine
Gather a magazine body, a floor plate, a locking tab,

a follower and the modified magazine spring.
Clip the follower on top of the narrow end of the

magazine spring in the correct orientation.
128
Insert the magazine spring with the follower on top
into the magazine body.
While keeping the magazine spring inside the magazine

body push the locking tab onto the bottom of the
magazine spring so that it ends up being flush with
the bottom of the magazine body.
129
While pushing the magazine locking tab inside the
magazine body against the magazine spring pressure,
slide the magazine floor plate over the front on the
bottom of the magazine body and have the round
feature of the locking tab lock itself into the hole
of the magazine floor plate.
130
Assembling the lower
Get the 4mm drill bit and hand ream the hole on the lower
receiver that will hold the hammer pin. ( Hole near magwell)
Ream only as much as needed so the drill bit can go through.
Do not ream any more than that, as this will cause issues.
DON’T REAM THE HOLE FOR THE TRIGGER PIN (OTHER HOLE) IF YOU
CAN INSERT THE AR-15 TRIGGER PIN WITH SOME FORCE.
THE FIT FOR THE TRIGGER PIN HOLE NEEDS TO BE TIGHT.
A LOOSE TRIGGER PIN HOLE MAY CAUSE ACCIDENTAL BINARY FIRE.
131
Get the 9.5mm diameter drill bit and hand ream the hole on
the lower receiver through which the fire selector will go
into.
Ream only as much as needed so the drill bit can go through.
Do not ream any more than that, as this will cause issues.
132
Put the trigger spring onto the trigger the way you see in the
picture. Insert the disconnector spring into the trigger, if you
haven’t inserted it in there already. Push the disconnector in the
shown orientation into the trigger and hold it onto it against the
pressure of the disconnector spring.
Now hold that assembly together and insert it into the lower receiver.
While pushing this assembly through the bottom hole for the trigger on
the lower receiver, take your AR-15 trigger pin and push it through
the lower receiver as well as the lined up trigger and the
disconnector hole in the trigger.
133
Put the hammer spring onto the hammer as shown in the upper
picture. This will be challenging for you at first, but you
will manage.
Now push with the spring legs leading against the studs on
the trigger in the way shown on the picture.
You will have to fight against that spring pressure.
134
While holding the hammer in position against the
spring pressure, take the 4mm diameter DIN pin and
push it through the dedicated hole while trying to
align the hammer.
With the hammer in the up position apply grease to

the area where hammer and trigger touch each other.
135
Apply grease to the sear at the back of the
hammer as seen in the picture as well as some
grease onto the top sear surface of the trigger.
136
Take the fire selector assembly and apply grease to
the detent cutout area as you can see in the picture.
Now take the fire selector and push it through from

the left side of the lower receiver as you can see
it, in the picture.
137
With the fire selector in the position you see
in the picture, hold the lever in place and then
at the same time put the fire selector detent
with the sharp tip first inside the hole at the
bottom side of the lower receiver near the
safety selector indicators.
138
Take the fire selector detent spring
and put it into the dedicated hole
inside the top of the pistol grip.
139
While making sure the fire selector is in the position mentioned
previously and the fire selector detent still inside the hole, push
the pistol grip onto its mating surface and make sure the fire
selector spring goes against the bottom of the fire selector detent.
As you push against the spring pressure hold the pistol grip in place
and use the Socket Head Screw M6,25mm along with the External-Tooth
Lock Washer M6 DIN 6797 to screw the pistol grip into the lower
receiver. After having done this, you may put the pistol grip lid into
the bottom of the pistol grip in the case that you went with the 3D-
printed pistol grip that is included with the FGC-9 MkII design.
140
Insert the magazine catch button into
the hole you see in upper picture.
Insert the magazine catch spring into

the hole as you can see in the picture.
141
Take the magazine catch bar and push it into its cavity
against the spring pressure of the magazine catch spring and
try to allign the hole on the bar with the hole on the lower
receiver.
Push the magazine catch pivot pin through it.
Now take the feed ramp and put it in the orientation you can
see in the lower picture, into its dedicated square slot on
the top of the lower reciver near the front side.
142
While pushing down on the feed ramp as much as possible from the top,
use the Socket Head Screw M3,12mm to screw the feed ramp into place
with the appropriate Allen key.
It is absolutely important that you pushed as much as you can from the
top while screwing in the feed ramp to make sure that the the flat
side on the top side of the feed ramp does not stick put past the top
surface of the lower receiver.
Failing to do so will potentially prevent you from assembling the

lower receiver to the upper receiver and then later on cause issues
with the feeding of cartridges.
143
Assembling the barrel assembly
Get your headspacing jig and insert the three 16mm

shaft collars into the shaft collar pocket.
Get your barrel and insert a case or cartridge into

the chamber and make sure it is as deeply seated as
possible. Make sure it does not back out.
144
Insert the barrel through the shaft collars from the right
and let it stick out into the main cavity on the left side
as you can see in the picture.
You will then take your bolt assembly and slowly and
carefully move it into the cavity until the bolt face makes
contact with the inside of the cavity wall. Be sure to do
this as slowly and meticulously as possible as to not move
the case/cartridge and thus barrel further than it was than
at the exact moment when the bolt face touched / kissed the
end of the inside of the cavity.
145
Being extremely careful that you don’t move anything apart from the
bolt assembly, slide the bolt assembly out of the setup and
immediately tighten the grub screw of the center shaft collar.
Then go ahead and tighten the first and third shaft collar to the same
degree. Make sure you press the first and third shaft collar as close
to the center shaft collar as possible as to keep everything as
closely as possible so that the stack maintains its shortest possible
length. Once the center shaft collar can not be moved anymore you then
can go ahead and lift the barrel assembly out of the jig and tighten
the grub screws as hard as you can. The barrel assembly is now
assembled properly and your headspacing should be properly set.
146
Assembling the upper
Take the ejector and try to get it into

its designated slot on the inside of
the upper receiver.
Make sure to put it in there in the
shown orientation.
147
Align the hole on the ejector with the hole on the
underside of the ejector cavity and screw the Socket
Head Screw M3,16mm into place with the appropriate
Allen key.
MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT YOU ARE USING THE 16mm LONG
M3 SOCKET SCREW. If you accidentally screw in the
screw for the bolt assembly for example into this
place, you will damage the upper receiver.
148
Having made sure you screwed the ejector
into place and that the ejector is freely
pivoting inside the upper receiver,
get your charging handle and insert it into
the barrel retainer in the orientation
shown in the bottom picture.
149
If you have silicone spray on hand, spray
silicone spray into the charging handle
cavity on the barrel retainer.
Afterwards, get your barrel assembly and

with the muzzle side first push it through
the barrel retainer from the shaft collar
pocket side.
150
Making sure that the charging handle is in place in the
correct orientation and the barrel assembly sits inside its
pocket in the barrel retainer, push the upper receiver onto
the barrel retainer.
You may now take each of your 40mm M3 screws with each
having a M3 washer on them and use them to screw the barrel
retainer onto the upper receiver. Screw each screw lightly
at first, then go clockwise or in a cross-diagonal manner
screwing the screws tighter in an alternating manner. You
may need to change extensions on your socket tools to reach
all the way down into the barrel retainer cavity.
151
You might be unfortunate to only have access to
socket tools that are too wide and thus won’t be
able to reach all the way down,
in that case try to look for alternate socket
wrench tools until you find something that lets
you screw down the screws firmly into place.
152
Take your top rail and place it on top of
the upper receiver in the orientation shown
in the upper picture.
Now take seven of your 16mm M3 socket

screws and screw the top rail into place
with the appropriate Allen key.
153
Assembling the stock assembly
Insert the secondary buffer spring into its dedicated slot at the bottom of
the buffer tube. When you printed the buffer tube a piece of support that
looks like a rod should have been left. Use that rod piece to push the
secondary buffer spring firmly into place at the bottom of the buffer tube.
To make sure it is firmly in place, try to shake out the buffer spring.
If it doesn’t fall out while shaking the buffer tube violently, it is in

place adequately. If the secondary buffer spring falls out while shaking,
take your pliers and try to expand the last coil on the secondary buffer
spring. Now you will be able to firmly re-insert it into the buffer tube and
it should stay in place for sure.
154
Slide the stock over the buffer tube making sure that
the L shaped feature of the stock points down into
the direction of the hole at the end of the buffer
tube. Your goal is to align the hole on the buffer
tube end with the hole that goes through the main
section of the stock.
You should now be able to use the 30mm long

Socket Head Screw M4 to install the stock
onto the buffer tube.
155
After making sure that the M4 screw is
properly in place as you can see from the
top picture, take the butt plate and hold
it against the end of the stock.
156
Take your last two 16mm M3 socket screws
and install the butt plate onto the stock.
157
Main assembly
If you have silicone spray on hand, spray it onto the side and bottom
surface of the bolt assembly. Now push the bolt assembly
WITHOUT FIRING PIN INSTALLED, into the upper receiver.
There is a trick to inserting the bolt assembly.
You will have to go through the underside of the upper receiver with
your fingers and push the ejector against the inside of the upper
receiver as you push the bolt assembly in. During occasions when you
have your lower attached the upper, additionally you need to depress
the hammer with your finger, by going through the ejection port.
158
Pull the bolt assembly slightly out of the upper receiver, as to make sure
that you have room near the chamber area of the upper receiver.
This will make sure you can mate the lower receiver against the upper
receiver and prevent the feed ramp from bumping into the bottom of the bolt.
After you have pushed the lower receiver up against the bottom of the upper
receiver, you should be able to slide the lower receiver towards the front
and this should let you properly mate the upper to the lower.
If you encounter issues during this process, you will realize that the feed
ramp will be the main culprit. You will have to make sure you get the bolt
out of the way first and do the aforementioned maneuver to butt the lower up
against the main portion of the upper receive first, then slide the lower
receiver forward and then finally align the holes on the lugs of the upper
receiver with the holes on the ends of the lower receiver.
159
Once you were able to align the holes, you can insert
your last two 40mm M3 screws, along with M3 washers
from one side of the lower receiver and then secure
them on the other side with M3 nuts.
Once the lower is securely attached to the upper you

can push the main buffer spring onto the long bolt
piece towards the inside of the upper receiver.
160
Now push the stock assembly against the
back end of the main assembly and
secure it with the 4x 20mm M3 hex head
screws making sure you include 4x M3
washers.
161
Make sure you push the stock assembly firmly against the
backside of the main assembly while securing each screw. Not
doing so may cause unnecessary stress to the first two or
three screws as you are securing the last ones.
So make sure after you started screwing in the first screw,
to constantly hold the stock assembly against the main
assembly while screwing in the remaining screws.
Even though it may seem like you have completely assembled
your FGC-9, it is still not ready to be fired. Continue the
next steps on the following pages to complete your FGC-9
build to be able to safely test-fire!
162
Testing cartridge feeding
To make sure that your firearm functions properly when it comes to the
bolt picking up cartridges from the magazine and putting them into the
chamber each time the bolt comes froward, you need to test this before
even thinking about firing your FGC-9 with live ammo.
Follow the following steps to complete this test and see whether your
FGC-9 is functioning correctly.
If any of the 10 cartridges fail to properly go into chamber, you need

to fix the causing issues before you fire real ammo, otherwise your
FGC-9 won’t function reliably.
BEFORE YOU CONTINUE: MAKE SURE YOUR FGC-9

HAS NO FIRING PIN IN THE BOLT ASSEMBLY !
Lock your bolt back with your charging handle.
163
Take your magazine and load 10x cartridges
into it.
Insert your magazine into your FGC-9.
164
Look into the ejection port to ensure that
the magazine is properly in place with the
cartridge sitting properly at the top of
the magazine.
With a quick motion slap the charging

handle.
165
Look at the right side of your FGC-9 and see whether the bolt is
closed and you don’t see the cartridge being wedged. If you see that
that bolt is open/the cartridge is not properly in chamber, you need
to refer to the troubleshooting guide, to fix your firearm not feeding
reliably.
If the bolt is closed and all you can see through your ejection port
is the side of your bolt, you can continue with the next steps.
Remove the magazine now.
Lock your bolt open by using the charging handle, make sure
you keep the muzzle pointed downwards while doing this.
166
Now check whether the cartridge sits properly inside
the chamber. Tip your FGC-9 upwards and interact with
the charging handle / bolt assembly / ejector
to have the cartridge fall out of the chamber.
If your chamber is made well, your cartridge should

fall out with little manipulation.
If your chamber was made less than ideal, you need to
use a small slot screwdriver for example, to aid you
in getting the cartridge out of the chamber.
If you need a significant amount of force to do this,

it is a sign that your chamber has not been made well
and you should consider looking at the trouble
shooting guide of this guide and/or the ECM-rifling
guide to improve your chamber.
After you have removed the cartridge, repeat the last

few steps for the rest of your 9x cartridges still in
your magazine.
Only after you have made sure that your FGC-9 has
reliably put each of the 10x cartridges successfully
into the chamber, you should consider going ahead
with the completion of your FGC-9, let alone live
firing it.
167
Adjusting the firing pin protrusion
Take your firing pin spring stock

(6mm OD, 1mm Wire, 25mm +-1 Factory Length)
and cut off a 7.5mm section from it.
Use wire cutters. Afterwards make sure

Wear protective glasses or that the spring is
have a rag over the cutters about 7.5mm long.
while cutting, to prevent
the spring from flying off.
168
Use a rotary tool or a file
to grind the side flat
you just cut.
Make sure the end is

as flat as possible.
169
Put your spring over your firing pin
and insert the pin into your bolt.
Use a 3mm pin punch for example

or any tool that fits into the
back opening of the bolt,
to push the firing pin in.
170
Push in as hard as possible.
You need to measure how much the tip of your firing

pin sticks out while doing this. The tip needs to
stick out 1.5mm +-0.25. So between 1.25mm – 1.75mm
171
Use the depth measuring rod at the end of your
digital caliper to measure how far the tip sticks out
from the metal portion of the bolt face.
Your goal is to get the tip to stick out

1.25 – 1.75mm.
If the tip sticks out less,
try to shorten the firing pin spring, by cutting off
a quarter coil off it. Don’t forget to grind the end of the
spring flat after cutting.
If it sticks out more than 1.75mm,
you need to cut a longer spring from your spring stock.
172
Final bolt assembly
After you have completed the firing pin protrusion adjustment, insert
the firing pin with the properly made spring on it, into the bolt.
While making sure that the firing pin and spring do not fall out, tip
the bolt with the bolt face down and push against the back of the
firing pin with your finger and insert the 20mm M3 socket head screw
into the smaller hole on the side of the bolt. Use the appropriate hex
key tool to screw the socket head screw in as deep as possible.
173
Get your LOCTITE fluid/glue now and apply it to
the threads of the screw that are sticking out,
as well as on the inside of a M3 nut.
Now screw the nut onto the screw properly with
your socket tool while keeping the screw in
place with the Allen key/appropriate hex bit
tool.
If you don’t apply Loctite and don’t tighten the

nut properly, it may lead to the screw backing
out during operation and cause severe issues,
up to severe damage to the printed parts.
Now go ahead and assemble your FGC-9 MkII

according to the previous instructions,
but this time with the firing pin included.
174
Test firing and maintenance
Primer test
To make sure your firing mechanism works well without having to fire
live ammo, you can fire empty cases with live primers.
If you don’t have empty cases and live primers to assemble, you can
also take apart cartridges with a bullet puller, they are available on
Ebay, Amazon and Aliexpress. Make absolutely sure you have NO BULLET
or POWDER in your cases. Take 10x primed cases and fire them. Scrunch
up some kitchen towel paper into a ball and hold it against the muzzle
when you fire, that way you will significantly muffle the noise.
Make sure all 10 out of 10 primers fire. Clean your barrel afterwards!
If any of them didn’t fire, you need to investigate whether you might
need to shorten your firing pin spring or check for any other causes
for your firing mechanism not being able to reliably set off primers.
Empty Case with no Bullet! Only primer! No bullet or powder
Insert manually into chamber Pressing paper towels against

muzzle to muffle the sound
175
Where and into what to test fire
One of the questions you will ask yourself once you have
completed assembly is where you will fire the first dozen
shots to test your FGC-9 build.
Ideally you have a patch of land, a building, garage or
similar facility that is very far from inhabited areas.
If you do not have access to a remote firing area you can

use a basement.
The next question will be what you will shoot into.
This becomes especially tricky when firing in a basement.
One needs to fire into a so called bullet trap in that case.
A portable and easy to build solution is the following,
a video of one being used is included in the media folder.
Take a 60-liter plastic barrel and fill it with around

25kg of rubber mulch. Before the rubber mulch is poured into
the barrel you can JB weld a 5mm+ thick steel disc that has
the appropriate diameter down at the bottom, inside the
barrel, to guarantee that no pistol caliber projectile can
leave the bullet trap. Use a plastic barrel that has a
plastic lid so that you can simply use strips of electrical
tape to cover the bullet hole entrances.
176
Test firing
For the first few test shots I recommend you wear gloves and
ballistic eyewear or a welding helmet.
Only load one cartridge for the very first test shot.
Make sure to check that the bullet has left the FGC-9 barrel and
check that there are no cracks or damage of any form on the gun
after each of the first dozen shots. Inspect the firearm very
closely after each shot. If you encounter any issues while
testing the firearm or later down the line refer to the
troubleshooting page.
Maintenance & Repairs

When you have spare time, brush the inside of your barrel with an
appropriate brush from a cleaning kit and afterwards make sure
that you have a film of gun oil(W18/S-758/S-761) inside the bore.
Use the occasion when cleaning your barrel bore, to spray some
silicone spray into the inside of your firearm (mainly inside the
upper receiver where the bolt rides on), so that the 3D-printed
parts interact smoothly.
Keep dry-firing at a minimum as it can shorten the lifespan of

the 3D-printed fire control group and firing pin spring. When
dry-firing your FGC-9 MkII use 9x19mm snap caps to minimize wear.
Disassemble your FGC-9 MKII after every 200–300 rounds fired, to

inspect the feeding ramp, bolt assembly and firing pin for any
potential damages or deformation. Check that the firing pin
spring still ensures the right protrusion distance(1.5mm +-0.25).
In the case that anything breaks on your FGC-9 MkII,

first try to replace the part by 3D-printing it again.
If that is not possible because of time constraints or urgent

need on the use of your FGC-9 MkII, you can resort to a technique
called “PLA welding”. Take some PLA filament string and have it
act like soldering material and use your soldering iron to melt
the new PLA filament into a crevice or crack on your broken part.
This is a quick solution for repairing your 3D-printed parts. If
you can wait a day before you need the part, resort to using JB-
Weld as a filler material/glue for broken areas instead. Using
JB-Weld will result in a stronger repair. If after it dries(12-
24h) there is excess JB-WELD sand the repaired area first with
rough, then fine grit sandpaper to ensure smooth function.
177
Note: This section of the guide will continue to be updated if
new issues get uncovered over time by builders of the FGC-9 MkII.
Troubleshooting
Text and diagrams by IvanTheTroll
Check your primers to determine,

whether your FGC-9 is functioning properly.
Good Primer Hits - Note the little to no bulging

Note these hits are a little off-center, this is about the furthest
off-center the hits can be before the gun won't work!
Slightly Bulged Primers, these might be ok,

but if the gun has extraction issues,
consider these primers to be bulged and follow the steps.
Dangerous degree of bulging or punctured/ruptured primers,

refer to the diagrams to identify the causes of these issues.
178
When it comes to the issues the FGC-9 may face,
two stand out as most common:
Failures to extract (the fired casing does not leave the chamber)
Issues with the firing pin (the primer on the cartridge is hit but
does not ignite, or the firing pin is poking holes all the way through
primers)
These steps will walk you through the tips and tricks that have been
shown to help alleviate or completely solve these issues.
Troubleshooting Failures to Extract

The most common causes of FTEs(Failures to Extract) are:
a poorly cut/misshaped chamber and/or an issue with headspacing.
The frustrating part about solving this issue is that it’s hard to be
sure exactly which part (the chamber or headspacing) is to blame for
your FTEs.
Do note that these steps/instructions are meant for troubleshooting

guns that are using barrels made via the ECM process –if you have
these issues using a factory or reamed chamber, then your issue might
be due to your firing pin.
Skip to the section about firing pin issues and follow those steps.
This flow diagram should help you identify what your issue might be.
Based on which answer you arrive at in the flowchart, follow the

instructions after the flowchart.
179
Chamber is too tight/poorly cut
First off –if you made your barrel following the ECM process and you
didn’t use a tapered chambering rod, understand that this issue is
usually best resolved by using a tapered chambering rod.
Using a Ø9mm FLEX-HONE brush or a Ø10mm Chinese copy of it,

to smoothen the inside of your chamber might already fix this issue.
If you didn’t use the ECM process to make your barrel and the
flowchart lead you here, there are two things that can be wrong with
your chamber that can cause FTEs.
One is that the chamber itself being too tight –this can best be
resolved by cutting for 10 more seconds on the chamber (assuming you
used the ECM setup to make your barrel). The other thing is that your
chamber seat is very curved/poorly defined. You will be able to tell
which of these two things is happening by taking a live round and
letting the bolt slam it into the chamber.(Put Fire selector to SAFE!)
Take the round out and look at it. If the round is shiny around the
case mouth (where the bullet sits inside the case), then your chamber
seat is poorly defined. If the case mouth looks good, then it’s most
likely that your chamber is just too tight (especially if anywhere on
the case that isn’t the case mouth is shiny).
If you determine that your chamber is just too tight, go back to your
ECM setup and cut for 10 more seconds, then repeat the process of
checking if the chamber is too tight. If you determine that your
chamber seat is to blame, you probably cut your throat too wide during
the ECM process (stick closer to the specs in the documentation next
time). You will probably have to redo you barrel.
However, you can still try the troubleshooting tips in the

“Headspacing is wrong” section if you would like to make absolutely
certain it is your chamber that is the issue.
Your issue might be headspacing or the chamber
This is the worst spot to be in. I recommend you follow the steps from
the next section first, and if that doesn’t solve your issue, follow
the steps in the section above this one. There’s no good way to tell
what’s going wrong with your build, so you’ll have to check both–
however, the only time one of my builds ended up in this spot is when
I had a proper chamber, but I had too little headspacing (read the
next section to understand what this means).There is also a small
chance your issue is your firing pin itself–refer to the “Firing Pin
Troubleshooting” section below if you suspect this is the case.
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Headspacing is wrong / Headspacing is your issue
This is probably the easiest issue to check/resolve. First, you’ll
need to understand what “headspacing” is. Headspacing refers to the
distance between the face of the bolt and the rear end of the
cartridge case. When speaking in terms of the FGC-9, LESS headspace
means that the barrel is moving rearwards (towards the bolt), MORE
headspace means the barrel is moving forwards (away from the bolt).
Too little headspacing means that that bolt will ram a cartridge hard
into the chamber, and it will be the cartridge itself in the chamber
that stops the bolt. Too much headspacing means that the bolt won’t
actually be touching the rear end of the cartridge (or it will only
barely be touching it) –this is what would cause bulged primers and
could potentially be dangerous. Perfect headspacing is where the bolt
will push the cartridge fully into the chamber and be resting against
both the rear end of the cartridge AND the front wall of the upper
receiver at the same time. The steps that follow describe how to help
make sure your headspacing is where it is supposed to be.
On the FGC-9, you’ll want your headspacing to be 0.00mm or less
(meaning the bolt is resting against the rear end of the cartridge).
However, you want your headspacing to be as close to 0.00mm as
possible. You can establish this using the FGC-9 headspacing jig, but
sometimes the headspace you set with that tool won’t be quite perfect
–you may still need to decrease headspace some.
Always start with the headspacing that you set on the jig, and after
testing you can adjust from there.
The jig should never be causing too little headspace –if you suspect
your issue is having too little headspace, reset your barrel using the
jig and confirm it before moving the barrel forward.
181
NOTE: If you suspect you have too much headspacing (which can happen
sometimes after using the jig), first check that the bolt is not
getting stopped by the charging handle –when the bolt is all the way
forward, the charging handle should NOT be touching the bolt face. The
easy way to check this is to let the bolt and charging handle go all
the way forward.
The charging handle should be able to move forward and backward a

little without moving the bolt at all. If your charging handle is
touching the bolt when the bolt is closed, you should grind down the
long leg on your charging handle or drill the recess in the bolt face
a little deeper.
Finally, if you’ve made sure that you started with a barrel that was
set up on the headspacing jig, and that the charging handle is not
touching the bolt face when the bolt is closed, you are ready to make
a change to your headspace. Remove the barrel and shaft collar
assembly. Make a visual note of where the barrel sits in relation to
the shaft collars. Loosen the set screws on the shaft collars. Move
the barrel rearward (towards where the bolt would be) relative to the
shaft collars. If the shaft collars feel tight or the barrel won’t
move in them, make sure the set screws are loosened and tap the barrel
with a hammer to move it.
After ensuring that the barrel has moved backward a little (when I say
a little, I mean like 0.5mm –it only needs to move a tiny amount),
tighten the shaft collars and reinstall the barrel. If primers are
still getting bulged or you are still having FTEs, follow the
flowchart again.
182
Firing Pin Troubleshooting
If you are experiencing light primer strikes, ruptured primers, or a
failure to extract that you could not solve by following steps from
the flowchart above, this section should be able to help you. First
off –the FGC-9 runs best with about 1.5mm of firing pin extension.
This value does not need to be very precise, and depending on your
setup and ammo used, a firing pin with as little as 1.25mm of
extension or as much as 1.75mm of extension might work fine. This
section will help you fix issues with your firing pin.
Light Strikes
The most common cause for light primer strikes (the primer gets hit
but the round doesn’t go off) is that something is wrong with the
firing pin. There is a small chance that the issue is headspacing
(covered in the “Troubleshooting Failures to Extract (FTE)”,
so be aware your barrel might be set too far forward in the shaft
collars – but don’t worry about changing this until you’ve made sure
your firing pin is correctly set up. This flow diagram should help you
identify what your issue might be. Based on which answer you arrive at
in the flowchart, follow the instructions after the flowchart.
183
Your Firing Pin Channel is too far off Center
This is an annoying situation to be in. I’ve tried a huge number of
things to try and fix this problem, but the only real solution is to
make a new bolt. Pay very close attention to drilling the firing pin
channel straight and ensure that the end of the lower bolt rod (the
one with the firing pin channel) that you drilled into (the side
facing up in the jig) is the side of the rod that faces forward
whenever you mate your rods together.
The Firing pin Length is an Issue

First thing –check that your firing pin has the correct overall
length(about 67.50mm).
If your firing pin is too long or too short, you can have light
strikes. Go back to the firing pin documentation and ensure all the
dimensions in the instructions line up with your firing pin. If either
end of your firing pin is too long, you can trim it down slightly and
check if that fixes your issue. If either end of your firing pin is
too short, you will need to make a new firing pin and pay closer
attention to the instructions –more often than not, it’s getting the
shaft collar in the right spot that is the issue.
Firing Pin is FUBAR

If you ended up here, your firing pin channel is either over 3mm off
or your firing pin is totally wrong. Assuming your bolt isn’t way off,
then you need to redo your firing pin and slow down to read the
documentation/get the measurements right.
Firing pin Channel is too Tight

Take the drill bit you used to drill out your firing pin channel.
Using your drill, drill from the front of the bolt, spinning the drill
at a high speed while moving it in and out of the hole. Apply a little
silicone oil to the firing pin hole and test again.
Your Firing Pin Channel is off Center and Needs

Fitting
So –your firing pin channel is off center, but at least some portion
of your firing pin indent is still hitting the middle of the primer.
You may be having inconsistent primer hits because your off-center
firing pin channel is causing the shaft collar on the firing pin to
drag against the internal cavity of the bolt housing. Inspect your
firing pin/bolt housing and look to see if the shaft collar is in
contact with the bolt housing. If it is, you can use a rotary
tool/Dremel tool/drill to try and remove a little material from the
bolt housing so that the firing pin shaft collar won’t be dragging
against the bolt housing. Just be careful not to remove too much
material!
184
Firing pin Channel is Obstructed
Take the drill bit you used to drill out your firing pin channel.
Using your drill, drill from the front of the bolt, spinning the drill
at a high speed while moving it in and out of the hole. Apply a little
silicone oil to the firing pin hole and test again.
Firing pin is Bent

This is an indicator that your headspace might be wrong or your firing
pin might have been too long –a firing pin that is too long,
especially when headspace isn’t right, can puncture primers, which can
bend firing pins.
If your firing pin has bent, you can try to straighten it back out
(and then shorten it to the specs called out in the documentation),
but I recommend you make a whole new firing pin. Refer to the previous
section (Troubleshooting Failures to Extract (FTE)) to check your
headspace, and refer to the documentation for making a new firing
pin/straightening your old one.
Punctured Primers
If you are having punctured primers, you should stop using your FGC-9
and fix this issue. The two things that could cause punctured primers
are an issue with headspace and a firing pin with too much
extension(too long). If you have punctured primers, first make sure
headspace is set correctly -refer to the previous section
(Troubleshooting Failures to Extract (FTE)). If you still have
punctured primers after ensuring headspace is good, then you will need
to make a new firing pin (or identify which end of your firing pin is
too long and trim it down to size according to the instructions for
making your firing pin).
Failure to Extract due to Firing Pin

This issue is rather uncommon, but I have noticed it before. You can
have failures to extract because a firing pin has too much extension.
The quick and easy way to check this issue out is to measure how much
extension your firing pin has. The best way to do this is to remove
the barrel from your gun and let the hammer hit the firing pin –when
it comes to a rest, it will be pushing the firing pin to its extended
position. While looking from the front of the gun (with the barrel
removed), take a note of how far the firing pin is sticking out past
the face of the bolt –it should only be 1.25 - 1.75mm.
If it is sticking out a long distance, you might want to make sure
that the tip of the firing pin isn’t pointed (it should be a flat
shape on the tip), and make sure to grind it down a little so that
about 1.5mm of the firing pin is sticking out past the bolt face.
185
Troubleshooting Feeding Issues
If you are experiencing feeding issues with your FGC-9, one of many
factors could be involved. Listed below are some of the most common
causes, as well as what can be done to mitigate these issues.
• Magazine Related Feeding Issues
Description: Some FGC-9 builds can be picky with their
magazines – most often, magazine related feeding issues will
cause cartridges to miss the chamber entirely, leading to them
popping upwards and ending up between the bolt and the front
wall of the upper receiver. Other magazine feeding issues will
cause the bolt to shove rounds into the feed ramp and jam.
Solution: Try testing out different magazines. If issues
persist using 3D Printed magazines, OEM Glock magazines, and
PMAGs or other decent quality magazines, then your issue is
likely not magazine related.
• Bad Print/Warping/Incorrect Assembly
Description: Some feeding issues can happen simply due to
errors in printing or assembly of your FGC-9. The most common
print issues are warping – if your lower receiver warps
significantly, it will cause feeding issues. If your upper
receiver doesn’t have supports removed properly from the
pocket that that barrel sits inside, it will cause feeding
issues. If the recommended layer heights are not employed,
tolerances can stack between printed parts and you might have
feeding issues. Another common issue is not fully seating the
feed ramp – ensure your feed ramp is pushed to the bottom of
the pocket, that there is no support material remaining in its
pocket, and that it is screwed in tight.
Solution: If you can’t nail down your feeding issue, try
reprinting any parts that may have warped, ensure all supports
were removed from your upper and lower and reassemble
everything, and double-check that you didn’t skip any steps in
the assembly process described in this document.
• Bolt-Related Feeding Issues
Description: The bolt on the FGC-9 can be to blame for some
feeding issues. The first couple things to check – make sure
that the firing pin spring hasn’t collapsed by pushing on the
end of the firing pin – you should feel spring
pressure/resistance before the firing pin protrudes from the
bolt face. After verifying that there is spring pressure,
remove your firing pin from the bolt – assuming you used
Loctite on the firing pin retaining screw, the screw and nut
will be stiff and hard to separate, but with a little strength
they will come apart.
186
Some bolts have issues that can cause feeding trouble – with a little
fitting, these issues can be resolved. Any bolt can have these same
sorts of issues show up – so if your feeding issue isn’t the result of
bad magazines, your lower isn’t warped, your upper had supports
removed, and your feed ramp is properly seated, trouble shoot your
bolt using the following instructions:
If your feeding issues look like rounds are just getting stuck/wedged
into the barrel and just quite won’t chamber, or if your rounds get
badly damaged when feeding, then you likely have a bolt-related
feeding issue.
Figure 1: Example of round badly damaged by bolt-related feeding issue
Solution: There are two very important aspects when it comes to

ensuring your FGC-9 bolt is in good working order – the round pickup
(the leg at the bottom of the bolt face) needs to be both square and
flush with the bolt face, and the bolt face itself must be free of any
snags. Begin by checking for snags, since it’s easy to do. Take a
cartridge case (or complete cartridge, either works) and hold it at a
45 degree angle to the bolt face. If you look closely, the rear end of
the cartridge has a little 45 degree angle on the rear end of it –
you’ll want to hold that face flat against the bolt. Starting from the
bottom of the round pickup, slide the cartridge up the bolt, applying
moderate pressure.
The case may drag some if the bolt face isn’t perfectly smooth, but
that’s ok. What you’re checking for is any point where the case snags
– where it locks against the bolt face and won’t move up any higher.
187
Snags commonly show up between the round pickup and lower bolt rod and
around the firing pin channel. Pay close attention when sliding the
rounds past these points on the bolt. On a good bolt, you may feel a
little ‘click’ or some drag in these spots, but the cartridge should
not lock, snag, or feel like it’s digging in.
Figure 2: While holding the case at a 45-degree angle to the bolt face, apply moderate pressure (pushing the case against
the bolt face) while sliding the case upwards. The case should not snag at any point, but a little resistance or some bumps is
fine.
If you experience snags, pay close attention to where they happen – if

it’s at a pockmark in the bolt face, at the firing pin hole, where the
round pickup meets the lower bolt rod, etc. The round consistently
snags on the bolt face in a certain spot, you will have to smooth
things out. It is recommended that you use a Dremel tool with a new
cutoff wheel designed for cutting metal, but a normal grinding tool in
a Dremel or battery drill can also be used. Try and visually identify
the point where the cartridge is snagging. It will usually look like
an indentation, a sharp edge, or a burr. A sharp edge or sharp chamfer
on the firing pin hole can cause snags easily.
188
Figure 3: Example of a firing pin hole with a sharp edge. If your firing pin hole has a sharp edge like this and you are having
feed issues or feel snagging when sliding cases on the bolt face, you will need to smooth out the top edge of the hole.
Once you’ve made sure of where the snag is happening, take your Dremel
tool or drill and smooth this area out. Make very light cuts. Coloring
the area of the snag with sharpie marker can help you identify where
you are removing material from. Wherever your snag is happening,
ensure that the metal you are removing is making the snag less likely
by smoothing things out – don’t add any new gouges. If your firing pin
hole is causing snags, then you can use the edge of your Dremel
cutting wheel/grinding tool to ‘blend’ the edge of the hole out –
using light cuts, make the edge of the hole more rounded/smooth.
Remove a little metal, then drag a case across the bolt face and check
for snags. Repeat as necessary, until the case doesn’t snag any more.
Avoid removing excessive material from the bolt face, especially
around the firing pin hole – you just want to blend out any sharp
edges.
The recommended technique for smoothing out the sharp edge on a firing
pin hole is as follows:
Take a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel and your bolt. Using slow,
gentle swooping motions starting from the middle of the firing pin
hole to smooth out the top of the firing pin hole.
189
Figure 4: Rounding out the top of the firing pin hole. Use light cuts, starting from the middle of the firing pin hole, and scoop
up towards the top of the firing pin hole.
After a few swooping cuts, check to see if your round still snags. If
it does, you may need to either round out the sides of the firing pin
hole, or just round out the top a little bit more. For reference, this
is as much rounding as the top of the firing pin hole should ever
need:
Figure 5: Top of firing pin hole rounded out. Try not to remove more material that this.
190
If you have removed as much material as seen in the previous picture,
you should try rounding out the sides of the firing pin hole a little
– this can be accomplished using a different technique:
Starting from the left or right side of the firing pin hole, make
light cuts in an arc, following the curvature of the firing pin hole.
Figure 6: Use gentle, light cuts in an arc around the firing pin hole to round out the edges of the hole.
After a few passes, check and see if your case is still snagging. At
this point, you may feel drag or the bump from the rounded edge you’ve
made on the bolt face, but there should be no hard snagging like you
felt before. Try not to exceed the amount of material removed in the
following picture:
Figure 7: Maximum suggested removal from bolt face.
After making these cuts and doing some tests by dragging cases up the
bolt face, you should be ready to do some basic feeding tests – refer
to the “Testing cartridge feeding” section of the manual to test
feeding. With even a little rounding on the sharp edge of a firing pin
hole, feeding issues can disappear.
191
After checking for any snags, check the round pickup itself – the
shape of the pickup is very important, and if it’s done wrong then all
manner of strange feeding issues can occur.
Figure 8: Bolt that is square, but not flush.
If your bolt face is square, but not flush, it just needs a little
file work or Dremel tool work to make the parts flush.
Figure 9: Bolt that is neither square nor flush
If your bolt face is neither square nor flush, you will need to use a
Dremel tool or a file to make it both square and flush. You may need
to use a little JB Weld afterwards to bridge any gap between the lower
bolt rod and the round pickup.
192
Figure 10: Bolt that is flush and square
If your round pickup is both flush and square, then your issue isn’t
your round pickup – unless your pickup is sticking too far down. If
your pickup extends more than 0.25mm below the height of the rib on
the bolt housing, you might have to grind it down a little.
Figure 11: The height of the bottom of the round pickup should align with the height of the rib on the bottom of the bolt
housing.
193
Out-of-battery discharge
The FGC-9 can fire a significant distance out of battery.
This is an intentional design decision, as leaving a large ‘go-zone’

for the hammer to be able to fire a cartridge, ensures that the
builder can deviate from specs for the firing pin, bolt and chamber
dimensions and still have a reliable build.
As with many improvised firearms, this trade-off is made such that the
firearm is easier to build and more reliable with a wide range of
deviation from the spec, but at the cost of some level of safety.
Out of battery discharges are a failure where a cartridge that isn’t
fully seated in the chamber is set off by the hammer.
Because the cartridge isn’t fully supported by the chamber, the side
walls of the cartridge will blow out, venting gas pressure and some
small shrapnel from the breech of the barrel.
This type of malfunction is not uncommon in firearms, especially

improvised firearms – however, because the FGC-9 uses plastic for its
receiver, out of battery discharges will seriously damage the upper
receiver and disable the gun and require repairs whereas out of
battery discharges in most steel constructed 9x19mm firearms just
leave debris to clear and the weapon is ready to continue shooting.
So long as the shooter wears safety glasses and does not place their
hands, face, or other soft tissue over the ejection port of their
FGC-9, out of battery discharges pose relatively low risk of injury
with the FGC-9 design.
The main cause for Out-of-battery discharges in previous cases with

earlier FGC-9 MkII builds, were the usage of third party firing pins
and firing pin springs.
With third party components you have to be absolutely sure that they
meet the specifications described in this guide. Otherwise you are
risking malfunctions and even severe damage to your gun and yourself.
194

FGC-9 MkII Guide

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The GataLog

Document version: 1.5

Author of this document:

Co-Designers of the FGC-9 MkII:

Special thanks to:

It is important to realize that the FGC-9 is an improvised firearm.

To eliminate potential issues right from the beginning,

It is utmost critical to understand the shortcomings of

You must read and understand especially this section!

Technical specifications and features ............................... 5

Single-point sling mount

Ambidextrous 3D-printed SEMI/SAFE

Pistol grip with acessory compartment

NATO accessory rail

If you had success in producing your FGC-9 or simply

Even a tiny donation will be appreciated. Any funds donated

Donation links of other developers of the community:

These settings were optimized for Creality Ender 3 printers in

The FGC-9 was designed to be printed in PLA or PLA+.

Recommended Filament type: PLA (Recommended PLA brands on page 22)

The orientation of the parts in the slicer program will load up as

For Cura users, another recommended settings change is on page 17.

Fan Speed: 100%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Skirt

Charging Handle Bushing

Fan Speed: 100%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Fan Speed: 80%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Fan Speed: 100%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Drilling Jig Hole Half

Fan Speed: 100%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Fan Speed: 100%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Fan Speed: 100%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Only for this part

Fan Speed: 100%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Skirt

Only print for weld option

Fan Speed: 50%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Only print for weld option

Weldless Bolt Grinding Jig

Fan Speed: 80%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Only print for weldless option

Weldless Bolt Housing

Fan Speed: 50%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Brim

Only print for weldless option

Fan Speed: 50%

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Skirt

Fan Speed: 0% / OFF

Build Plate Adhesion Type: Skirt