3D Printed CETME/HK Bending Jig And Mandrel

Here are the files and instructions for my CETME/HK bending jig and mandrel.

The jig and mandrel portions are made to have 1/2" hardwood dowels running through
them for alignment, I recommend clearing the holes with a 1/2" drill bit first. The holes
on the ends are sized for 1/4" bolts, through holes on the mandrel, 1/4-20 threaded on
the jig. You could probably force the threads in, but I recommend using a tap.

I hadn't thought of it until now, but the mandrel and filler portions of the set could
probably also be used as a straightening mandrel if your receiver is already bent.

Thingiverse link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4614385

Recommended print settings. It's printed in eSun PLA+, standing on end, .16 layer
height, 8 walls, 15% Gyroid infill, .45mm line width(with .4 nozzle), 107% wall flow and
120% infill flow to "overstuff" the layers for better layer adhesion, a higher than normal
220°C and only 70% cooling fan, again for better layer adhesion. These are the basic
setting for all my "strong" parts. Using these setting I get significantly stronger prints
than the "standard" print settings, at the cost of a not quite as smooth surface finish.

Based on a user review, I recommend printing the two piece version, even if you have a
big printer. Having two pieces allows you to adjust for length in case the holes in your
flat aren't exactly on, or your printer prints a little out of spec.
So that...actually..worked? I'm always a little surprised when my harebrained schemes
actually work the way they're supposed to, and my 3D printed CETME folding jig worked
nearly perfectly. There are going to be a lot of pictures in this post...

Here are the main pieces of the jig. As I said in my last post, the mandrel portion is
made from more pieces than it needs to be because I changed my mind halfway
through printing and didn't want to reprint everything, so I just printed the extra bits and
glued them on. The lower jig has clearance cutouts that should work for CETME and
G3 flats, although I goofed on the ejection port location and had to do some grinding on
the jig. I'll update the files for that before I post them. Each part has two 1/2" hardwood
dowels connecting and aligning the pieces. I didn't even bother gluing them together.
The holes on the ends are sized for 1/4" bolts, through the mandrel and threaded into
the lower jig.

It's printed in eSun PLA+, standing on end, .16 layer height, 8 walls, 15% Gyroid infill,
.45mm line width(with .4 nozzle), 107% wall flow and 120% infill flow to "overstuff" the
layers for better layer adhesion, a higher than normal 220°C and only 70% cooling fan,
again for better layer adhesion. These are the basic setting for all my "strong" parts(the
only difference with my printed receivers is that I use 99% infill there). Using these
setting I get significantly stronger prints than the "standard" print settings, at the cost of
a not quite as smooth surface finish. With these settings, if my prints fail, they crack
through the part, or just kind of mush over, I do NOT get any layer separation. People
tend to think of PLA as a weak and brittle filament, but the reality is that it has nearly
twice the tensile strength of ABS and PETG, and more compression strength than either
of the others. It's biggest drawback is that because it is so rigid, it tends to crack in
situations where ABS or PETG would just flex.
There are four more pieces to the jig not pictured above. The top half of the mandrel
portion of the jig is undersized so that the sheetmetal has room to bend. But, the whole
point of this jig is to keep the flat straight as it bends, so there are some thin filler pieces
to fill the gap between the mandrel and the sheetmetal in the later stages of the bending
process.

Here's where they fit on the mandrel:

I pressed a little, then moved the bar and pressed some more. A little bit on this side...
A little bit on that side...
I went back and forth about 10 times, trying to keep things even. I actually did very little
pressing right in the middle, most of it was at the ends. Once I got most of the way
there, about what you see in the pic above, I put the filler pieces into the jig. It was a
tight fit and I had to (very) carefully tap them in with a hammer.
With the spacers in, it was back to the press for more back and forth. Once the magwell
starts to close up, you've got to start getting creative with your press tools. "Whatever is
closest and will fit" is the method of tool selection that generally I use. You want to try to
keep as much surface area as you can, the more the load is spread out, the better.

With pressure on the jig, I gently tapped around the whole thing with a rubber mallet,
just helping the sheetmetal form around the mandrel a little more. At this point, I
decided that it was as pressed as it was going to be. The flat and mandrel were
pressed tight against the bottom jig and there was no where left to go.
Since the whole point of all of this was to try to keep the bend straight and even, and
keep the receiver shaped properly, how'd we do? I'd say pretty good.
After taking the bolts out, I had to use a rubber mallet to get everything apart, and I had
to hammer the mandrel out of the receiver. I got a slight wave in the sheetmetal above
the ejection port, but that's mostly due to my putting the cutout in the wrong place on the
jig. It's also much more noticeable here than it is in real life. Look Ma, I made a gun!
(from a legal standpoint anyway)
It turns out that the lower jig is also great for holding things while you're welding too. I
put my recovered G3 stock attachment weldment in the back of the receiver, used a
piece of copper tubing as a backer for the front portion, clamped on a whole lot of Vice
Grips, and welded it all up.

Even though it should be Tigged to be correct, I Mig welded everything because that's
what I have at the moment. I've spent a whole lot of time doing sheetmetal work on
cars, so welding up a receiver this thick was no problem. The welds weren't factory Tig
pretty, so I ground them all down and this is what I ended up with:
The true test of a CETME/HK folded flat is the bolt drop test. Basically, you drop the
bolt carrier through the receiver and it should freely drop through with no interference or
drag. I checked it after every step along the way. So how'd I do? Fresh off the jig:
Perfect. Tack welded: Perfect. Fully welded: Perfect. As best as I can tell, this receiver
is as close to perfectly shaped as a home build can get.

And what of our jig, how did it hold up? Pretty good. One of the add on end pieces I
superglued on the mandrel came off, but it was a glue failure, not a print failure(the files
I'll post will have that as one piece). The lower just has a few scrapes in it, and a
mushed spot where the ejection port flares out and that's about it, no other damage(and
I'll fix the ejection port cutout in the file before I post it). This thing worked so well that it
could probably be done in a bench vice or with C-clamps, if you have some big enough,
or possibly even by using 1/4" All Thread and some nuts to pull the two parts together
with C-clamps for the middle.

Having the settings optimized for strength goes a long way towards getting the most out
of PLA. A lot of people don't look any further than wall thickness and infill density, but
there's a lot more to it than that. CNC Kitchen on Youtube has a whole series of videos
on how adjusting some lesser used settings can make your prints stronger, and he goes
into a lot of depth on settings that most people leave on default. I used his videos as
guidelines for optimizing my printer.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiczXOhGpvoQGhOL16EZiTg
Note: Print time with 8 walls, .16 layers(where my printer prints strongest) and 15%
Gyroid infill was around 72 hours(24hr each for the jig and 12 each for the mandrel
parts), and used around 250m of filament(a standard 1Kg spool of PLA is around 330m
long). Gyroid typically takes longer to print than other infill patterns, but provides
strength and distributes load equally in all directions instead of just in one or two like
most of the infill patterns. At $24/spool for eSun PLA+ on Amazon, it costs about $20 in
materials to print this jig.

Note: Gyroid infill tends end up denser and gives you a lot more strength for a given
infill percentage than other patterns. If you use a standard infill pattern, you'll need to
up your infill percentage. You also need to pay attention to the infill vs. direction of print.
If it's printed standing on end (which I recommend), standard infill will not add hardly any
strength because the infill's strength is perpendicular to the direction you're pressing so
there isn't much crush resistance. Gyroid infill is equally strong in all directions, so it
works well regardless of the print orientation.

Note: Filler Pieces

I was kind of surprised that I didn't knock any over, they definitely need good bed
adheasion. I always place them so that the longer way goes front to back on the bed,
and I use a ton of Brim for good measure. It can also help to slow the print speed down
so there is less force trying to push the print around.

Note: Settings From the Thjingiverse link:

"It's printed in eSun PLA+, standing on end, .16 layer height, 8 walls, 15% Gyroid infill,
.45mm line width(with .4 nozzle), 107% wall flow and 120% infill flow to "overstuff" the
layers for better layer adhesion, a higher than normal 220°C and only 70% cooling fan,
again for better layer adhesion. These are the basic setting for all my "strong" parts.
Using these setting I get significantly stronger prints than the "standard" print settings, at
the cost of a not quite as smooth surface finish."