One of the main things that got me into 3d design was when a fan of paintball brand designed a SLS Nylon 3d printed paintball gun body for me. This was for the mechanical paintball gun the “Emek.” Also known as the “Etha 2” when set up with electronics.
The Emek and Etha2 utilized a nylon with glass plastic shell around the metal core and trigger frame around other metal components.
The manufacture released the files for the plastic body shell. Their design had and issue, both for 3d printing, and just for their own injection molded production. The feedneck stub that fed the paintballs kept giving out and warping and jamming paintballs.
Instead of issuing a recall, they issued a free upgrade program, offering the plastic shells with a much thicker feedneck stub. You will see that transition with my designs as well.
The original emek body I had designed for me! And in various material. At one point I ordered a print of every single type of material I could find on 3dHubs.com! Back when 3d hubs was a source for finding independent manufacturers.
Out of everything I tried I preferred SLS nylon with glass the most. I think the highest quality prints of that even held up successfully over time despite the design flaws from the manufacturer.
This is what I called the Trash Cat design. I chopped up the body to make it a bit more slim and lighter weight, then took a scan of a rat skeleton and a possum skull and sculpted them to be easier to print and more durable, and added them to the design. Also featuring a pentagram back cap, trigger, barrel tip, demonic eye covers that I all designed.
I had a lot of fun with this. All gold parts by yours truly.
I eventually designed my own feedneck with mixed results. The idea was to keep it workable in PETG and as durable as possible. It’s really hard to make PETG invincible to the blow of a paintball, but I sure tried.
I called this design the Carbide, which is another name for Piranha.
I did these as a joke and they are extremely popular as far as a paintball design goes. I just copied some mainstream paintball gear and made it accessible for the masses. I didn’t do my best and they still seem to love it.
I designed an adapter to let the Emek and Etha2 take TIPX paintball magazines instead of using a hopper. This allowed aggressive speedball players to play with magazine fed military simulation nerds with out the fascist cosplay aspects.
This is all just a taste I did a lot more.