WIP - Functional P08 Luger Magwell... for reasons.

Work-in-progress - Making a P08 Luger magazine well assembly.  Why?  To use P08 Luger magazines, duh!  I want a pistol caliber carbine that uses Luger magazines.  But first, a quick look at my design process.

Directory of old, obsolete files

Close enough to work with.

I usually start out with a reference which I download from some online repository such as Grabcad.  The P08 Luger frame I used may be in spec, but it does not translate directly 1:1 when printed.  I used the magazine body to get a rough shape and worked from there.  All those "p08_magwell_*" represents a test and a subsequent improvement.  It's a slow and tedious process.  I have also played around with a 3d-printed mag-catch but was unsatisfied with the results.  I think one is possible, but it would not be compact - it would have to be some bulky AR-Glock mag style mag catch that sticks out of the side, which would be fine for a carbine design but not a compact pistol.

The current iteration utilizes a regular p08 mag catch and spring.  I don't like the flat spring as you'll see below - it's really finicky.  Actually - one of my previous designs uses a clever (if I do say so myself) install process where I got rid of the flat spring and utilized an AR15 disconnector spring.  You just push the mag-catch deep in, rotate it and let go.  But again, that needs more space for a coil-spring housing and it really gets in the way of the trigger finger.  I guess those German engineers knew what they were doing.

p08_magwell_1_02b - spring housing is off.

Testing new spring housing position.

Added angular cut and some efficiency modifications.

Also added spring channel.

Properly contoured to the p08 Luger - and it is print-efficient.

The angle of the magazine is so extreme that it will not fit in a regular AR15 with a simple adapter block.  The lower itself must be re-designed to fit the magazine.  Eventually I will release the p08 magwell as a stand-alone model, my own custom version of U-Bolt AR15 lower, and a Sten magwell.  My ultimate goal is design a semi-auto MP-18 that utilizes both p08 stick magazines and drum magazines.  I don't think the original MP-18s took the stick mags, but mine will.

Still have lots of work to do.

See also: Glock magazine Sten on Reddit, which kind of inspired me.