If only they'd had this legislation sooner perhaps a tragedy could have been avoided. Wait, how many of the Bondi Beach firearms were 3D printed? Oh, that's right -- NONE!
/s
Does that "every way" include respecting your privacy and not locking your data into a proprietary undocumented format?
I will grant that FreeCAD is not as polished as F360 (though it has improved significantly in the last couple years). It also forces you to be more disciplined about design and especially sketch constraints (which I consider a good thing). But I have not found a significant productivity difference between FreeCAD and F360 (once I spent the time to understand FreeCAD's way of doing things).
Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the $0 stamps, but it has kind of ruined the cachet of "Two Stamp Tuesday". lol
Build details: DB9-22 (Phoenix Design Works SS receiver) in Siraya PPA-CF, Carbon Folder stock, MM Soaked Noodle grip, mag and grips in PCTG. FTN.5 Rimfire Flowthrough in Siraya PPA-CF (annealed). I didn't appreciate how big the FTN.5 was until I printed it, but I really like the looks on this build (makes it look much more "serious" than just a 22LR plinker).
With Unseen Killer's help, I was able to determine that my Franken 9 problems were entirely due to using printed Sten mags. There was a different problem that affects only milsurp mags, but that's fixed in UK's latest drop. If you're using milsurp mags, print the latest frame and you should be good to go.
The problem with printed mags is that the dimensions deviate significantly from production magazine drawings. Every design I checked was wider at the feed lips and flared more steeply than specs call for. Most are also about 1mm shorter font-to-back. As a result, they won't seat deep enough to reach the mag catch or feed correctly (or at all). To be clear, there's nothing the Franken 9 can do to fix this -- the incompatibility is with the Glock slide itself.
I didn't want to print new mags just for this build, but curiosity got the best of me. I remixed a "spec-ish" version of the DMB Sten v1.1 and squirted a test print in PLA Pro. With that the Franken 9 is able to feed 100% reliably in dummy round function testing. I haven't been able to range test yet, but if that goes well, I'll post my spec-ish Sten mag remix for anyone that wants a non-milsurp option.
After a week on the struggle bus, I think I'm going to throw in the towel on the Franken 9. I love the concept and there are some really clever design elements. The problem is that I just can't see how to get standard printed Sten mags to work reliably. With a modified mag catch, I was able to get my build to accept a printed DMB Sten mag and feed dummy rounds. But it's hard to get the mag to lock in (because it has to be held right up against the bottom of the slide) and it's very easy to induce a failure just by bumping the mag.
The fundamental problem seems to be that printed Sten mags present the rounds about 0.8mm lower than Glock mags. That means the feed protrusion on the slide just barely catches the rim of cartridge in the magazine. It can work, but there's no margin. Mag fit relative to the slide has to be absolutely perfect. It might work better with surplus magazines (I don't have any to test). It also wouldn't be too hard to remix the printed mags to be a little more compatible, but I'm just not eager to print off a set of "one build only" magazines.
Though I'd really dislike the aesthetics, I think a version of this using Glock mags would be a definite improvement in function/reliability.
My revised mag catch is up on Odysee if anyone wants to give it a try: https://odysee.com/@KopsisEngineering:a/Franken9-Revised-Magazine-Catch:e
Are you running a milspec trigger or aftermarket? Any other trigger shenanigans like a super safety? I'm not sure I understand "lining up the trigger springs and disconnect spring". A photo of how the FCG is installed in your lower might be helpful.