Posted: 3/1/2013 12:48:59 AM EDT
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In say 30, 40 or 50 years will glocks plastic frame become britttle and crack?
Asssuming they were not left in the sun the whole time. Am i gonna be able to pass my Glocks to grandkids? This also should be a concern for all other plastic guns? |
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I copied this explanation off of glocktalk a long time ago.. (I can't find the thread on there anymore)
Yes, age alone will steadily de-polymerize the plastic in a GLOCK, until it is reduced to dust. The process is called "quantum-mechanical entropic decay," and it attacks all engineering materials that are more complex than single atoms. Oxygen, especially ozone, viciously attacks the polymer frame of a GLOCK from the moment that it comes out of the mold. This damage can be retarded only by storing your GLOCKs in a "vacuum safe" –– a gun safe with a built-in high-efficiency vacuum pump that removes the air down to no more than 10.3 micro-millibars of atmospheric pressure. (Try to shoot your GLOCKs only on indoor ranges that don't have much airflow, or better yet, on ranges without any air present at all. Your bullets will lose velocity more slowly on such air-less ranges as well.) Metal embedded in polymer (the frame rails on your GLOCK) is constantly being attacked, deep in the frame where you can't see it, by "molecular acids" that form at the interface between the polymer and the metal. This hidden failure mode can cause the frame rails to tear out of the frame when you least expect it. You can tell how badly this is happening to your GLOCK by looking for it –– if you don't see anything, the hidden damage is getting very serious, and catastrophic failure is likely imminent. Also, stray electrical currents are set up in your GLOCK by the contact between the electrically insulative polymer and the electrically conductive metal. This eats away at the metal parts of the GLOCK. This is the same micro-galvanic decay process that destroys your home's water heater –– but unlike water heater makers, GLOCK intentionally does not provide a replaceable sacrificial annode on his guns. Planned obsolescence by G2, don't you know.... All of these processes are constantly at work in your GLOCK, degrading it, and will destroy it totally in about, oh, say, 50,000,000 years –– give or take a few tens of thousands of years.... (In case the above is too subtle, I am kidding –– except about the 50,000,000 years part. Yes, age and exposure to moisture, light, and air will slowly degrade the engineering polymers used in handguns, but not at a rate that is of any concern on human timescales.) -ET [/b]and another[b] For those who, even after all of this thread, are STILL worried about the longevity of their GLOCK's polymer frame.... Russian solar scientists claim that the sun has been going through a cycle of slightly increased energy output for the last few decades, gradually warming the earth ("global warming"), but that after about the year 2017 the sun will begin an extended cycle of slight gradual dimming again, which will cause rising human angst over "global cooling." The Earth's magnetic field is cyclically diminishing towards zero again, as it has many times in its geologic past, and the north and south poles will likely switch places (again), within the next few thousand years. The earth will someday run out of its original supply of nuclear isotopes, the steady cumulative decay of which provide the internal heat for its molten core, which will then gradually cool and solidify. The sun is steadily using up the finite stores of nuclear fuel with which it was supplied back at The Beginning, and as it dies it will eventually expand into a Red Giant that will encompass all the planets –– before finally collapsing to a White Dwarf, and ultimately to a gravitational singularity, commonly called a "Black Hole." All matter everywhere in the universe is steadily quantum-mechanically decaying towards elemental Iron (not Lead –– as is for some reason more commonly quoted). And yes, your GLOCK's polymer frame is (very) slowly-but-surely de-polymerizing. The time scale over which all of these processes act is such that the last humans left alive on the Earth, as they writhe in final torment watching the dying sun slowly expanding to scorch in its fiery corona the now-cooled earth, shorn of its magnetic field and ripped by Solar Magnetic Storms that will ionize and strip away its precious life-sustaining atmosphere into the iron-filled cosmos, will still have the handy option of sparing themselves their last slow desperate agony –– by shooting themselves in the head with today's production run of polymer-framed GLOCKs ("Oooh, look –– the plastic is still so nice and shiny!"). Entropy is a bitch who will have us all in The End...so turn off the TV news, relax, treat the metal parts of your GLOCK to some nice fragrant Hoppes #9, and have a good cold stiff drink for yourself. You'll live longer, and enjoy it more –– as we all slowly, oh-ever-so-slowly, turn to Iron, together.... Cheers! -ET |
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Quoted:
Don't worry. Your Glock with be eligable for Obama Care at age 65 Haha. I think glocks will be fine in 30 years. Polymer seems to hold up well and as someone pointed out, gen 1's are approaching that age. They will still be around.... If not picked up and melted down by feds 
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My first firearm was a Gen 1 Glock 17 bought sometime in the late 1980s. I kept it about 15 years then replaced with a Gen 3 Glock 17. When I sold it the pebbles in the grip were noticeably smoothed out and there were a few scratches on the frame, the slide finish was worn too, definitely well used but perfectly functional. I kept the old mags and recently sold them to someone in NY (before the new law), I would have just tossed them since mags are basically disposable, but it was useful to someone in NY. They are tools. They wear out. If you treat it like a safe queen it will still look new 50 years from now. |
| I don't know about the glock frame turning to crap, but I can say the the gen 1 mags fail! All of mine have cracked apart, some from leaving them loaded for extended periods, and some cracked for no appearant reason unloaded. Two of the ones that I had that cracked and disintegrated were new in the package! I also note that the plus two floor plates that I bought at the same time have also cracked or fell apart. I highly doubt that the glock frame will last forever, I am not worried about it but I am not planning to pass it on as I really don't think it of any polymer is really going to stand the test of time. High round counts yes, time no! |
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I own a well-used and battered Glock 17....dates to like September 1986...the frame has some wear for sure...but is solid as ever.
However I can attest to the fact the the old NFML Glock mags will fail with use...even a good little-used first gen mag bulges a lot when loaded...these style mags wear-out and crater...  ..The newer fully metal lined mags don't have this problem
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The very earliest Gen. 1 NFML Glock Factory magazines that others have mentioned as "cracking" were from the earliest polymer formula Gaston Glock used for magazine-bodies until around 1988 or so. Also, not all of these early magazines crack either. It appears it was a combination of the polymer used and the process of manufacture or some other variation we are not privy to, such as heat and stress, thickness of the polymer ect.
This ceased to be an issue for the most part after late-1988 anyway. The earliest NFML magazines had a straight, front to back, top-shelf on the left-hand side of the magazine body. The "new" NFML magazines made post-1988 have a reshaped "limiter" to prevent over-insertion on the same left-hand side of the magazine body that corresponds to same area in the magazine-well of the frame. The polymer formula used for the magazine-body was also "tweaked" by Gaston Glock around this time period to prevent any chance of cracking and to make the magazine-catch area of the mag-body more durable and less likely to deform from use. Long story short, SOME early pre-1989 NFML Factory magazines CAN crack along the spine, but not ALL of them do. I've owned and used them all over the years and still use them to this day. They work, and they're reliable. Just one man's opinion. YMMV. Good luck. |