MEIJIA MJ1170 insert.

What fits

These layouts use the designer’s own case outline and gear models, drawn to scale. The dashed line is the wall clearance: the designer keeps every item inside it.

A profile in the library is not proof that a combination fits; the designer checks placement as you go.

One insert, two cases, your layout

In the designer the profile is filed under Pelican 1170. Pick that and you are designing for your MJ1170. The layout above is one of many, not the layout: a G19 with a TLR-7, two magazines on end and a speedloader under the barrel. Swap in a G17 or a G45 and the magazines move. Add an X300 and the pocket grows around it. Drop the speedloader and a third magazine fits. The library today holds 14 Glock models and 13 lights, optics, magazines and small parts, and the designer keeps 5 mm of wall between every pocket and the edge.

Width is the constraint. The cavity is 156 mm across and a G19 lying flat takes about 133 of it, so magazines stand at the ends rather than beside the slide. Height is not: the insert is 53 mm, the base foam it replaces is 52.8, so a slide with a red dot still sits below the rim. Check it in Planning view before you export.

MEIJIA MJ1170 vs Pelican 1170

Same interior to the hundredth of an inch, same foam depths, exteriors within half a millimetre of each other. Both run double-throw latches, a manual pressure valve, a 1.08-inch convoluted lid foam over a 2.08-inch base. One insert serves both. That is why the MJ1170 is on the supported list rather than in the look-alike paragraph at the bottom of the Pelican page.

The numbers are the manufacturers’ own: MEIJIA’s listing and spec sheet, Pelican’s product page. MEIJIA never calls it a Pelican equivalent. Buyers do; the deals forums have been calling it the poor man’s Pelican for years.

What you give up is the name, the lifetime guarantee and the dealer network. What you keep is the cavity, the foam problem and, with a printed insert, the fix. The same insert in the other case is on the Pelican 1170 page.

Who buys the MJ1170, and what goes in it

Amazon files the MJ1170 under camera cases, and most of its 2,394 ratings come from camera, drone and audio people; a mirrorless body with five primes is a typical load. The listing also names pistols and everyday-carry gear. That is the half this page serves.

The library is firearms and their accessories today. Keep a camera in yours and the dimensions still tell you what a printed insert could hold; lens profiles come later.

Printing it

270 mm long: wider than a 256 mm Bambu Lab plate, and wider than a Prusa Core One at any angle. One piece needs a bigger machine, a Creality K2 Plus for instance. Everywhere else it is one cut across the short side, clear of the trigger guard and the magazine pockets.

The same layout exports in four finishes: smooth, diamond in, diamond out and Wildlands, a sculpted terrain texture across the top face. The insert is 53 mm and the case is 80 mm deep inside, so the lid’s own foam stays where it is above your gear. Print one joint before you print the lot.

The printing guide covers where to cut, which material to use and the slicer settings.

Replacing the MEIJIA foam

Pick-and-pluck, the same cube foam as the Pelican, and it fails the same way: pulled cubes loosen, edges tear, and a pistol that fit snugly in month one rattles by month six. You also get one go at the layout. Pluck the wrong cube and it stays plucked.

Because the interior matches the 1170, anything sold for the 1170 fits. The options, cheapest first:

• Layered foam for the 1170, Kaizen-style, about $20 for a 30 mm top layer and a 20 mm base. Carved by hand. Cleaner than pick-and-pluck, still foam.
• A free printable blank. A few exist for this case. Every one is a solid block you still have to open up in CAD, pocket by pocket, then sand in. Free if you can CAD.
• A StashGrid insert: your pistol, your light, your magazine count, laid out in the browser and exported. No CAD, and you print it again when the gear changes.
• Custom-cut foam from a foam shop, to your drawing. The most finished result and the most expensive; the custom foam versus printed insert comparison has the numbers.

A printed insert is one of several ways out. Compare the alternatives to pick-and-pluck foam, including made-to-order foam and modular grids.

Check your model before you print

This profile is the MJ1170 and nothing else. MEIJIA sells smaller and larger cases under near-identical names: a compact one with a 7.25-inch interior, and medium and large cases up to 16 inches long. Different interiors, none of them supported.

Check the model number on the listing or on the case: MJ1170. Unsure? Measure the floor of the cavity. It should come out close to 268 × 153 mm.

The dimensions describe the digital insert, not a measured fit tolerance. We haven’t published fit tests yet, so print a small section first. How the designer computes fit.