Print your own gun

davet82

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22421185

The world's first gun made with 3D printer technology has been successfully fired in the US.

The controversial group which created the firearm, Defense Distributed, plans to make the blueprints available online.

The group has spent a year trying to create the firearm, which was successfully tested on Saturday at a firing range south of Austin, Texas.

Anti-gun campaigners have criticised the project.

Europe's law enforcement agency said it was monitoring developments

Just what the world needed.

Duff

Could you 3D print a vagina?

Aced_Up

This was done before the BBC got a hold of the news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DconsfGsXyA

gumbo1

Funny how an ear, with all the electronics needed to make it function was done this weekend also but that's not as widely reported!! Just sayin!!

SEPT 23 1989

I wonder how far the big corporations have gone with this technology already?

mathie

You wouldn't print download a car.

Wacker The Attacker

Technology peaked (pardon the pun) with the invention of online porn.

Dancor

I seen this on CSI NY the other night.

longhalloween

Dancor wrote: »

I seen this on CSI NY the other night.

Hackaday did a piece on why this is no big deal.

http://hackaday.com/2013/05/06/the-first-3d-printed-gun-has-been-fired-and-i-dont-care/

Wacker The Attacker

Dancor wrote: »

I seen this on CSI NY the other night.

Gil is still on top of his sh1t I see

Duggy747

Can it print a printer that can print prints?

Fighting Irish

can you 3d print weed?

dodderangler

And he's giving out the blueprints
Are Americans just complete idiots?

jimthemental

I think this guy is vile. Anyone who even remotely agrees with that jackass Alex Jones is not responsible enough to be let near a steering wheel, let alone a gun.

Tazz T

I know this should be in bargain requests, but does anyone know where you can get cheap ink for one of these?

littleredspot

Duggy747 wrote: »

Can it print a printer that can print prints?

I've seen a 3d printer print itself if that's what you mean? The machines are taking over...

Peregrine

I weep for America sometimes..

H3llR4iser

I'll just drop it randomly, but I have a feeling the f~@king morons obsessed with making guns out of anything will manage to get 3D printers banned; It's not too much of an unlikely scenario: a legislative knee jerk reaction under the pressure of the media and the manufacturing industry.

Hopefully, I'm wrong...

Birneybau

Duggy747 wrote: »

Can it print a printer that can print prints?

How many printers could a printing printer print if a printing printer could print prints?

garv123

davet82 wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22421185



Just what the world needed.

un-proofed, un-tested guns.. Yeah it wont be long before someone firing them is the one killed or seriously injured when it blows up in their face.

If you had a cnc you could make one too and 3d printing is just the opposite of it..

Gosub

garv123 wrote: »

un-proofed, un-tested guns.. Yeah it wont be long before someone firing them is the one killed or seriously injured when it blows up in their face.

If you had a cnc you could make one too and 3d printing is just the opposite of it..

Darwinism in action

Tow

mathie wrote: »

You wouldn't print download a car.

Already being done: http://blog.sculpteo.com/2012/04/04/3d-printing-for-the-car-industry-the-audi-example/

It's not a big deal to be honest. Assuming you have access to ammunition then making a crude zip gun is trivial. People do it in prisons and third-world countries all the time.

garv123

Can they print the rifling in a barrel?

yoyo

Good luck to them trying to print gunpowder :P or even metal bullets :pac: .

Nick

Duggy747

Birneybau wrote: »

How many printers could a printing printer print if a printing printer could print prints?

*drools*

ScumLord

Pretty amazing engineering feat. I don't know how effective a gun like this would be. It looks like the kind of thing you make and shoot for the fun but you'd never expect the gun to be all that functional if it's made from ABS plastic.

gobnaitolunacy

dodderangler wrote: »

And he's giving out the blueprints
Are Americans just complete idiots?

Is that a rhetorical question?

BASHIR

garv123 wrote: »

Can they print the rifling in a barrel?

If you can draw it on a computer you can print it!

Anyone

BASHIR wrote: »

If you can draw it on a computer you can print it!

Think I'll print off the "Describe your first sexual experience with MS paint" thread.

garv123

BASHIR wrote: »

If you can draw it on a computer you can print it!

Id like to see how plastic could handle a metal bullet travelling over 3000 fps

BattleCorp

The technology is very crude at the moment. Any guns made now would have very little range, not be able for larger calibre ammunition and probably blow up in your hands after a few uses (if they even lasted that long).

That said, the technology will improve and this could become a real problem.

FTA69

It's already possible to fit a firing mechanism in a flashlight that shoots a .22 calibre bullet. I've also seen mention of crutches which can be rigged to fire shotgun cartridges.

How is rejigging a printer a new development?

garv123

FTA69 wrote: »

It's already possible to fit a firing mechanism in a flashlight that shoots a .22 calibre bullet. I've also seen mention of crutches which can be rigged to fire shotgun cartridges.

How is rejigging a printer a new development?

Its not...

Its just the whole printing capabilities getting showed off.

guns could be made from a cnc if you had access to one except a cnc would be metal and wouldnt blow up in our face if done right..

Guns can ba made from a pipe if you had one and a ball projectile with a form of charge to sent the pressure down the barrel.. look at how simple cannons are.

kowloon

There are 3D printers that use much stronger materials than ABS. Laser sintering is a way of making metal components out of powder, it's getting cheaper to do too.
Let's not forget, there are people making fully functional kalashnikov clones with basic tools in other countries, it's a cottage industry in Afghanistan, they get by with homemade pedal powered lathes.
You can home build a cnc machining cnetre for less than the cost of that 3D printer and machine steel parts, as people have mentioned above.
The reason people aren't actually doing this comes down to economy: it's still easier to buy properly manufactured firearms on the black market.
Why risk picking shards of splintered barrel out of your face when you can buy the real deal and at little effort?

BASHIR

Anyone wrote: »

Think I'll print off the "Describe your first sexual experience with MS paint" thread.

Ha ha. I think you need a software a bit more sophisticated than MS paint.
But you can download free solid modellers (CAD)

garv123 wrote: »

Id like to see how plastic could handle a metal bullet travelling over 3000 fps

Ha ya so would I.

ScumLord

kowloon wrote: »

Let's not forget, there are people making fully functional kalashnikov clones with basic tools in other countries, it's a cottage industry in Afghanistan, they get by with homemade pedal powered lathes.

They are but I don't see how a 3D printer can achieve the same things as you could with a milling machine or lathe. While you can pull of some complex shapes with 3D printing can you create polished surfaces, or get the hardness of the metal just right throughout the piece?

I can see the 3D printer becoming a part of the manufacturing line but I don't see it replacing it for many decades.

garv123

ScumLord wrote: »

They are but I don't see how a 3D printer can achieve the same things as you could with a milling machine or lathe. While you can pull of some complex shapes with 3D printing can you create polished surfaces, or get the hardness of the metal just right throughout the piece?

I can see the 3D printer becoming a part of the manufacturing line but I don't see it replacing it for many decades.

A plastic receiver and plastic barrel will not withstand the pressures of a bullet for many rounds at all before it decides to backfire. He successfully managed to fire it, but I wonder how many rounds he was brave enough to fire.
I wouldn´t even like my hand near it firing a subsonic .22 bullet.

It could be used for making you own custom stocks though.

Manic Moran

garv123 wrote: »

A plastic receiver and plastic barrel will not withstand the pressures of a bullet for many rounds at all before it decides to backfire. He successfully managed to fire it, but I wonder how many rounds he was brave enough to fire.
I wouldn´t even like my hand near it firing a subsonic .22 bullet.

It could be used for making you own custom stocks though.

His receiver has become more reliable. There's a video on his site of a printed receiver rapid firing a couple hundred rounds of 5.56mm

The weakest part will be the barrel. The barrel wear is going to be ridiculous for a few years yet. (But then, if you can print your own barrels....)

Problem123456

You people do realise that it only prints out the parts??
So you still need to make it...

Rented Mule

Problem123456 wrote: »

You people do realise that it only prints out the parts??
So you still need to make it...

Let 'em go....they're on a roll.

Duckworth_Luas

Can it print bullets?

DrArse

Can it print me an army man uniform to dress up in and pretend I'm an army man?

kowloon

ScumLord wrote: »

They are but I don't see how a 3D printer can achieve the same things as you could with a milling machine or lathe. While you can pull of some complex shapes with 3D printing can you create polished surfaces, or get the hardness of the metal just right throughout the piece?

Not sure if it looked that way in my post, but I'm not suggesting that even expensive powder metallurgy parts can compete with something machined out of a solid piece. I was saying that with really primitive tools someone can put together a serviceable weapon.
Granted, pedal lathes and a few spot welds won't make anything pretty, but you don't need any advanced technology to make something if someone in a hut with no mains electricity can do it.
The reason homemade guns don't pop up very often in the hands of criminals is because they don't need them. It's still easier to buy the real deal, even in countries with harsh gun laws like Ireland.
I don't see 3D printed firearms becoming a threat any time soon.

Manic Moran wrote: »

The weakest part will be the barrel. The barrel wear is going to be ridiculous for a few years yet. (But then, if you can print your own barrels....)

Looks like the whole barrel pops out for replacement pretty easily. As it stands it could be a cheap flare gun. The barrel and round are a single waterproof unit. No worries about barrel wear, rifling or high pressure.

666irishguy

I think the issue for us in a country like Ireland is this: Let's say in the future when 3D printing is much more common, somebody for whatever reason scans in full detail an AK-47 in the someplace like the US. Somehow they get made available for free downloads and somebody over here, who is reasonably handy and has the right tools or a small machine shop, gets the printable schematic of this simple enough rifle and prints it off. He now has a true representation of the rifle, complete with internal moving parts and the correct measurements. What's to stop him or anybody else using the detailed plastic parts as blanks to make their own metal weapons. All they would have to do for ammo is modify it to fire .22 or whatever is readily available.

ScumLord

666irishguy wrote: »

I think the issue for us in a country like Ireland is this: Let's say in the future when 3D printing is much more common, somebody for whatever reason scans in full detail an AK-47 in the someplace like the US. Somehow they get made available for free downloads and somebody over here, who is reasonably handy and has the right tools or a small machine shop, gets the printable schematic of this simple enough rifle and prints it off. He now has a true representation of the rifle, complete with internal moving parts and the correct measurements. What's to stop him or anybody else using the detailed plastic parts as blanks to make their own metal weapons. All they would have to do for ammo is modify it to fire .22 or whatever is readily available.

They would need to be able to print at the molecular level to achieve that I'd say. They'd have to print each atom in the right place to give the gun the right hardness in the right places.

I also don't think there would be a consumer 3D printer like that, I don't even think you'll get a commercial version for a long time as it's just not as economical or good as using current techniques.. A gun isn't made of just steel so you're going to have to have a stock of every material needed to make the gun. Centralising the manufacturing process like that has other downsides that don't work well with modern economies and manufacturing processes.

hal9000

Vice did a doc about these guys when they were developing printed high capacity magazines. The guy running it sounds like a complete tool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DconsfGsXyA

kowloon

ScumLord wrote: »

A gun isn't made of just steel so you're going to have to have a stock of every material needed to make the gun. Centralising the manufacturing process like that has other downsides that don't work well with modern economies and manufacturing processes.

True, but if you're willing to go cheap and nasty there's not much to them. I've seen a working shotgun that was made inside a prison out of a staple gun and some tubes. I assume the ammunition was smuggled in somehow. Granted, rifling wasn't an issue.
You can do crude heat treatment with next to no equipment. You can case harden with a blow torch and a bucket of dirty engine oil.
It'll be an awful gun, but it'll probably work and probably won't blow up in your face.
Even with the ease with which someone can make these things and how unlikely they are to get caught, our streets aren't full of them.
I did hear a story of an IRA workshop that got busted because they were running the coolant out into a ditch and got reported. Anyone know anything about this story, could be quite a few years ago.


I'm not sure 3D printing hi-cap magazines constitutes the more difficult side of gun making, it's pretty much a plastic box with a spring and follower. I can't watch the video though, so I might be misreading the subject.

ScumLord

kowloon wrote: »

It'll be an awful gun, but it'll probably work and probably won't blow up in your face.

The probably bit is what turns most people away from the idea I'd say, even with the older ways of manufacturing. I think most people that try making their own versions of things run into unexpected problems and often end up discovering how hard it is to make these things and that it's best left to the people that know what they're doing.

I know I wouldn't fire a homemade gun no matter how many times I'd seen it fired safely.

I don't really see how it would be much better with a printed gun. You would assume that each gun would be a perfect replica of the original gun but with different manufacturers of 3D printers, no ISO standards to ensure your machine is calibrated and producing parts that are accurate, you will have people getting injured. If your replica is of by .1mm it's going to mean a gun way out of the tolerances it was designed with.

Daveysil15

The North Korean's must be ****ting themselves.

666irishguy

ScumLord wrote: »

They would need to be able to print at the molecular level to achieve that I'd say. They'd have to print each atom in the right place to give the gun the right hardness in the right places.

I also don't think there would be a consumer 3D printer like that, I don't even think you'll get a commercial version for a long time as it's just not as economical or good as using current techniques.. A gun isn't made of just steel so you're going to have to have a stock of every material needed to make the gun. Centralising the manufacturing process like that has other downsides that don't work well with modern economies and manufacturing processes.

True we won't see anything for the home or small business for a good while. Though I was thinking along the lines that you would have printed plastic to scale copies of the component parts and they would act as reference points for you to measure and use to machine the metal copies you would make by hand or with basic tools and maybe a lathe. As for materials, all you would need is some steel that could take the force of a bullet. I though all them old soviet era rifles were just stamped steel with wood for hand grips and the stock.