Do it yourself gun making - "printable" guns

[ISCS Yoda]

I suppose news story this could fit in the Second Amendment Forum but it clearly makes for great lounge discussion.

DIY Guns: A Landmark Ruling Opens the Door for Homemade Firearms | WIRED

(C) Conde' Nast

Litigation that resulted in a settlement permitting this guy to upload details of how to make your own gun. First Amendment issues, Second Amendment issues, changes to the export control rules (ITARs) thanks to this case, Justice Department, State Department, everyone's involved.

Comments solicited. I don't have much of an opinion on this. Yet. But I figured it was going to be the basis of an interesting discussion. Fascinating stuff.......

 

[Protocall_Design]

Neat idea, but at the present time, the average 3D printing materials don't have nearly the mechanical strength properties to make it a viable proposition. There are very expensive lab and industrial systems that could do some parts, but not affordable to most individuals.

 

[DWalt]

If everything on the gun is 3D-printed, I can see it blowing up on the first shot. It would be easier to make one of the classic old-time zip guns out of tubing, wood, and rubber bands. I made one of those once, long ago. It fired.

 

[2152hq]

Interesting article.
The ruling protects the process from the Gov'ts control (being banned for the most part).
The whole thing coming about simply because the computer software program that contained the 'build' for this guys simple plastic firearm(s) was available on the net.
The Gov't saw that as the 'export of a firearm' and went beyond the required licensing requirements of the US. (ITAR).
The builder argued computer language is free speech, and won after a long and expensive battle with the Gov't offering to settle w/ some exclusions to designs (full auto, ect).


The technology of it being table top useful & affordable to the average hobbiest/gunsmith is probably not that far away from the way I read it.
Being formed in metal instead of plastic probably not a big jump.

I am not a computer person, Luddite would be a better description and feel much better with a file in my hand than the computer mouse.
But the way technology has expanded in my lifetime and even just in the last 25yrs,,I would not doubt it one bit that it is the way many metal objects will be made.
..and now I go off to the work bench to laboriously cut and fit a set of claw mounts from a block of steel. Probably something that this technology will be able to soon do while I simply sit back and enjoy a cold one.
Maybe they'll still need some fittin' though....

 

[ISCS Yoda]

I am not quite certain why this appeared as "Top News" today but here it is again, in detail:

EarthLink - Top News

(c) Associated Press 2018

 

[DWalt]

Story about it on the national news tonight - usual network treatment typical of anything having to do with guns.

 

[UncleEd]

At last, I'll be able to produce my own
75 mm howitzer!


I'll let you know where I'll fire my first
shot but it'll be this New Year's Eve.

BYOB.

 

[DWalt]

And it is so easy to make a gun from stuff you can buy at the nearest Home Depot. No 3-D printer required. There's lots of information on the internet about making improvised guns the old-fashioned way.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

My robotics nephew operates an industrial 3D printing shop a few miles from here. I asked him about making operating guns last year and he told me that it was still "theory" but they will get there. I guess the LGS is safe for now.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Yes, basically just a high tech zip gun.

 

[venomballistics]

The biggest issue with 3D printing is that it's over applied.
if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
At the core of the diy gun thing is a very necessary allowance for academic pursuit. I'd print grips sights and other low stress parts with confidence, but others ... the lathe and mill remain your altars of creation

 

[Rustyt1953]

The real black market money is going to be in printing .30 caliber magazine clips.

 

[Protocall_Design]

Printing metal parts is just getting started. Think about how many metal parts are on every "plastic" gun. Slide, barrel, lockworks (hammer, trigger, related parts), firing pin, cylinder, etc. I didn't mention pins and springs since those are easy purchase items in many cases. No one is going to be printing an internal combustion type gun for a while. Rubber band gun, OK.

 

[venomballistics]

Printing metal parts is just getting started. Think about how many metal parts are on every "plastic" gun. Slide, barrel, lockworks (hammer, trigger, related parts), firing pin, cylinder, etc. I didn't mention pins and springs since those are easy purchase items in many cases. No one is going to be printing an internal combustion type gun for a while. Rubber band gun, OK.

metal printing has been around a little longer than we have been lead to believe.
NASA was experimenting with what was essentially a wire feed welder based RepRap for space stations as far back as 98.
the idea was to send up spools of wire and print files rather than complete parts. Thus, revisions and corrections would be much easier and a lot of logistical issues avoided.
They had a few print samples from the contraption at EAA Oshkosh that year.... Yeah .. I'd take a frame and or receiver from this method given what I saw.

 

[Badgerboy1]

And it is so easy to make a gun from stuff you can buy at the nearest Home Depot. No 3-D printer required. There's lots of information on the internet about making improvised guns the old-fashioned way.

You just made the Fed Watch List...

 

[Bill Raby]

I have been building guns at home for years. No computer or internet required. People have been building guns for 500 years. The first 400 years it was done without electricity. Now a bunch of clueless dorks think they can solve some problem by preventing people from downloading a stupid computer file only good for making a gun out of plastic that can only be used once or twice.

 

[DWalt]

From what I can see on the video clips of the printed gun, the barrel seems like a thick-walled cylinder of plastic. Even so, it wouldn't withstand much chamber pressure without rupture and its bore certainly could not contain rifling. So what you have with the printed gun is more or less a plastic version of the WWII single shot OSS "Liberator" pistol, except the Liberator was good for firing multiple shots and considerably more compact. The whole thing is reminiscent of the "undetectable plastic gun" media scare when the Glock first appeared.

 

[Old cop]

A neighbor/friend told me about this believing people could now make a working firearm from a 3D printer. I explained how this was not a reality and, hopefully, got him back to reality.

 

[okiegtrider]

I saw this thing on the evening news. Clearly the sky is falling! Run for your lives!

 

[7tenz]

If everything on the gun is 3D-printed, I can see it blowing up on the first shot. It would be easier to make one of the classic old-time zip guns out of tubing, wood, and rubber bands. I made one of those once, long ago. It fired.

I never made one, but why not just use a spare barrel?