Print your own gun

BattleCorp · 07-05-2013 02:35PM

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 · 07-05-2013 02:38PM

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 · 07-05-2013 02:48PM

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 · 07-05-2013 03:02PM

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 · 07-05-2013 03:18PM

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 · 07-05-2013 03:24PM

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 · 07-05-2013 03:28PM

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 · 07-05-2013 04:15PM

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 · 07-05-2013 04:21PM

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

Rented Mule · 07-05-2013 04:24PM

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 · 07-05-2013 04:32PM

Can it print bullets?

DrArse · 07-05-2013 04:55PM

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

kowloon · 07-05-2013 04:58PM

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 · 07-05-2013 05:11PM

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 · 07-05-2013 05:25PM

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 · 07-05-2013 05:33PM

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 · 07-05-2013 05:53PM

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 · 07-05-2013 06:02PM

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 · 07-05-2013 06:07PM

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

666irishguy · 07-05-2013 06:11PM

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.

ScumLord · 07-05-2013 06:17PM

666irishguy wrote: »

True we won't see anything for the home or small business for a good while.

I was surprised to find out there is a company in ireland producing plastic parts for sale using a 3D printer. I didn't realise it was at that stage yet but it is replacing molding for some parts as long as the conditions are right.

It's restricted to plastics at the moment but the parts this company were making are going up to the international space station which gives you some idea of the quality they must be able to produce.

For something like that where you only need a small run and it's using the right material it has huge advantages over molding. Molding only makes sense if you're producing thousands and thousands of parts, as the cost of the mold itself can be tens of thousands of euros.

kowloon · 07-05-2013 06:20PM

No doubt about it, and I wouldn't like to be near the person firing it either. The tolerances on some war produced pieces are pretty shoddy, even when the design takes it into account.
I know someone who built a homemade CNC centre for their final year project, he was given a simple test piece to replicate. Wandering calibration meant he couldn't do it with any reasonable degree of accuracy.
Interchangeable parts are something we take for granted though, guns made in sheds in a slum (or in a besieged Leningrad) fit together after someone's gone to work with a vice and a file.

Yeah, the dies for injection molding, particularly the more complex parts are pretty damn expensive if I remember correctly. And then there's all the work after the mold finishes its job, I gather the final product on the high end 3D printers need less and less finishing. Printing off parts and being able to store the design for next time is ideal for small batches and it'll get more efficient. When I was in college it was the new fangled 'rapid prototyping' solution.

hal9000 · 07-05-2013 06:43PM

kowloon wrote: »

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.

These are the same guys that made the gun in op, defence distributed

BASHIR · 07-05-2013 07:26PM

kowloon wrote: »

No doubt about it, and I wouldn't like to be near the person firing it either. The tolerances on some war produced pieces are pretty shoddy, even when the design takes it into account.
I know someone who built a homemade CNC centre for their final year project, he was given a simple test piece to replicate. Wandering calibration meant he couldn't do it with any reasonable degree of accuracy.
Interchangeable parts are something we take for granted though, guns made in sheds in a slum (or in a besieged Leningrad) fit together after someone's gone to work with a vice and a file.

Yeah, the dies for injection molding, particularly the more complex parts are pretty damn expensive if I remember correctly. And then there's all the work after the mold finishes its job, I gather the final product on the high end 3D printers need less and less finishing. Printing off parts and being able to store the design for next time is ideal for small batches and it'll get more efficient. When I was in college it was the new fangled 'rapid prototyping' solution.

I would not be the one to test it either. We use the Objet printer at work and the material is very brittle. We have to be very careful with some of our models when washing away the support material. Never mind using it under the forces of a controlled explosion.

It is an ideal way to prototype though, can print one test it, change design and print again

Nailz · 07-05-2013 07:42PM

Seen this a few weeks ago and I'm delighted that technology has gone this far as to be able to do something like it, but I can't help the feeling that it's causing a slight problem by it enabling something like this to happen, or more to the point... That fucking retard who thought it would be a bright idea.

ScumLord · 07-05-2013 07:46PM

Nailz wrote: »

but I can't help the feeling that it's causing a slight problem by it enabling something like this to happen,

We keep focusing on the fact it's a gun but at the end of the day they've figured out how to make an explosion chamber. The same thought process could be put into making a combustion engine.

kowloon · 07-05-2013 07:53PM

I think the second post captured the future of this tech. There's only one thing that gets shared on the net and printed, the 3D part is just the next step. Al Gore didn't invent the internet so we could all shoot each other, did he?

belcampprisoner · 07-05-2013 07:54PM

I am going to print a real life girlfriend with real looking hair

mattjack · 07-05-2013 07:59PM

There was a few home-made shot guns going round Crumlin / Drimnagh a few years ago made out of "gun barrel" , the pipe used by plumbers/fitters on industrial sites.They were called "bang sticks".

Similar in size to the old anco barrel poppers .

Kev_2012 · 07-05-2013 08:06PM

Duggy747 wrote: »

Can it print a printer that can print prints?

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mckrx2ghh51qm4i18.png

Print your own gun

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