Got Stereolithographic 3D? Why not print your own usable gun!

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

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So there's now an even more advanced 3D printer:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/26/form-1-delivers-high-end-3d-printing-for-an-affordable-price/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/formlabs/form-1-an-affordable-professional-3d-printer


Of course, this gives more firepower (pun intended) to 'Project Wiki Weapon' which would let anyone print a gun.
Possibly a usable one. Because we all know america doesn't have enough of those.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/26/3d-printing-guns-legal-issues-us-law?newsfeed=true
 
I'm sure if anybody wanted to, they could make their own gun/weapon without one of these. It's a silly argument IMO. Cool printer though.
 
After watching that video all I can say is I am really sad that someone so obviously inspired by an idea, is also a complete nut.
 
Almost no Resin is strong enough to build any of the critical firearm components that would be required.

The non-critical components... well, you can make them anyway with a block of wood/plastic in a workshop with hand-tools in 99% of cases.
Firearms are, essentially, extremely simple devices.

Light-cured resins tend to be especially fragile in this regard.
 
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Macky said:
I'm sure if anybody wanted to, they could make their own gun/weapon without one of these. It's a silly argument IMO. Cool printer though.
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except it usually requires much more skill this would be very simple and more mas production" friendly.
 
Aod said:
Almost no Resin is strong enough to build any of the critical firearm components that would be required.

The non-critical components... well, you can make them anyway with a block of wood/plastic in a workshop with hand-tools in 99% of cases.
Firearms are, essentially, extremely simple devices.

Light-cured resins tend to be especially fragile in this regard.
Click to expand...

there are 3d printing machines that can use metal iirc, but they're in the hundreds of thousands £ range.
 
yes, it's called "Selective Laser Sintering" or "Direct Metal Laser Sintering"

I don't think your average nutcase who wants to fabricate a weapon would go to the effort and expense of using a DMLS machine ($600,000+) :p :D

That's not to mention that DMLS parts are not especially strong anyway. :(
 
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that video is great, he really goes into depth about how the thing will be created and developed, then at the end as soon as he tries to justify why it is being done he just seems to babble around the legalities.

I pretty much couldn't work out the point of his last speech.
 
What a retarded article. It says the Syrian rebels could use it to print off weapons...

1. You can only print the plastic parts of the gun - you can't just magically make a barrel, metal parts, etc appear out of nowhere

2. Guns need bullets - again you can't print them off and in the UK you need a licence to buy them

Completely a non issue. I could go make a WW2 style bazooka using metal piping. Doesn't mean anything as I have no rockets! I'm fed up lately of stupid news articles. It seems the days of proper journalism are well and truly over.
 
Jono8 said:
how is plastic/resin going to be strong enough to make a fully functional gun?
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And even if it were, I doubt the materials would be available to produce ammunition. Chemicals etc that are not off the shelf purchases.

Guns aren't dangerous. It's what comes out the end.
 
Jono8 said:
how is plastic/resin going to be strong enough to make a fully functional gun?
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It isn't. Well, you could make a fully functional gun but you'd need to make your own very low-power ammunition for it. I'd be interested to see how it would compare with an airgun in terms of bullet velocity and mass.

The issue in the USA is a legal one. Gun controls are, apparently, attached specifically to one part of a gun, the lower receiver. It's a crucial part, so that was thought to be adequate. It's a part that can be printed. So it is, apparently, possible to buy the parts that need to be stronger than any printed parts, without any controls, and then print the remaining parts, without any controls, and assemble them to get a fully functioning gun without any controls.

EDIT: Having thought about it a bit - is it really all that hard to make gun parts with traditional machines? A basic gun isn't complicated and the sort of people who would make their own guns for criminal use probably aren't going to be greatly bothered about accuracy at a distance. Would a budget CNC lathe do the job with metal as easily (for the user) as a 3D printer does it with resin?
 
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Richdog said:
Apparently it's worked http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/working-assault-rifle-made-3-d-printer
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No, it hasn't. That's a very inaccurate article. If you look into the story (there are enough details in that article to enable you to do so), you'll find that he printed part of a working gun (the lower receiver). You could print a whole working gun, but it would explode when fired unless you made your own extremely low-powered ammunition and used that.

Here's a more accurate article that (a) shows what was actually printed (it isn't even all of a lower receiver and it certainly isn't a working gun) and (b) what the actual cause for concern is (it's related to USA law, as I explained a few posts ago).

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/133514-the-worlds-first-3d-printed-gun

Oh, and it isn't a rifle anyway.
 
I have (I made) a 3d printer, and frankly the idea of controlling even a minute explosion using printed parts made of plastic is completely and utterly b*ll*cks...

PLA and ABS, even printed very carefully, is 'moderately' strong in one dimension, and very, very fragile in another. Also, it fatigues very, very quickly and has a tendency to fall apart when subject to /any/ sort of mechanical force for some time.

It'd good for it's stated purpose: prototyping and making parts that are not subject to mechanical stress of any sort.

Basically, when I read these articles, all I see is sensationalist for anyone who hasn't tried printing plastic. Complete and utter fabrication.
 
You'd need one of the very high end printers ($500,000) to do this, as they are the only ones capable of using metal oxides in the process. Resin would fail after a few shots and the user would probably be without a hand.
 
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