University of Texas law student leads the way in 3-D printable gun technology

Daily Caller ^ | December 25, 2012

[grundle]

Demands for stricter restrictions on gun sales are all the rage right now in light of the Connecticut elementary school massacre. However, a law student at the University of Texas says new technology will soon change the regulatory landscape dramatically, and possibly make such regulation futile.

The student, Cody Wilson, is among the leaders of Defense Distributed, home of the wiki weapon project. The goal of the collaborative, nonprofit project is simple: to create freely available plans that you can download from the Internet and produce a gun using a 3-D printer.

YouTube video at printablegun.com shows Wilson’s group test firing a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, reports KVUE, Austin’s ABC affiliate. An AR-15 was among the weapons Adam Lanza used in the Sandy Hook shooting.

According to Wilson, 24, the group used a 3-D printer to print a plastic lower receiver. The piece was then attached to the rest of a real gun. In a test that was unverified by any independent observers, the plastic piece broke, but not before the gun fired six live rounds.

“What I’m doing is showing people, okay, this is something that can be done right now with this technology, and we’re changing this in the software, and we’re making modifications and customizations and testing with different rounds and different guns, but what we make won’t look like a plastic AR-15,” Wilson told WVUE. “What we make will just be the gun at its most essential, something that just is a firearm practically speaking.”

The legality of printable 3-D guns is not clear. (RELATED: Democratic congressman urges renewal of plastic gun ban)

Democratic New York Rep. Steve Israel doesn’t want to take any chances, though, according to WVUE. Israel has called for the renewal of the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988, which is set to expire in December 2013.

As Slate notes, the Act makes it illegal to “manufacture, sell, ship, deliver” or “possess” firearms that garden-variety metal detectors or x-ray machines can’t detect. A renewed act would presumably cover guns manufactured with 3-D printed gun parts, which are plastic.

[NVDave]

That video took way too long to get to the point for me... so I didn’t watch all of it. Sorry. I’m going to work off an assumption that if you’re asking how a 1911 sight is held on, it’s a staked sight because you can’t see the slot cut in the slide under the sight with the sight in place.

The early Colts used a “staked” sight, which involves a narrow slot cut into the slide hood. The sight base post is inserted through the slot, retained in a fixture as the slide & sight are turned upside down and the bottom of the sight is peened outwards to “stake” the sight into the slot. The excess is then dressed off.

Newer Colts had a wider slot.

Here’s a picture of a staked installation on a very highly finished slide - this is an example of someone who knows that they’re doing because he not only put in the sight well, he left no marks:

http://www.thesixgunjournal.net/staking-a-1911-front-sight/

You can see the fixture in his pictures.

The newest 1911’s have a dovetail cut into the slide and the sight is drifted in, usually from the left, but if the sight base has edges that are parallel, it doesn’t matter - try sights into dovetails by hand first from BOTH sides of the dovetail before you start bashing them into the dovetail. Some sights that go into dovetails have a slight taper to their bases and they go in only one way and they come out in the reverse direction.

NB that there are both 65 degree dovetails (Novaks) and 60 degree dovetails. If your slide already has dovetails on it, you’re best using a gage or sight dovetail file to make sure of which you have. To cut a dovetail, you need both an regular end mill (four flute, center cutting) to cut a path for the dovetail mill, then you go in with the dovetail mill to cut the angles. You have to cut the initial pass with the regular end mill to, oh, within .005 of how deep you want the dovetail cutter to bottom out. The dovetail cutter won’t cut a path for it’s own shaft, and they’re often not good at cutting in the center of their diameter.

For some hardened slides (eg, older Springfield Armory 1911’s), you will probably want carbide tools.

There are replacement staked sights. To remove a staked sight, you first grind out (CAREFULLY!) the “flange” caused by the staking, then you grind a narrow “V” down the centerline of the sight post. It should come out with a small punch very easily at this point.

Staked sights are OK, but lots of people complain of them shooting loose. This is usually due to the sight post not being peened “authoritatively” enough when it was put in, usually due to the ‘smith putting in the sight not having the correct fixture to do the job correctly.

Brownells has a fixture for staking in 1911 front sights.

[MileHi]

Thanks. Your link answers my question exactly. I appreciate your comments as well.

FReegards!