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Meet The 'Liberator': Test-Firing The World's First Fully 3D-Printed Gun
forbes.com ^ | 5 May, 2013 | Andy Greenberg

Posted on 05/05/2013 8:34:55 PM PDT by marktwain

Edited on 05/05/2013 9:22:46 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

“Alright. One…two…”

Before “three” arrives, a shot reverberates across the overcast central Texas landscape. A tall, sandy blond engineer named John has just pulled a twenty-foot length of yellow string tied to a trigger, which has successfully fired the world’s first entirely 3D-printed gun for the very first time, rocketing a .380 caliber bullet into a berm of dirt and prairie brush.

“[snip]’ A!” yells John, who has asked me not to publish his full name. He hurries over to examine the firearm bolted to an aluminum frame. But the first to get there is Cody Wilson, a square-jawed and stubbled 25 year-old in a polo shirt and baseball cap. John may have pulled the trigger, but the gun is Wilson’s brainchild. He’s spent more than a year dreaming of its creation, and dubbed it “the Liberator” in an homage to the cheap, one-shot pistols designed to be air-dropped by the Allies over France during its Nazi occupation in World War II.

Unlike the original, steel Liberator, though, Wilson’s weapon is almost entirely plastic: Fifteen of its 16 pieces have been created inside an $8,000 second-hand Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer, a machine that lays down threads of melted polymer that add up to precisely-shaped solid objects just as easily as a traditional printer lays ink on a page. The only non-printed piece is a common hardware store nail used as its firing pin.

Wilson crouches over the gun and pulls out the barrel, which was printed over the course of four hours earlier the same morning. Despite the explosion that just occurred inside of it, both the barrel and the body of the gun seem entirely unscathed.

Wilson scrutinizes his creation for a few more seconds, then stands up again. “I think we did it,” he says, a little


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 3d; 3dprinter; banglist; guncontrol; liberator; pistol; secondamendment
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Making a metal barrel or barrel liner to greatly extend the life of the pistol would be child's play.
1 posted on 05/05/2013 8:34:55 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain
Once plastic guns can be made quickly and easily by anyone at anytime, then registration and licensing really becomes a waste of effort -- we go back to the Constitution and a recognition that the right cannot be infringed, because ... well ... you can't really infringe it.

And at that point, the plastic doesn't matter, and the same freedom will devolve to traditional metal guns. Why not?

2 posted on 05/05/2013 8:39:49 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (T)
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To: marktwain

Now we see why lezbo so badly wants to control AMMO, right?


3 posted on 05/05/2013 8:42:31 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: marktwain

I’m glad this guy is embarking on this effort. I hope he escapes the resulting rage of the PTBs who are scared shiiteless by his progress.


4 posted on 05/05/2013 8:43:33 PM PDT by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: marktwain

A side note, this will be a boon to people who like to restore old cars too. If you need to replace a door handle, a strut or part of a frame to a 1965 Buick Special, all you have to do is have the blueprints, computer and 3D printer and you’re good to go.


5 posted on 05/05/2013 8:44:16 PM PDT by Nowhere Man (Whitey, I miss you so much. Take care, pretty girl. (4-15-2001 - 10-12-2012))
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To: marktwain

Would need to mic the barrel to see if it was still okay.


6 posted on 05/05/2013 8:50:58 PM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: marktwain
time has come today...
7 posted on 05/05/2013 8:55:22 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: marktwain

Looks like a hi-tek zip gun to me.


8 posted on 05/05/2013 9:03:21 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: marktwain; AFPhys; AD from SpringBay; ADemocratNoMore; aimhigh; AnalogReigns; archy; ...
3-D Printer Ping!


9 posted on 05/05/2013 9:42:57 PM PDT by null and void (CA State Moto: "We have no idea right now where they were going or where they were coming from")
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To: marktwain

“the Liberator” in an homage to the cheap, one-shot pistols designed to be air-dropped by the Allies over France during its Nazi occupation in World War II.”

Bit of trivia about the Liberator pistol. It was unusual in that it took longer to use than to it did to build one. The production specs estimated that it would take an average of 8-10 seconds to manually place a round in the chamber, prime the plunger, and then pull the trigger. Assembly time for each Liberator (using pre-stamped parts) at the Anderson, Indiana factory was just under six seconds per pistol. Spent casings were removed with the use of a dowel rod.


10 posted on 05/05/2013 10:35:55 PM PDT by DemforBush (Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!)
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To: gaijin

Yes but the only even remotely difficult thing about making ammo is the propellant. I am not sure if it is still the case but but original smokeless powder was made by soaking cotton in nitric acid to create cellulose-nitrate and then mixing it with a stabilizer so that it it didn’t explode when you dropped it.

If it becomes possible to “Print” a rifle then producing ammunition is certainly possible


11 posted on 05/05/2013 11:09:47 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Genius at Large)
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To: marktwain

Link

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/05/meet-the-liberator-test-firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/


12 posted on 05/06/2013 1:02:32 AM PDT by servo1969
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To: marktwain

Metal barrels/liners are fine, but hardware store products such as JB Weld (perhaps something better, just an idea) could be used on the exterior, or the plastic barrel could be made larger so that the JB Weld could coat the interior.

Anyway, you are still talking about products so common that regulation is not feasible.

Moreover, future 3D-Printed guns might follow the high-speed Metal-Storm design for full auto and digital firing...maybe datalinked to iphones when remote firing is desired.

Tyrants can’t stop technological progress once the genie is out of the bottle.


13 posted on 05/06/2013 1:09:09 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Fai Mao
Yes but the only even remotely difficult thing about making ammo is the propellant. I am not sure if it is still the case but but original smokeless powder was made by soaking cotton in nitric acid to create cellulose-nitrate and then mixing it with a stabilizer so that it it didn’t explode when you dropped it.

Alternatively, I'm sure a good engineer could come up with a modern interpretation of a Lewis & Clark type compressed air rifle. Let the Feds try and regulate air or buy up all the air. Ha!

14 posted on 05/06/2013 4:20:49 AM PDT by Flick Lives (We're going to be just like the old Soviet Union, but with free cell phones!)
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To: Fai Mao

Try buying nitric acid.


15 posted on 05/06/2013 4:28:26 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Once plastic guns can be made quickly and easily by anyone at anytime, then registration and licensing really becomes a waste of effort -- we go back to the Constitution and a recognition that the right cannot be infringed, because ... well ... you can't really infringe it.

I was trying not to get my hopes up, but now my hopes are up.

16 posted on 05/06/2013 4:31:24 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: marktwain

Get your 3D printer now, before King Barry demands registration, licensing, and eventually confiscation.

But, as the technology evolves, 3D printers will be used to replicate themselves.

Checkmate.


17 posted on 05/06/2013 4:31:47 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: marktwain

There is a market for 3D models. You can buy or sell the plans for different items

3D Burrito is a new design marketplace where people can buy models for 3D printers
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/30/3d-burrito-is-a-new-design-marketplace-where-people-can-buy-models-for-3d-printers/?fromcat=all


18 posted on 05/06/2013 5:18:54 AM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Obama is the Chicken Little of politics)
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To: Flick Lives

We already have 9mm and 50 cal airguns. Ive been thinking of getting one.


19 posted on 05/06/2013 6:08:01 AM PDT by refermech
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To: ClearCase_guy

The corrupt govt. officials will double down on demand for even more rigid gun control more hoops to jump thru . The reason is that freedom is hateful to the govt. & political class it is despised above everything else.


20 posted on 05/06/2013 12:57:14 PM PDT by Nebr FAL owner
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