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$25 Gun Created With Cheap 3D Printer Fires Nine Shots (Video)
forbes.com ^ | 20 May, 2013 | Andy Greenberg

Posted on 05/20/2013 8:44:44 PM PDT by marktwain

When high tech gunsmith group Defense Distributed test-fired the world’s first fully 3D-printed firearm earlier this month, some critics dismissed the demonstration as expensive and impractical, arguing it could only be done with a high-end industrial 3D printer and that the plastic weapon wouldn’t last more than a single shot. Now a couple of hobbyists have proven them wrong on both counts.

One evening late last week, a Wisconsin engineer who calls himself “Joe” test-fired a new version of that handgun printed on a $1,725 Lulzbot A0-101 consumer-grade 3D printer, far cheaper than the one used by Defense Distributed. Joe, who asked that I not reveal his full name, loaded the weapon with .380 caliber rounds and fired it nine times, using a string to pull its trigger for safety.

The weapon survived all nine shots over the course of an evening, as you can see in the YouTube video below. (The clip was filmed by Michael Guslick, a fellow Wisconsin engineer who helped Joe with his tests and who is known for printing one of the first working lower receivers for AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.)

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 3dprinted; banglist; gun; guncontrol; lulzbot; secondamendment
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Once a design escapes to the Internet, it cannot be recaptured.
1 posted on 05/20/2013 8:44:44 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Guns should be made of metal (possibly partly ceramics). That’s why God invented gun oil.


2 posted on 05/20/2013 8:50:02 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: JRandomFreeper; null and void

ping.


3 posted on 05/20/2013 8:53:25 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: marktwain

Schumer has hysterics, breaks down weeping, shrieks inconsolably for hours.


4 posted on 05/20/2013 8:55:53 PM PDT by Standing Wolf
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To: Standing Wolf
And is later filmed at the range, shooting his.

/johnny

5 posted on 05/20/2013 8:57:10 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: marktwain

Perhaps somebody can answer a question for me, as I’m not really a gun expert.

It seems to me that existing 3d printed models, would tend to be very dangerous to fire.

Everybody agrees they only last so many rounds, and I assume one would really not want to be holding it when it fails.

Or am I missing something?


6 posted on 05/20/2013 8:58:06 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Paladin2
Hoppes. It not only cleans, you can use it for after-shave.

/johnny

7 posted on 05/20/2013 8:58:17 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: marktwain

That’s an amazing story. In all honesty, I’m not that big on guns and ammo, but this 3-D printer might just get me interested in guns as a hobby.


8 posted on 05/20/2013 9:00:04 PM PDT by TexGrill (Don't mess with Texas)
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To: marktwain; AFPhys; AD from SpringBay; ADemocratNoMore; aimhigh; AnalogReigns; archy; ...
3-D Printer Ping!

Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer.

9 posted on 05/20/2013 9:01:00 PM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of opression, and the democrats gleefully use them!)
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To: marktwain
We've got to get past the idea that we need to make the entire gun out of extruded plastic. You simply can't make an acceptable barrel out of plastic.

Personally, I'm looking for someone to take a pair of these:

And make one of these:


10 posted on 05/20/2013 9:01:26 PM PDT by jdege
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To: Sherman Logan
There is an engineering solution to that. Quantify the average lifetime. Get rid of the weapon when it is well within it's predicted lifetime and print another.

I don't intend to give up my heavy metal 1911 style carry piece, but these things are V1.0. I expect V12.8 will be much, much better. These are early days.

/johnny

11 posted on 05/20/2013 9:01:33 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: marktwain

Looks like they let it cool between shots.
I figured it would blow up.


12 posted on 05/20/2013 9:02:49 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: jdege
You simply can't make an acceptable barrel out of plastic.

Experimentation says you can. For a few shots, anyway.

This isn't a precision hunting rifle or bird gun you take duck hunting. It's a tool of freedom that may only need to be fired once. Butter knife to get a steak knife kind of thing.

/johnny

13 posted on 05/20/2013 9:04:15 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Sherman Logan

When you’re defending your life, you only need it to fire once, for the most part. All the other cockroaches tend to scatter after that.


14 posted on 05/20/2013 9:04:50 PM PDT by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: JRandomFreeper
I can envision a powered metal 3d printer where the parts are designed to be sintered in the oven after "manufacture".

Pick your alloy.

15 posted on 05/20/2013 9:05:24 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: marktwain

It’s a bit silly when you can make a better one from a few bucks worth of junk in your garage or from the hardware store, or even for free if you are creative.


16 posted on 05/20/2013 9:06:27 PM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: Paladin2

They have kind of been doing that for a while, actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Px6RSL9Ac


17 posted on 05/20/2013 9:07:33 PM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: marktwain
Of course, there’s a certain thrill of pioneering a new gun design, too, Joe admits. “I may be the first person in the history of mankind to fire a bullet through a plastic rifled barrel. It’s an interesting feeling,” he says. “I feel like Samuel Colt.”

A bullet? Maybe.

But not a spud!

Details for the 1.5" SCH 40 Rifled PVC Pipe

After much development and testing, rifled PVC is now a reality.

Range testing indicates about a 50% increase in accuracy for potatoes, and pipe stands up to continuous 300 psi pretty well. This new barrel modification will send potatoes straighter and perhaps most important of all...safer. I say this as I have had experience with a stray potato every now and then, going where you might have not wanted it to go...(through my shop window).

18 posted on 05/20/2013 9:10:17 PM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of opression, and the democrats gleefully use them!)
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To: JRandomFreeper

I would probably be reluctant to fire one just for the heck of it. If somebody was knocking at the door and I knew it was all over I would fire away. Tyrants are scared of technology like this. When they have no idea which door they knock on somebody has one of these it gives them pause. 30 or 40 million of these would make a big difference .


19 posted on 05/20/2013 9:12:51 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (President Obma; The Slumlord of the Rentseekers)
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To: ltc8k6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator
20 posted on 05/20/2013 9:13:41 PM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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