3D Printing of Guns at Home Making Gun Grabbers Nervous

http://thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/14393-3d-printing-of-guns-at-home-making-gun-grabbers-nervous ^ | Feb 1, 2013 | Bob Adelmann

[EXCH54FE]

When the New York Times wrote of the improved technology of 3D printing this writer responded with a frivolous blog about it, scoring the concerns of anti-gun people about how the technology will allow everyone who wants one to have a gun without government oversight or knowledge. One of those in the anti-gun camp is Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, who said that 3D printing is “going to be a big concern. We don’t know how that’s going to come about and don’t know what technology.”

That technology is evolving before his very eyes. The RepRap Project aims to produce free and open source software for 3D printers, including software that allows the printer to produce its own parts. Two years ago RepRap allowed printers to create tiny plastic parts for small motors as well as circuit boards for computers. Today it allows hobbyists to build household items like fully-functional clocks, flashlights, iPad cases, watchbands … and receivers for rifles.

And it is this virtual explosion in technology that is making other gun controllers increasingly nervous, including Mark Gibbs, a contributor at Forbes, who wrote,

I’m in favor of tighter gun control and a ban on weapons that are unnecessarily powerful but I’m afraid that technology will soon make any legislation that limits the availability of any kinds of guns ineffective.

With the decrease in prices for 3D printers, and the improvement in the software to drive them, the capability to print weapons at home is coming into the reach of the average citizen. Gibbs warned,

Using either free or low cost computer aided drafting software you can create digital 3D models of pretty much anything you can think of and, with hardly any fuss, your 3D printer will render them as physical objects.

[JRandomFreeper]

Ping.

/johnny

[American in Israel]

Total Beee Essss. Unless you are shooting marshmellows out of your plastic barrel. Another good example of worthless media reporting.

[null and void]

3-D printer ping

[uncommonsense]

I’ve got a dozen ideas for inventions that I could knock out quickly with a 3D printer. Note to self, find access to one...

[Iron Munro]

There must ba at least a three day waiting period to purchase a printer.

And we need toner cartridge control !!!!

The local Sheriff should have an annual printer buyback program.

[davisfh]

"Anti-gun legislators are getting nervous as well. The introduction of the Glock pistol into the United States in 1982, with its polymer construction, caused some legislators to go ballistic."

This raises a question in my mind. A polymer gun, when fired, would quickly disassemble itself and would likely seriously injure or kill the person who fired it. My guess is that the barrel and components that make up the firing chamber were forged steel. I worked for a major space oriented company in the eighties and nineties and, toward the end of my tour of duty, we acquired a "printer" that could replicate mechanical parts. Those parts "were not" usable in any mechanical device that we created though. They were simply used to verify proof of design. I can assure you that, should you replicate a gun in one of these new "printers" and attempted to load and fire it, you would require a trip to the hospital or morgue.

[Conserev1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLlJshR6nvg
6 rounds. so you print 5 weapons to make 30 rounds.
Instead of 30 rd magazine you have 5 AR-15s.
And keep that printer printing.
I’m sure a different plastic of stronger materials can be utilized. This is all new to me!

[Mercat]

http://youtu.be/VyE-V5t5v48

[JRandomFreeper]

The recent very rapid (exponential) improvement in 3-d printers might surpise you.

/johnny

[D Rider]

Use the 3d printer to make your castings around. And then use high strength polymers, or metal.

Just an idea

[eyeamok]

The good SLA versions are about 3-5 grand, they use a resin instead of abs, That is what the guys that made the ar15 lowers used, not the ABS inkjet type, which are only $500

[OneWingedShark]

From what I understand there are printers which can do metals — and if there aren’t, it’s achievable w/ (a) metal powder and (b) a laser.

[EXCH54FE]

With this type of 3D Milling Machine you can Mill aluminum and brass. So how long before we can make hard metal gun parts?

The MDX-20 is the culmination of over ten years of innovative product development in scanning and milling by Roland engineers. Utilizing innovative Roland Active Piezo Sensor (R.A.P.S.) technology, the MDX-20 is a precision 3D scanner, capable of scanning objects at 4 to 15 mm per second with a resolution of up to 0.002” (0.05mm). Replacing the sensor unit with the spindle turns the MDX-20 into a powerful CNC mill capable of cutting light metals, including aluminum and brass.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The solution is simple.

Mandatory registration of all 3D printers.

Make possession of an unregistered 3D printer a felony.

Make possession or distribution of 3D-printer files for the manufacture of firearm parts a capital offense.

Turn enforcement of these provisions over to ATF, making them the BATFE3D.

This is so ludicrous an idea that you just know its going to happen.

[bigbob]

It’s not the printer, it’s the materials. Laws of physics (mechanical strength of a part that is produced layer by layer), and Chemistry (properties of the material itself). This will continue to improve as more and better materials are developed and adapted for 3D printing. Or as new methods such as selective metal sintering are brought to the price point where they are competitive.

Or when people realize that a 3D printed part could be used to make metal cast parts.

Or when they realize it’s just about as easy to have a home CNC machine the damn part in the first place and forget all this 3D printing hype that makes for good scare tactics.

But right now, the state-of-the-3D-printing-art is a gun that blows up after 6 rounds: http://www.dailytech.com/3D+Printed+Gun+Fails+after+Six+Shots/article29339.htm

[Charles Martel]

Your guess would be correct - the barrel and slide of polymer-framed handguns are steel. And 3-D printers are often used to mock up parts for fit testing, before using the same dimensions to machine a correct metal part. Jay Leno has one in his garage, for use in creating replacement parts for his Stanley Steamer and other antique cars.

The AR-15 design is unique; you can buy all the metal parts without dealing with a federal firearms licensee. The lower receiver is the serial-numbered part, but it is subject only to minor stress due to recoil. Some companies already make polymer versions of that part (with small metal serial-number plates imbedded), and the polymer versions are thicker than the mil-spec aluminum original.

So you can "print" copies of the only part that BATFE cares about in this case. Of course, you can also buy an incomplete (un-serialized) aluminum lower receiver and easily complete the machine work, but for some reason a $400 Harbor Freight milling machine isn't considered as big a game-changer as a 3-D plastic printer. Go figure.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Let me know when you can print yourself up a SAW. :-)

[ctdonath2]

Not BS. At this rate they’ll be able to “print” everything on an AR15 except the barrel, bolt carrier group, and a couple other simple parts within a year. BATFE having arbitrarily designated the lower receiver as “the gun”, and ruled unregistered home manufacture thereof is legal, now they’re suffering the consequences with 3D printers making functional ones with ease (they suck, but do work).

Don’t underestimate what’s happening. This is akin to Gutenberg inventing movable type: world changing disruptive technology.

[Raycpa]

Isn,t 3D printing protected by 1st amendment?