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http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/3-d-printed-gun-fires-6-shots-then-falls-apart-1C7404226


I saw this today when i opened MSN, a 3d Printed working Firearm.

Makes me wonder how high priced of a Printer that took.

Gun parts is the appropriate term. I can't imagine being remotely close to making a barrel or chamber. The parts you can 3D print aren't traced by the ATF.

The printed part of the weapon in question was just the "lower" of the AR. Part of the rub that gets people all hot and bothered over this idea is if your able to print the lower and combine it with an upper of the AR you have a working rifle that doesnt currently need to be registered with the government (depending on where you live)

Interestingly enough the same can be said for anyone that machines there own traditional lower

The general opinion among firearms enthusiasts is that the technology, especially the materials, isnt suitable for making any parts that have to take the stress of firing...namely the firing chamber and the barrel.

Same knee jerk reaction people had about the Glock. "Oh Nos its a plastic gun, whatever are we going to do, it can get past metal detectors?" No its not, and no it can't.

 Spyder68 wrote:
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/3-d-printed-gun-fires-6-shots-then-falls-apart-1C7404226


I saw this today when i opened MSN, a 3d Printed working Firearm.

Makes me wonder how high priced of a Printer that took.

What an utterly false and misleading headline. Only the lower receiver is made of plastic, which is nothing more than a single piece of plastic with NO moving parts. All of the internals --you know, the things that actually makes it a firearm--are made of metal. Just trying to scare the sheeple.

Thats NBC news for you.


I found it amusing at least

Oh look 3d printing...yawn. I'm sorry what?

TBH I kind of look forward to the Darwin awards from people trying to print their own complete guns. Maybe that will be an effective demonstration of why 3d printing isn't a miracle solution to every single problem?

 Andrew1975 wrote:
Same knee jerk reaction people had about the Glock. "Oh Nos its a plastic gun, whatever are we going to do, it can get past metal detectors?" No its not, and no it can't.

Precisely. They dope the plastic in the Glock with barium - so it shows up like a beacon under x-rays or fluoroscope - not to mention the slide, receiver, barrel, springs and trigger assembly all being metal.

He made the lower part of the weapon from low grade printable plastic.
Which is, admittedly, not that far from the lowest-bidder-Mattel toy plastic used for the original M-16.
(Mattel did make those parts for that weapon.)

The general opinion among firearms enthusiasts is that the technology, especially the materials, isnt suitable for making any parts that have to take the stress of firing...namely the firing chamber and the barrel.

Correct, but I believe that will change in the future. Speaking in the present, I truly believe that if you had someone with a brain actually try that you could achieve the projects goals by A: A distributable package of forms, tools, etc. that you can print out and then use to make a real gun out of something actually appropriate (This is also much less legally dangerous.) or B: Take the "Print most of a gun, then add the pressure-containing parts from some other source" approach.

However, taking the B approach (Which is what we see here) requires you to realize that if you take a design for a part, and then COMPLETELY DISREGARD what it's supposed to be made of while also not redesigning said part to account for changes in material properties, you will wind up with a lump of <CENSORED> and a bunch of wasted time.

This is what's called either "Bad Engineering" or "Bein a Dumb<CENSORED>."

(For a non-gun example of the above, note my sig!)