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Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

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Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#41

Post by lozaning »

MisterTea wrote: post #24
sparky_ wrote: post #14

Realistically, how effective would a 3D printed firearm be? I was under the impression that PLA/ABS plastics are simply not that strong of a material.

It could be a good intimidation tool for stick ups. All it takes is one shot so most people will be scared enough to comply as they would when faced with any other gun or weapon. On the flip side, the barrel doesn't last fore more than one or two shots if you're lucky. You can't reload fast and have a single shot. I can see it being a useful tool for an assassination. But that single shot better count otherwise you'r…

Wouldn't you be way better off buying one of those realistic airsoft guns and painting the tip? Plus in many jurisdictions should you ever be caught, crimes committed with a gun require serving more years.

Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#43

Post by jhallenworld »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #38

There's an entire industry in the Khyber Pass region in Afghanistan and Pakistan dedicated to making firearms with nothing more than simple hand tools and scrap steel [1]. Firearms are trivial to produce. It's producing ammunition that's the hard part. Specifically, producing propellant for your bullets. The panic about 3d printed guns is baseless. Any panic about terrorists being able to use something to commit hein…

Interesting! There are videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinRqCocwGE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRte65F_KRk

Of course firearms were made in pre-industrial times, and it's fascinating to see how: (just how do you chamber a gun accurately by hand?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTy3uQFsirk

But how would a technologically savvy first world person do it? These days you can buy a "gunsmithing" lathe for your garage workshop. Check out this video by Shiraz Balolia, CEO of Grizzly Industrial (they sell Chinese made industrial equipment to home shop machinists):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb-RvRe_9-g

I was going to link to Joe Pieczynski's excellent machining videos on how to make an AR-15, but it looks like there are new YouTube guidelines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZAYMzAMwEI

In any case, the information is widely available (and check out his other videos if you want improve your machining skills).

Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#44

Post by asfasgasg »

meowface wrote: post #7
dkoubsky wrote: post #3

I don't see why a CAD file would be any different than normal instructions for building firearms. For example, building a 12 gauge shotgun from 1" and 3/4" steel pipe is cheaper, easier, and probably safer/more effective than the plastic gun from the article. It seems to me the 3D printing part of this made the article popular for clickbait and thus it garnered more attention than the traditional approaches to homema…

One concern is that it's now cheaper, easier, and faster to mass produce weapons which will evade metal detectors. I don't think any of this should be illegal, but the concerns should be considered.

The saving grace, such as it is, is that these firearms are single-shot, and the rounds themselves are still metal and explosive-residue-detectable. While 3D printing has changed manufacturing methods, it's not like the method of deposition changes the strength of the material that much, so it's improbable that these plastic firearms will ever be able to withstand more than one or two shots.

It strikes me as likely that a 3D-printed gun will not be the most effective way to accomplish almost any kind of harm for almost any kind of perpetrator, no matter how situated. And that gives me a little comfort, even if I wish my countrymen were less fascinated with weapons.

Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#45

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #34
dkoubsky wrote: post #3

I don't see why a CAD file would be any different than normal instructions for building firearms. For example, building a 12 gauge shotgun from 1" and 3/4" steel pipe is cheaper, easier, and probably safer/more effective than the plastic gun from the article. It seems to me the 3D printing part of this made the article popular for clickbait and thus it garnered more attention than the traditional approaches to homema…

You can even legally buy copies of the U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook [1], which includes instructions on creating improvised firearms and other weaponry. The moral panic about 3d printed weapons is complete nonsense. It's been trivial to make firearms out of hardware store and few practical skills. Back in high school we even made little black powder cannons in the metal shop, raiding fireworks for their po…

But I think should admit that open-source 3D-printing/CNC does makes it even easier and harder to stop.

Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#46

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

asfasgasg wrote: post #44
meowface wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One concern is that it's now cheaper, easier, and faster to mass produce weapons which will evade metal detectors. I don't think any of this should be illegal, but the concerns should be considered.

The saving grace, such as it is, is that these firearms are single-shot, and the rounds themselves are still metal and explosive-residue-detectable. While 3D printing has changed manufacturing methods, it's not like the method of deposition changes the strength of the material that much, so it's improbable that these plastic firearms will ever be able to withstand more than one or two shots. It strikes me as likely t…

The 3-D printed guns are single shot, but the new ghost gunner machine is a CNC mill and I believe uses an aluminum alloy which can handle multiple shots.

Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#47

Post by tantalor »

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #45
toomanybeersies wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can even legally buy copies of the U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook [1], which includes instructions on creating improvised firearms and other weaponry. The moral panic about 3d printed weapons is complete nonsense. It's been trivial to make firearms out of hardware store and few practical skills. Back in high school we even made little black powder cannons in the metal shop, raiding fireworks for their po…

But I think should admit that open-source 3D-printing/CNC does makes it even easier and harder to stop.

Scalable, too

Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#48

Post by RyJones »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #37
drasticmeasures wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's on the Internet, so this goes beyond the US. I'm thinking gun-controlled areas or conflict areas. I'm also thinking how this potentially shuts down for the FBI entrapping wannabe-insurrectionaries by posing as weapons dealers. Or how non-American gangs will have vast quantities of guns at their disposal, and how that will necessarily change police policy. And how determined and savvy, but dangerous, individuals…

In conflict areas, of which I’m familiar, AK47’s are often easier to obtain than fresh produce.

Two notes. I talked with a farmer in Holland a few years ago - I noticed home-made shotguns on the wall, and a home made 22LR. He said he made them more to have them made from plain stock than out of his desire to own guns. He said he could go to the docks in Rotterdam any day and buy a Kalashnikov if he wanted one.

I don't think Rotterdam is a conflict area, no matter how stiff the traffic was last month.

Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#49

Post by wyoung2 »

tcbawo wrote: post #19
wavefunction wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pretty nice setup for assassinations Print a gun, use it, drop it, GOTO 10

Even scarier: attach it to a drone

A drone capable of carrying the weight of a useful firearm and dealing with the recoil is a potential weapon in its own right.

If you were thinking of a lightweight one-shot deal that sends the drone flying in pieces away from the point of firing according to Newton's third law, then I question the operator's ability to aim it properly. Every minute of angle you're off in your aim at the start is 1 inch of error at 100 yards, and that's if all else is perfect.

With a lightweight armed drone lash-up, I think you'd end up with a system with an inherent accuracy measured in whole degrees, not minutes.

Re: Americans can legally download 3-D printed guns starting next month

#50

Post by test6554 »

tantalor wrote: post #47
em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I think should admit that open-source 3D-printing/CNC does makes it even easier and harder to stop.

Scalable, too

I know what you meant, but my mind jumped straight to tiny guns.
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